LOVE IN A MASK
or IMPRUDENCE and HAPPINESS
A Hitherto Unpublished Novel by
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Translated by ALICE M. IVIMY
RAND McNALLY & COMPANY
CHICAGO — NEW YORK
1911
A NOTE
Balzac, in gratitude to the Duchesse de Dino for her friendship andunfailing kindness to him, one day presented her with the story of"L'Amour Masque" (Love in a Mask) in his own handwriting. The duchesswas one of the few French aristocrats who in Balzac's time welcomeduntitled authors to their salons, and her library boasted many suchofferings from the literary men of her day. She placed Balzac'sunpublished book on her shelves by the side of similarly unpublishedpoems by Alfred de Musset, and stories by Eugene Sue and others. TheBalzac manuscript was incased in a finely tooled binding of greatrichness and beauty, bearing the ex libris of the ducal family.
For more than half a century the manuscript remained where the duchesshad placed it. Then her son, M. Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, thepresent Duc de Dino, made it a present to his friend, the learnedLucien Aubanel. By him it was given to M. Gillequin, with thesuggestion that it be published, and it accordingly appeared in printfor the first time in March, 1911. The Duc de Dino, in a letter writtento M. Gillequin on this occasion, guaranteed the history of the volumewhich for so long had been one of the treasured possessions of hisfamily.
THE PUBLISHERS.