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Parisians in the Country; (les Parisians En Province)
Parisians in the Country - les Parisians En Province Author:Honoré de Balzac General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1898 Original Publisher: Dent Subjects: Fiction / General Fiction / Classics Fiction / Literary Literary Criticism / European / French Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you... more » 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: THE MUSE OF THE DEPARTMENT TO MONSIEUR LE COMTE FERDINAND DE GRAMONT My dear Ferdinand, -- If the chances of the world of literature -- habent sua fata li belli -- should allow these lines to be an enduring record, that will still be but a trifle in return for the trouble you have taken -- you, the Hozier, the Cherin, the King-at-Arms of these Studies of Life; you, to whom the Navarreins, Cadignans, Langeais, Blamont-Chauvrys, Chaulieus, Arthez, Esgrignons, Mortsaufs, Vahis -- the hundred great names that form the Aristocracy of the ' Human Comedy' owe their lordly mottoes and ingenious armorial bearings. Indeed, ' the Armorial of the Etudes, devised by Ferdinand de Gramont, gentleman] is a complete manual of French Heraldry, in which nothing is forgotten, not even the arms of the Empire, and I shall preserve it as a monument of friendship and of Benedictine patience. What profound knowledge of the old feudal spirit is to be seen in the motto of the Bauseants, Pulchre sedens, melius agens; in that of the Espards, Des partem Icon is; in that of the Vandenesses, Ne se vend. And what elegance in the thousand details of the learned symbolism which will always show how far accuracy has been carried in my work, to which you, the poet, have contributed. Tour old friend, De Balzac. On the skirts of Le Berry stands a town which, watered by the Loire, infallibly attracts the traveller's eye. Sancerre crowns the topmost height of a chain of hills, the last of the range that giv...« less