Book II of Balzac's 'The Thirteen" "Considering the Histoire des Treize as a whole, it is of engrossing interest. And I must confess I should not think much of any boy who, beginning Balzac with this series, failed to go rather mad over it. I know there was a time when I used to like it best of all, and thought not merely Eugenie Grandet, but Le Pere Goriot (though not the Peau de Chagrin), dull in comparison. Some attention, however, must be paid to two remarkable characters, on whom it is quite clear that Balzac expended a great deal of pains, and one of whom he seems to have 'caressed,' as the French say, with a curious admixture of dislike and admiration..." -- George Saintsbury

Author Biography

Ellen Marriage (1865 - 1946) was an English translator from French, notably of Balzac's novels. She put an effort into readability and accuracy that was unusual in translators of her period. A. R. Waller, a critic who was a neighbour of the Marriage family, suggested she do translations when he proposed to the London publisher J. M. Dent that his firm embark on the first complete edition of Balzac's immense novel cycle La Comedie humaine. Hitherto only a few of the novels had appeared in the United Kingdom singly. George Saintsbury was appointed editor and work began. Forty volumes duly appeared between 1895 and 1898, although five others were omitted as too shocking for Victorian English tastes. Marriage, under her own name and under the pseudonym James Waring for some of the "bolder works," did most of the translation, except for 13 volumes done by Clara Bell (1834-1927) and one volume done by Rachel Scott.