I must say that I can see no possibility of answer except, "Certainly not." For the historical novel depends almost more than any other division of the kind upon interest of story. Interest of story is not, as has been several times pointed out, at any time Balzac's main appeal, and he has succeeded in it here less than in most other places. He has discussed too much; he has brought in too many personages without sufficient interest of plot; but, above all, he exhibits throughout an incapacity to handle his materials in the peculiar way required. How long he was before he grasped "the way to do it," even on his own special lines, is the commonplace and refrain of all writing about him. Now, to this special kind he gave comparatively little attention, and the result is that he mastered it less than any other. In the best stories of Dumas (and the best number some fifteen or twenty at least) the interest of narrative, of adventure, of what will happen to the personages, takes you by the throat at once, and never lets you go till the end. There is little or nothing of this sort here. The three stories are excellently well-informed studies, very curious and interesting in divers ways. The _Ruggieri_ is perhaps something more; but it is, as its author no doubt honestly entitled it, much more an _Étude Philosophique_ than an historical novelette. In short, this was not Balzac's way. We need not be sorry--it is very rarely necessary to be that--that he tried it; we may easily forgive him for not recognizing the ease and certainty with which Dumas trod the path. But we should be most of all thankful that he did not himself enter it frequently, or ever pursue it far. The most important part of the bibliography of the book has been given above. The rest is a little complicated, and for its ins and outs reference must be made to the usual authority. It should be enough to say that the _Martyr_, under the title of _Les Lecamus_, first appeared in the _Siècle_ during the spring of 1841. Souverain published it as a book two years later with the other two, as _Catherine de Medicis Expliquée_. The second part, entitled, not _La Confidence_, but _Le Secret des Ruggieri_, had appeared much earlier in the _Chronique de Paris_ during the winter of 1836-37, and had been published as a book in the latter year; it was joined to _Catherine de Medicis Expliquée_ as above. The third part, after appearing in the _Monde_ as early as May 1830, also appeared in the _Deux Mondes_ for December of the same year, then became one of the _Romans et Contes Philosophiques_, then an _Étude Philosophique_, and in 1843 joined _Catherine de Medicis Expliquée_. The whole was inserted in the _Comédie_ in 1846. G. S. * * * * *