Balzac, Droll Stories

In spite of being one of the great French realists, Balzac seems to have been little discussed of late.
Here is a link to his Droll Stories and an invitation to read them and discuss them.

http://www.fullbooks.com/Droll-Stories-Complete1.html

Thanks for starting the thread, Danik! I think I will alternate reading some of these while reading Chekhov's stories.

That´s going to be a study in realism. :)Perhaps I´ll do the same but first I´ll take a good look at these Balzac stories. I didn´t know anything about them.

The three page introduction was funny.

"Since laughter is a privilege granted to man alone, and he has sufficient causes for tears within his reach, without adding to them by books, I have considered it a thing most patriotic to publish a drachm of merriment for these times, when weariness falls like a fine rain, wetting us, soaking into us, and dissolving those ancient
customs which make the people to reap public amusement from the Republic."
Balzac, Prologue

So far Balzac is more humorous than Chekhov whose humor is somewhat sarcastic, but I haven't read that much of either one yet.

The story of Imperia is very funny, but I haven´t finished it yet.

I read several of the first stories, some of them are linked.They mostly poke fun at the Catholic notion of virtue.