Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — ZCerfberr, Anatole
General
Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z
Cerfberr, Anatole
Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850. Comédie humaine
EUPHRASIE, Parisian courtesan, time of the Restoration and Louis
Philippe. A pretty, winsome blonde with blue eyes and a melodious
voice; she had an air of the utmost frankness, yet was profoundly
depraved and expert in refined vice. In 1821 she transmitted a
terrible and fatal disease to Crottat, the notary. At that time she
lived on rue Feydeau. Euphrasie pretended that in her early youth she
had passed entire days and nights trying to support a lover who had
forsaken her for a heritage. With the brunette, Aquilina, Euphrasie
took part in a famous orgy, at the home of Frederic Taillefer, on rue
Joubert, where were also Emile Blondet, Rastignac, Bixiou and Raphael
de Valentin. Later she is seen at the Theatre-Italien, in company with
the aged antiquarian, who had sold Raphael the celebrated "magic
skin"; she was running through with the old merchant's treasures.
[Melmoth Reconciled. The Magic Skin.]
EUROPE, assumed name of Prudence Servien, which name see.
EVANGELISTA (Madame), born Casa-Real in 1781, of a great Spanish
family collaterally descended from the Duke of Alva and related to the
Claes of Douai; a creole who came to Bordeaux in 1800 with her
husband, a large Spanish financier. In 1813 she was left a widow, with
her daughter. She paid no thought to the value of money, never knowing
how to resist a whim. So one morning in 1821 she was forced to call on
the broker and expert, Elie Magus, to get an estimate on the value of
her magnificent diamonds. She became wearied of life in the country,
and therefore favored the marriage of her daughter with Paul de
Manerville, in order that she might follow the young couple to Paris
where she dreamed of appearing in grand style and of a further
exercise of her power. For that matter she displayed much astuteness
in arranging the details of this marriage, at which time Maitre
Solonet, her notary, was much taken with her, desiring to wed her, and
defending her warmly against Maitre Mathias the lawyer for the
Manervilles. Beneath the exterior of an excellent woman she knew, like
Catherine de Medicis, how to hate and wait. [A Marriage Settlement.]
EVANGELISTA (Natalie), daughter of Mme. Evangelista; married to Paul
de Manerville. (See that name.)
EVELINA, young girl of noble blood, wealthy and cultured, of a strict
Jansenist family; sought in marriage by Benassis, in the beginning of
the Restoration. Evelina reciprocated Benassis' love, but her parents
opposed the match. Evelina died soon after gaining her freedom and the
doctor did not survive her long. [The Country Doctor.]
F
FAILLE & BOUCHOT, Parisian perfumers who failed in 1818. They gave an
order for ten thousand phials of peculiar shape to hold a new
cosmetic, which phials Anselme Popinot purchased for four sous each on
six months' time, with the intention of filling them with the
"Cephalic Oil" invented by Cesar Birotteau. [Cesar Birotteau.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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