Anatole Cerfberr

Anatole Cerfberr
Anatole Cerfberr was a French writer and journalist born in 1835. He is best known for co-authoring "Répertoire de la Comédie Humaine" with Jules François Christophe, a reference work on the characters in Honoré de Balzac's "La Comédie Humaine". Cerfberr was also a contributor to various literary journals in France. He passed away in 1896, leaving behind a legacy as a scholar of Balzac's work.

Author's Books:


LA BASTIE LA BRIERE (Ernest de), member of a good family of Toulouse, born in 1802; very similar in appearance to Louis XIII.; from 1824 to 1829, private secretary to the minister of finances. On the advice of Madame d'Espard, and thus being of service to Eleonore de Chaulieu, he became secretary to Melchior de Canalis and, at the same time, referendary of the Cour des Comptes. He became a... more...

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE "Work crowned by the French Academy" is a significant line borne by the title-page of the original edition of Messieurs Cerfberr and Christophe's monumental work. The motto indicates the high esteem in which the French authorities hold this very necessary adjunct to the great Balzacian structure. And even without this word of approval, the intelligent reader needs... more...

INTRODUCTION Are you a confirmed Balzacian?—to employ a former expression of Gautier in Jeune France on the morrow following the appearance of that mystic Rabelaisian epic, The Magic Skin. Have you experienced, while reading at school or clandestinely some stray volume of the Comedie Humaine, a sort of exaltation such as no other book had aroused hitherto, and few have caused since? Have you dreamed... more...