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
LA GAUDINIERE (Madame), born La Bertelliere, mother of Madame Felix
Grandet; very avaricious; died in 1806; leaving the Felix Grandets an
inheritance, "the amount of which no one knew." [Eugenie Grandet.]
LAGINSKI (Comte Adam Mitgislas), a wealthy man who had been
proscribed, belonged to one of the oldest and most illustrious
families of Poland, and counted among his relations the Sapiehas, the
Radziwills, the Mniszechs, the Rezwuskis, the Czartoriskis, the
Lecszinskis, and the Lubomirskis. He had relations in the German
nobility and his mother was a Radziwill. Young, plain, yet with a
certain distinguished bearing, with an income of eighty thousand
francs, Laginski was a leading light in Paris, during the reign of
Louis Philippe. After the Revolution of July, while still
unsophisticated, he attended an entertainment at the home of Felicite
des Touches in Chaussee-d'Antin on rue du Mont-Blanc, and had the
opportunity of listening to the delightful chats between Henri de
Marsay and Emile Blondet. Comte Adam Laginski, during the autumn of
1835, married the object of his affections, Mademoiselle Clementine du
Rouvre, niece of the Ronquerolles. The friendship of his steward, Paz,
saved him from the ruin into which his creole-like carelessness, his
frivolity and his recklessness were dragging him. He lived in perfect
contentment with his wife, ignorant of the domestic troubles which
were kept from his notice. Thanks to the devotion of Paz and of Madame
Laginska, he was cured of a malady which had been pronounced fatal by
Doctor Horace Bianchon. Comte Adam Laginski lived on rue de la
Pepiniere, now absorbed in part by rue de la Boetie. He occupied one
of the most palatial and artistic houses of the period, so called, of
Louis Philippe. He attended the celebration given in 1838 at the first
opening of Josepha Mirah's residence on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. In
this same year he attended the wedding of Wenceslas Steinbock.
[Another Study of Woman. The Imaginary Mistress. Cousin Betty.]
LAGINSKA (Comtesse Adam), born Clementine du Rouvre in 1816, wife of
the preceding, niece, on her mother's side, of the Marquis de
Ronquerolles and of Madame de Serizy. She was one of the charming
group of young women, which included Mesdames de l'Estorade, de
Portenduere, Marie de Vandenesse, du Guenic and de Maufrigneuse.
Captain Paz was secretly in love with the countess, who, becoming
aware of her steward's affection, ended by having very nearly the same
kind of feeling for him. The unselfish virtue of Paz was all that
saved her; not only at this juncture, but in another more dangerous
one, when he rescued her from M. de la Palferine, who was escorting
her to the Opera ball and who was on the point of taking her to a
private room in a restaurant--January, 1842. [The Imaginary Mistress.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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