Honoré de Balzac is working on his work "The Human Comedy".

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)

Autographed letter signed to Jacques-Julien Dubochet.

Four octavo pages on pale green paper.

[Passy] January 5, 1844.

Pléiade Correspondence, Volume III, No. 44-3, pp. 188-189.

"The eleven volumes published will be the first eleven of La Comédie humaine ."

An important letter to Dubochet – one of the four editors of La Comédie humaine along with Pierre-Jules Hetzel, Alexandre Paulin, and Charles Furne – testifies to Balzac's editorial troubles. Interrupted since November 1843, the delivery of La Comédie humaine did not resume until January 1844. Balzac complained about this to Dubochet and entrusted his letter to Hetzel, a partner in the venture, to whom he wrote the same day, conveying Victor Hugo's support.

____________________________________________________

"My dear Dubochet, As nothing should prevent the resumption of deliveries of Comédie humaine this Friday the 5th, Friday the 12th of January, please do me the favor of sending a short note to all those who receive the deliveries, worded as follows:

“Mr. de Balzac’s absence caused a temporary interruption in the delivery of installments of La Comédie humaine ; but this interruption was used to advantage by the Publishers, who came to an agreement with the author to fill the two gaps that existed in the order of the volumes. Thus, after publishing volumes 10 and 11 (2 and 3 of Scènes de la vie parisienne), they will be able to publish volume 7 (3 ^of Scènes de la vie de province) and volume 4 (4 ^of Scènes de la vie privée), so that after the publication of these four volumes, the eleven published volumes will be the first eleven of La Comédie humaine …”

The public and those who have been complaining will thus know that the project is not abandoned, and I will no longer receive letters from people who take pleasure in harassing me under the cloak of anonymity . It was I who predicted that the public would accept this publication as a very serious matter and that they would eventually see it as a story rather than novels. I have seven volumes of new work to write, publish, and place either in newspapers or bookstores so that the two missing volumes can be completed.

There needs to be time for them to be published, either in newspapers or by booksellers—but above all, they need to be produced. Now, for example, to produce the 15 pages missing from volume VII, Mr. Plon must have finished volume X, and his type must be used for my novel. And if Langrand [the printer] had, for the past two months, produced volume XI, he could set manuscripts for me in volume IV that would be ready for the newspapers .

I repeat, my dear Dubochet, that not only are you halting the project, but you are also depriving me of the means to facilitate the placement of the four works I have to publish. I am entrusting this letter to Hetzel so that you may consider it. It is inconceivable that when a difficulty I foresaw in your initial plans—namely, selling separate volumes—once acknowledged by you, should stir my concern to the point of making me undertake extraordinary work (composing four new works instead of focusing on *The Peasants which is already complete, *The Pathology of Social Life *, etc.), it is you who should be obstructing me.

The day you decide to publish the two introductory pages I've prepared as a prospectus on page 10 of the newspapers, you'll see how much you sell of the first twelve volumes! Therefore, ^I am requesting once again, and this will be the last time, your commitment and energy, which have been more than promised to me ( this is a written article ), to finish the Plon volume and to get Langrand moving quickly. The first volume of Scenes of Political Life will be a necessary interlude to meet the deadlines for the new publications, and believe me, my dear Dubochet, I am currently arranging and working to surprise those who might think me dead, or incapacitated, or weakened . The Studies of Manners will have sixteen volumes, one more than the fifteen promised. You will be able to take a break between the Studies of Manners and the Philosophical Studies . My compliments. From Bc. January 5, 1844.