文档介绍：A START IN LIFE
A START IN LIFE
BY HONORE DE BALZAC
Translated By Katharine Prescott Wormeley
1
A START IN LIFE
DEDICATION
To Laure.
Let the brilliant mind that gave me the subject of this Scene have the
honor of it.
Her brother,
De Balzac
2
A START IN LIFE
CHAPTER I
THAT WHICH WAS LACKING TO PIERROTIN'S HAPPINESS
Railroads, in a future not far distant, must force certain industries to
disappear forever, and modify several others, more especially those
relating to the different modes of transportation in use around Paris.
Therefore the persons and things which are the elements of this Scene will
soon give to it the character of an archaeological work. Our nephews
ought to be enchanted to learn the social material of an epoch which they
will call the "olden time." The picturesque "coucous" which stood on the
Place de la Concorde, encumbering the Cours-la-Reine,-- coucous which
had flourished for a century, and were still numerous in 1830, scarcely
exist in 1842, unless on the occasion of some attractive suburban
solemnity, like that of the Grandes Eaux of Versailles. In 1820, the various
celebrated places called the "Environs of Paris" did not all possess a
regular stage-coach service.
Nevertheless, the Touchards, father and son, had acquired a monopoly
of travel and transportation to all the populous towns within a radius of
forty-five miles; and their enterprise constituted a fine establishment in the
rue du Faubourg-Saint-Denis. In spite of their long-standing rights, in spite,
too, of their efforts, their capital, and all the advantages of a powerful
centralization, the Touchard coaches ("messageries") found terrible
competition in the coucous for all points with a circumference of fifteen or
twenty miles. The passion of the Parisian for the country is such that local
enterprise could pete with the Lesser pany,--
Petites Messageries, the name given to the Touchard enterprise to
distinguish it from that of the Gr