THE CRIMSON BOOKSHELF - REVIEWS - ENGLISH NOVELS

Ever since the publication of the Comedie Humaine the novels of Balzac have been criticised on the ground that the great French Romancer, a Bourgeois by birth and training, really knew nothing of the "high society" which he so often depicts. The Holts are bringing out in March a book. "Women in the Life of Balzae," which once and for all disposes of this criticism by revealing Balzae's intimate association with various women of the highest social standing. The author, Miss Juanita Floyd of Goucher College, has devoted years to the study of Balzae's life, and in her careful and remarkably documented book has added so much to our knowledge of the love affairs of this famous novelist that her volume will be practically indispensable to the many readers of his works. The book is full of illustrations, including a miniature of Balzae's wife never before published, and here reproduced by special permission of Mr. J. P. Merges in whose collection the original now is.