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
GOURAUD (General, Baron), born in 1782, probably at Provins. Under the
Empire he commanded the Second regiment of hussars, which gave him his
rank. The Restoration caused his impoverished years at Provins. He
mixed in politics and the opposition there, sought the hand and above
all the dowry of Sylvie Rogron, persecuted the apparent heiress of the
old maid, Mlle. Pierrette Lorrain--1827--and, seconded by Vinet the
attorney, reaped in July, 1830, the fruits of his cunning liberalism.
Thanks to Vinet, the ambitious parvenu, Gouraud married, in spite of
his gray hair and stout frame, a girl of twenty-five, Mlle. Matifat,
of the well-known drug-firm of rue des Lombards, who brought with her
fifty thousand crowns. Titles, offices and emoluments now flowed in
rapidly. He resumed the service, became general, commanded a division
near the capital and obtained a peerage. His conduct during the
ministry of Casimir Perier was thus rewarded. Futhermore he received
the grand ribbon of the Legion of Honor, after having stormed the
barricades of Saint-Merri, and was "delighted to thrash the bourgeois
who had been an eye-sore to him" for fifteen years. [Pierrette.] About
1845 he had stock in Gaudissart's theatre. [Cousin Pons.]
GOURDON, the elder, husband of the only daugher of the old
head-keeper of streams and forests, Gendrin-Wattebled; was in 1823
physician at Soulanges and attended Michaud. Nevertheless he went
among the best people of Soulanges, headed by Mme. Soudry, who
regarded him in the light of an unknown and neglected savant, when he
was but a parrot of Buffon and Cuvier, a simple collector and
taxidermist. [The Peasantry.]
GOURDON, the younger, brother of the preceding; wrote the poem of "La
Bilboqueide" published by Bournier. Married the niece and only heiress
of Abbe Tupin, cure of Soulanges, where he himself had been in 1823
clerk for Sarcus. He was wealthier than the justice. Mme. Soudry and
her set gave admiring welcome to the poet, preferring him to
Lamartine, with whose works they slowly became acquainted. [The
Peasantry.]
GOUSSARD (Laurent) was a member of the revolutionary municipality of
Arcis-sur-Aube. Particular friend of Danton, he made use of the
tribune's influence to save the head of the ex-superior of the
Ursulines at Arcis, Mother Marie des Anges, whose gratitude for his
generous and skillful action caused substantial enrichment to this
purchaser of the grounds of the convent, which was sold as "public
land." Thus it was that forty years afterwards this adroit Liberal
owned several mills on the river Aube, and was still at the head of
the advanced Left in that district. The various candidates for deputy
in the spring of 1839, Keller, Giguet, Beauvisage, Dorlange-Sallenauve,
and the government agent, Trailles, treated Goussard with the
consideration he deserved. [The Member for Arcis.]
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