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
GASTON (Madame Marie), born Armande-Louise-Marie de Chaulieu, in 1805.
At first destined to take the veil; educated at the Carmelite convent
of Blois with Renee de Maucombe who became Mme. de l'Estorade. She
remained constant in her relations with this faithful friend--at least
by letter--who was a prudent and wise adviser. In 1825 Louise married
her professor in Spanish, the Baron de Macumer, whom she lost in 1829.
In 1833 she married the poet Marie Gaston. Both marriages were
sterile. In the first she was adored and believed that she loved; in
the second she was loved as much as she loved, but her insane
jealousy, and her horseback rides from Ville-d'Avray to Verdier's were
her undoing, and she died in 1835 of consumption, contracted purposely
through despair at the thought that she had been deceived. After
leaving the convent she had lived successively at the following
places: on Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris, where she saw M. de Bonald;
at Chantepleur, an estate in Burgundy, at La Crampade, in Provence,
with Mme. de l'Estorade; in Italy; at Ville-d'Avray, where she sleeps
her last sleep in a park of her own planning. [Letters of Two Brides.]
GATIENNE, servant of Mme. and Mlle. Bontems, at Bayeux, in 1805. [A
Second Home.]
GAUBERT, one of the most illustrious generals of the Republic; first
husband of a Mlle. de Ronquerolles whom he left a widow at the age of
twenty, making her his heir. She married again in 1806, choosing the
Comte de Serizy. [A Start in Life.]
GAUBERTIN (Francois), born about 1770; son of the ex-sheriff of
Soulanges, Burgundy, before the Revolution. About 1791, after five
years' clerkship to the steward of Mlle. Laguerre at Aigues, he
succeeded to the stewardship. His father having become public
prosecutor in the department, time of the Republic, he was made mayor
of Blangy. In 1796 he married the "citizeness" Isaure Mouchon, by whom
he had three children: a son, Claude, and two daughters, Jenny--Mme.
Leclercq--and Eliza. He had also a natural son, Bournier, whom he
placed in charge of a local newspaper. At the death of Mlle. Laguerre,
Gaubertin, after twenty-five years of stewardship, possessed 600,000
francs. He ended by dreaming of acquiring the estate at Aigues; but
the Comte de Montcornet purchased it, retained him in charge, caught
him one day in a theft and discharged him summarily. Gaubertin
received at that time sundry lashes with a whip of which he said
nothing, but for which he revenged himself. The old steward became,
nevertheless, a person of importance. In 1820 he was mayor of
Ville-aux-Fayes, and supplied one-third of the Paris wood. Being
general agent of this rural industry, he managed the forests, lumber
and guards. Gaubertin was related throughout a whole district, like
a "boa-constrictor twisted around a gigantic tree"; the church, the
magistracy, the municipality, the government--all did his bidding.
Even the peasantry served his interests indirectly. When the general,
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