LOVE IN A MASK
or IMPRUDENCE
and HAPPINESS
A Hitherto Unpublished Novel
by
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Translated by
ALICE M. IVIMY
Copyright, 1911
A NOTE
Balzac, in gratitude to the Duchesse de Dino for her friendship and unfailing kindness to him, one day presented her with the story of “L’Amour Masque” (Love in a Mask) in his own handwriting. The duchess was one of the few French aristocrats who in Balzac’s time welcomed untitled authors to their salons, and her library boasted many such offerings from the literary men of her day. She placed Balzac’s unpublished book on her shelves by the side of similarly unpublished poems by Alfred de Musset, and stories by Eugene Sue and others. The Balzac manuscript was incased in a finely tooled binding of great richness and beauty, bearing the ex libris of the ducal family. For more than half a century the manuscript remained where the duchess had placed it. Then her son, M. Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, the present Duc de Dino, made it a present to his friend, the learned Lucien Aubanel. By him it was given to M. Gillequin, with the suggestion that it be published, and it accordingly appeared in print for the first time in March, 1911. The Duc de Dino, in a letter written to M. Gillequin on this occasion, guaranteed the history of the volume which for so long had been one of the treasured possessions of his family.
THE PUBLISHERS.
