Illustrated Sterling Jealousies Beatrix the Jealousies of a Country Town, the Commission in Lunacy (Classic Reprint)

Beatrix was built up in the odd fashion in which Balzac sometimes did build up his novels, and which may be thought to account for an occasional lack of unity and grasp in them. The original book, written in 1838, and published with the rather flowery dedication to Sarah at the end of that vear, stopped at the marriage of Calyste and Sabine. The last part, separately entitled Un A dultere Retrospectif, was not added till six years later. It cannot be said to be either very shocking or very unnatural that the young husband should exemplify the truth of that uncomfortable proverb, Qui a bu boira; and it is perhaps rather more surprising that Balzac should have allowed him to be refished (as the French say) in a finally satisfactory condition by his lawful spouse. Still, I do not think the addition can be considered on the whole an improvement to the book, of which it is at the best rather an appendix than an integral part. The conception of Beatrix herself seems to have changed somewhat, and that not as the conception of her immortal namesake in Esmond and The Virginians changes, merely to suit the irreparable outrage of years.
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)

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