"/Albert Savarus/ has had much success. You will read it in the
first volume of the /Comedie humaine/, almost after the /fausse
Maitresse/, where with childish joy I have made the name
/Rzewuski/ shine in the midst of those of the most illustrious
families of the North. Why have I not placed Francesca Colonna at
Diodati? Alas, I was afraid that it would be too transparent.
Diodati makes my heart beat! Those four syllables, it is the cry
of the /Montjoie Saint-Denis!/ of my heart."
Francesca Colonna, the Princess Gandolphini, is the heroine of
/l'Ambitieux par Amour/, a novel supposed to have been published by
Albert Savarus and described in the book which bears his name. Using
her name, the hero is represented as having written the story of the
Duchesse d'Argaiolo and himself, he taking the name of Rodolphe. Here
are given, in disguise again, the details of Balzac's early relations
to Madame Hanska. Albert Savarus, while traveling in Switzerland, sees
a lady's face at the window of an upper room, admires it and seeks the
lady's acquaintance. She proves to be the Duchesse d'Argaiolo, an
Italian in exile. She had been married very young to the Duke
d'Argaiolo, who was rich and much older than she. The young man falls
in love with this beautiful lady, and she promises to be his as soon
as she becomes free.
Gabriel Ferry states that Balzac first saw Madame Hanska's face at a
window, and the Princess Radziwill says that Balzac went to the hotel
to meet her aunt. It is to be noted that the year 1834 is that in
which Balzac and Madame Hanska were in Geneva together.
The Villa Diodati, noted for having been inhabited by Lord Byron, is
situated on Lake Geneva, at Cologny, not far from Pre Leveque,[*]
where M. de Hanski and his family resided in the /maison Mirabaud-
Amat/.
[*] Balzac preserved a remembrance of the happy days he had spent with
Madame Hanska at Pre-Leveque, Lake Geneva, by dating /La Duchesse
de Langeais/, January 26, 1834, Pre-Leveque.
There are numerous allusions to Diodati in Balzac's correspondence,
from which one would judge that he had some very unhappy associations
with Madame de Castries, and some very happy ones with Madame Hanska
in connection with Diodati:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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