Excerpt from The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau; The Secrets of a Princess; The Middle Classes Few books of Balzac's have been the subject of more diverse judgment than C'esar Birotteau. From the opinion of the unnamed solicitor, who told Madame Serville that it was an invaluable work to consult on bankruptcy, to that of M. Paul Lacroix (beloved of many as the Bibliophile Jacob), that it might be forgiven for the sake of Le Pere Goriot and the Peau dc Chagrin, there is not perhaps quite so great a dis tance as may appear; but other expressions, opposed not merely in form, but in fact, might probably be collected. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.