Produced by Dagny; and John Bickers
Note: This eBook contains two existing Project Gutenberg eBooks, An Old Maid (EBook #1352), Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, and The Collection of Antiquities (EBook #1405) Translated By Ellen Marriage; these are combined into their original collected form and includes an introduction by George Saintsbury.
The two stories of /Les Rivalites/ are more closely connected than itwas always Balzac's habit to connect the tales which he united under acommon heading. Not only are both devoted to the society of Alencon—atown and neighborhood to which he had evidently strong, though it isnot clearly known what, attractions—not only is the Chevalier deValois a notable figure in each; but the community, imparted by theelaborate study of the old /noblesse/ in each case, is even greaterthan either of these ties could give. Indeed, if instead of /LesRivalites/ the author had chosen some label indicating the study ofthe /noblesse qui s'en va/, it might almost have been preferable. Hedid not, however; and though in a man who so constantly changed histitles and his arrangements the actual ones are not excessivelyauthoritative, they have authority.
/La Vieille Fille/, despite a certain tone of levity—which, to doBalzac justice, is not common with him, and which is rather hard uponthe poor heroine—is one of the best and liveliest things he ever did.The opening picture of the Chevalier, though, like other things of itsauthor's, especially in his overtures, liable to the charge of beingelaborated a little too much, is one of the very best things of itskind, and is a sort of /locus classicus/ for its subject. The wholepicture of country town society is about as good as it can be; and theonly blot that I know is to be found in the sentimental Athanase, whois not quite within Balzac's province, extensive as that province is.If we compare Mr. Augustus Moddle, we shall see one of the not toonumerous instances in which Dickens has a clear advantage over Balzac;and if it be retorted that Balzac's object was not to present a merelyridiculous object, the rejoinder is not very far to seek. Such acharacter, with such a fate as Balzac has assigned to him, must beeither humorously grotesque or unfeignedly pathetic, and Balzac hasnot quite made Athanase either.
He is, however, if he is a failure, about the only failure in thebook, and he is atoned for by a whole bundle of successes. Of theChevalier, little more need be said. Balzac, it must be remembered,was the oldest novelist of distinct genius who had the opportunity ofdelineating the survivors of the /ancien regime/ from the life, anddirectly. It is certain—even if we hesitate at believing him quite sofamiliar with all the classes of higher society from the /Faubourg/downwards, as he would have us believe him—that he saw something ofmost of them, and his genius was unquestionably of the kind to which amere thumbnail study, a mere passing view, suffices for theacquisition of a thorough working knowledge of the object. In thiscase the Chevalier has served, and not improperly served, as theoriginal of a thousand after-studies. His rival, less carefullyprojected, is also perhaps a little less alive. Again, Balzac was oldenough to have foregathered with many men of the Revolution. But themost characteristic of them were not long-lived, the "little window"and other things having had a bad effect on them; and m