While an effort has been made in the following work to solve the questions as to the identity of the /Sarah, Maria, Sofka, Constance- Victoire, Louise, Caroline,/ and the /Helene/ of Balzac's dedications, and to show the role each played, no attempt has here been made to lift the tightly drawn veil which has so long enveloped one side of Balzac's private life. Whoever wishes to do this may now consult the recent publication of the late Vicomte de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul, or the /Mariage de Balzac/ by the late Count Stanislas Rzewuski. It is far more pleasant--even if the charges be untrue--to think as did the late Miss K. P. Wormeley, that no supporting testimony has been offered to prove anything detrimental to the great author's character. Though doubtless much overdrawn, one prefers the delightful picture of him traced by his old friend, George Sand. WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF BALZAC CHAPTER I BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF BALZAC In the delightful city of Tours, the childhood of Honore de Balzac was spent in the midst of his family. This consisted of an original and most congenial old father, a nervous, business-like mother, two younger sisters, Laure and Laurentia, and a younger brother, Henri. His maternal grandmother, Madame Sallambier, joined the family after the death of her husband. At about the age of eight, Honore was sent to a semi-military /college/. Here, after six years of confinement, he lost his health, not on account of any work assigned to him by his teachers, for he was regarded as being far from a brilliant student, but because of the abnormal amount of reading which he did on the outside. When he was brought home for recuperation, his old grandmother alternately irritated him with her "nervous attacks" and delighted him with her numerous ways of showing her affection. At this time he wandered about in the fresh air of the province of Touraine, and learned to love its beautiful scenery, which he has immortalized in various novels. After he had spent a year of this rustic life, his family moved to Paris in the fall of 1814. There he continued his studies with M. Lepitre, whose Royalist principles doubtless influenced him. He attended lectures at the Sorbonne also, strolling meanwhile about the Latin Quarter, and in 1816 was placed in the law office of M. de Guillonnet-Merville, a friend of the family, and an ardent Royalist. After eighteen months in this office, he spent more than a year in the office of a notary, M. Passez, who was also a family friend.