THE LILY OF THE VALLEY     

  

       By Honore De Balzac     

  

       Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley     

   

   

                              DEDICATION To Monsieur J. B. Nacquart, Member of the Royal Academy of Medicine. Dear Doctor—Here is one of the most carefully hewn stones in the second course of the foundation of a literary edifice which I have slowly and laboriously constructed. I wish to inscribe your name upon it, as much to thank the man whose science once saved me as to honor the friend of my daily life. 

                                                        De Balzac. 

   

   

       Contents     

  THE LILY OF THE VALLEY  

 

  ADDENDUM  

   

    

       THE LILY OF THE VALLEY     

   ENVOI Felix de Vandenesse to Madame la Comtesse Natalie de Manerville:    I yield to your wishes. It is the privilege of the women whom we love more than they love us to make the men who love them ignore the ordinary rules of common-sense. To smooth the frown upon their brow, to soften the pout upon their lips, what obstacles we miraculously overcome! We shed our blood, we risk our future! You exact the history of my past life; here it is. But remember this, Natalie; in obeying you I 

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