"Books about Balzac would fill a fair-sized library.
Nevertheless, by some strange anomaly, there exists no Life of him derived from original sources, incorporating the information available since the appearance of.
Criticisms on his novels abound, and his contemporaries have provided us with several amusing volumes dealing in a humorous spirit with his eccentricities, and conveying the impression that the author of "La Cousine Bette" and "Le Pere Goriot" was nothing more than an amiable buffoon. "Books about Balzac would fill a fair-sized library