The Arcades Project - Operi

age of disonler and viee nUlS agt"Olmd, and where the slightest spark can set fire to
the suhlimated populace, it is here that this corrupting literature- . . . Les
ilIysteres de Paris, Rocambole, and Les Misera.bles-is produced."' Charles
Louandre, Les Idees subversives de notre temps (Paris, 1872), pp. 35-37. [d4a,2)
" The incomplet.e copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale is sufficient for us to judge of
the holdness and novelty of the project eonceived hy Balzac . .. . Le Feuilleton des
journaux politiqu.es aimed at nothing less than the elimination of booksellers.
Dircet sale from publisher to purchaser was the plan . .. by which everyone would
benefit-the publisher and the author hy making a pt.·oHt, the purchaser hy paying
less for hooks. This arrangement . .. met with no suc{',ess at all, douhtless hecause
the booksellers were against it." Louis Lumet, introduction to Honore de Bahae,
Critiqlle littemi,.e (Paris, 1912), p. 10.
[d4a,3]
The three short-lived periodicals founded hy Balzac: Lie Feuilleton des jou."naux
IJolitiques (1830), Ln Ghroniqae de Pnris (1836-1837), La Revu.e pflnswnne
(1840).
[d4a,4]
''''Recollection has value only as prediction. Thus, history should he classed as a
science: practical appJication constantly proves its utilit.y." Honore de Balzac,
Critique litteraire, introduction by Louis Lumet (Paris. 1912). p. 117 (review of
Les Dwx FOllS, by P. L. Jacoh, hihliophile). [d4a,S]
",It is not by telling the poor to cease imitating the luxury of the rich that one will
make the lower class happier. It is not hy telling girls to sto p permitting themselves
to he sed uced that one will suppress prostitution. We might as well tell them,
" . .. \Vhen you have no hread, you will he so good as to cease being hungry.' But
Christian charity, it will be said, is there to curc all these evils. To which we reply:
Christian charity cures very little and prevents nothing at all." Honori de Balzac,
Critique litteraire, introduction hy Louis Lumet (Paris, 1912), p. 131 (review of Le
Pretre [Paris, 1830]). [dS,!]
""In 1750, no hook-not even L 'Esprit des lois'l-rcaehed more than three or foul'
thousand people . ... In out' day, some thirty thousand copies of Lamart.ine's Premieres
meditations and some sixty thousand books hy Bcrangcr have heen sold
over the past ten years. Thirty thousand volumes of Voltaire, Montesquieu, and
Moliere have enlightened men 's minds." Balzac, Critique littentire, introduction
by Louis Lnmet (Paris, 1912), p. 29 (",De l "Etat actne! de la lihraide" , sample from Le Feuilleton des jonrnaux politiques,
published in L'Universel, March 22-23,1830).
[d5,2]
Victor Hugo hearkens to the inner voice of' the crowd of his ancestors: "'The crowd
to which he list.ened admiringly in himself, and which he heard as the herald of his
popularity, inclined him, in faet, toward the exterior crowd-toward the Idola
Fori,;' toward the inorgallie hody of the masses . ... He searched in the tumult of