The Member for Arcis Author:Honoré de Balzac General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1898 Original Publisher: J.M. Dent Subjects: French fiction France Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary History / Europe / France Literary Criticism / European / French Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no i... more »llustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: But it is not her peace of mind, but mine, that concerns your friendship; for if Pygmalion had failed to animate his statue, much good his love would have done him ! I might, in reply to your charitable solicitude, refer you to my principles -- though the word and the thing alike are completely out of fashion -- to a certain very absurd respect that I have always professed for conjugal fidelity, to the very natural obstacle to all such levity of fancy raised in my mind by the serious responsibilities on which I am embarking. And I might also say that, though not indeed by the superiority of my genius, at least by every tendency of mind and character, I am one of that earnest and serious school of a past time who, regarding Art as long, and Life as short -- Ars longa et vita brevis -- did not waste their time and their creative powers in silly, dull intrigues. But I can do better still. Since M. de l'Estorade has spared you no detail of the really romantic circumstances under which his wife and I met, you know that it was a reminiscence which made me follow the steps of such a beautiful model. Well, that memory, while it attracted me in one sense to the fair Countess, is the very thing of all others to keep me at a distance. This, of course, seems to you very elaborate and enigmatical. But, patience -- and I will explain. If you had not thought proper to cut the thread which for so many years connected our lives, I s...« less