Chonans,  The,  by  Balzac  This  was
the  novelist's  first  important  work.
The  title,  when  it  appeared  in  1829,  was
<The  Last  Chouan;  or,  Bretagne  in  1800.  >
In  1846  it  was  rearranged  in  its  present
form.  It  is  the  story  of  a  young  girl,
Marie  de  Vemeuil,  sent  by  Fouch6  to
entrap  the  leader  of  the  royalists  in
Bretagne,  the  Marquis  de  Montauran.
She  falls  in  love  with  him,  reveals  her
disgraceful  mission,  and  devotes  all  her
energies  to  save  him,  until  a  trick  of  his
enemies  leads  her  to  believe  him  false.
Then  she  plots  his  ruin,  is  undeceived  too
late,  and  both  die  together.  Marie  is  an
exquisite  creation,  revealing  that  deep
and  intuitive  knowledge  of  the  soul  of
woman  of  which  Balzac  was  to  give  so
many  proofs  afterward.  Montauran  also
is  an  original  character,  vigorously  and
delicately  drawn.  In  Hulot,  the  rough
republican  commandant  sprung  from  the
ranks,  and  in  Marche-4-Terre,  the  fero-
cious but  honest  fanatic,  we  have  two  of


SYNOPSES  OF  NOTED  BOOKS


183


Balzac's  <<  types,  >>  designed  and  classified
truthfully  and  convincingly.  Many  of  the
scenes  are  of  tragic  intensity.  Nothing
could  be  more  terrible  than  that  of  the
massacre  of  the  Blues  at  Viveti^re,  that  of
the  unmasking  of  the  spy  among  her  ene-
mies, or  that  of  the  roasting  of  the  old
miser  by  the  Chouans  to  compel  him  to
reveal  his  treasure.  The  description  of  a
mass  said  by  a  priest  in  rags,  in  the  midst
of  the  forest,  before  a  granite  altar,  while
the  insurgents,  kneeling  near  their  guns,
beat  their  breasts  and  repeat  the  re-
sponses, is  singularly  g^nd  and  imposing.
