ANALYTICAL STUDIES BY HONORÉ DE BALZAC DEDICATION Notice the words: _The man of distinction to whom this book is dedicated_. Need I say: “You are that man.”—THE AUTHOR. The woman who may be induced by the title of this book to open it, can save herself the trouble; she has already read the work without knowing it. A man, however malicious he may possibly be, can never say about a woman as much good or as much evil as they themselves think. If, in spite of this notice, a woman will persist in reading the volume, she ought to be prevented by delicacy from despising the author, from the very moment that he, forfeiting the praise which most artists welcome, has in a certain way engraved on the title page of his book the prudent inscription written on the portal of certain establishments: _Ladies must not enter_. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MARRIAGE PETTY TROUBLES OF MARRIED LIFE INTRODUCTION The two Analytical Studies, _Physiology of Marriage_ and _Petty Troubles of Married Life_, belong quite apart from the action of the _Comedie Humaine_, and can only be included therein by virtue of a special dispensation on the part of their author, who made for them an eighth division therein, thus giving them a local habitation and a name. Although they come far down in the list of titles, their creation belongs almost to the formative era. Balzac had just shaken his skirts clear of the immature dust of the _Oeuvres de Jeunesse_, and by the publication, in 1829, of _The Chouans_, had made his first real bow to his larger public. In December of that same year appeared the _Physiology of Marriage_, followed eleven months later by a few papers belonging to _Petty Troubles of Married Life_. Meanwhile, between these two Analytical Studies, came a remarkable novelette, _At the Sign of the Cat and Racket_, followed soon after by one of the most famous stories of the entire _Comedie_, _The Magic Skin_. We are thus particular to place the two Analytical Studies in time and in environment, that the wonderful versatility of the author may become apparent—and more: that Balzac may be vindicated from the charge of dullness and inaccuracy at this period. Such traits might have been charged against him had he left only the Analytical Studies. But when they are preceded by the faithful though heavy scene of military life, and succeeded by the searching and vivid philosophical study, their faults and failures may be considered for the sake of their company.