“The translation (‘Old Goriot’) has been done by Miss Ellen Marriage, and is characterised by that accuracy and fluency of style which, in the five or six volumes already contributed by her to the series, have shown her thorough competency for as difficult a task as a translator could undertake. It has the singular merit of being so idiomatic and natural that those who do not know the original might easily take it to be an English story of Parisian life, and yet so true to Balzac’s manner that those who are familiar with him will recognise many of his peculiarities even in the version, and almost find themselves doubting whether they are reading him in French or English.” Glasgow Herald. “Mrs. Clara Bell, who is responsible for these stories (‘La Grande Bretêche’) has again done her work with remarkable skill and fidelity. We have read through the version of ‘La Grande Bretêche’ with the original before us, and we have not found a single passage with which the most exacting critic could fairly find fault.” * * * * * * Transcriber’s note: Obvious punctuation misprints corrected. Inconsistent hyphenation is typical for the period and was retained, as was period spelling. “fulful” changed to “fulfill” on page 163. (I will indeed fulfill your wish) Chapter III is missing a heading for section II.