Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  GALATHIONNE (Prince and Princess), Russians. The prince was one of the lovers of Diane de Maufrigneuse. The Secrets of a Princess. In September, 1815, he protected La Minoret a celebrated opera dancer, to whose daughter he gave a dowry. The Middle Classes. In 1819 Marsay, appearing in the box of the Princess Galathionne, at the Italiens, had Mme. de Nucingen at his mercy. Father Goriot. In 1821 Lousteau said that the story of the Prince Galathionne’s diamonds, the Maubreuil affair and the Pombreton will, were fruitful newspaper topics. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. In 1834-35, the princess gave balls which the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse attended. A Daughter of Eve. About 1840 the prince tried to get Mme. Schontz away from the Marquis de Rochefide; but she said: “Prince, you are no handsomer, but you are older than Rochefide. You would beat me, while he is like a father to me.” Beatrix.

  GALOPE-CHOPINE. (See Cibot.)

  GAMARD (Sophie), old maid; owner of a house at Tours on rue de la Psalette, which backed the Saint Gatien church. She let part of it to priests. Here lodged the Abbes Troubert, Chapeloud and Francois Birotteau. The house had been purchased during the Terror by the father of Mlle. Gamard, a dealer in wood, a kind of parvenu peasant. After receiving Abbe Birotteau most cordially she took a disliking to him which was secretly fostered by Troubert, and she finally dispossessed him, seizing the furniture which he valued so greatly. Mlle. Gamard died in 1826 of a chill. Troubert circulated the report that Birotteau had caused her death by the sorrow which he had caused the old maid. The Vicar of Tours.

  GAMBARA (Paolo), musician, born at Cremona in 1791; son of an instrument-maker, a moderately good performer and a great composer who was driven from his home by the French and ruined by the war. These events consigned Paolo Gambara to a wandering existence from the age of ten. He found little quietude and obtained no congenial situation till about 1813 in Venice. At this time he put on an opera, “Mahomet,” at the Fenice theatre, which failed miserably. Nevertheless he obtained the hand of Marianina, whom he loved, and with her wandered through Germany to settle finally in Paris in 1831, in a wretched apartment on rue Froidmanteau. The musician, an accomplished theorist, could not interpret intelligently any of his remarkable ideas and he would play to his wondering auditors jumbled compositions which he thought to be sublime inspirations. However he enthusiastically analyzed “Robert le Diable,” having heard Meyerbeer’s masterpiece while a guest of Andrea Marcosini. In 1837 he was reduced to mending musical instruments, and occasionally he went with his wife to sing duets in the open air on the Champs-Elysees, to pick up a few sous. Emilio and Massimilla de Varese were deeply sympathetic of the Gambaras, whom they met in the neighborhood of Faubourg Saint-Honore. Paolo Gambara had no commonsense except when drunk. He had invented an outlandish instrument which he called the “panharmonicon.” Gambara.

  GAMBARA (Marianina), Venetian, wife of Paolo Gambara. With him she led a life of almost continual poverty, and for a long time maintained them at Paris by her needle. Her clients on rue Froidmanteau were mostly profligate women, who however were kind and generous towards her. From 1831 to 1836 she left her husband, going with a lover, Andrea Marcosini, who abandoned her at the end of five years to marry a dancer; and in January, 1837, she returned to her husband’s home emaciated, withered and faded, “a sort of nervous skeleton,” to resume a life of still greater squalor. Gambara.

  GANDOLPHINI (Prince), Neapolitan, former partisan of King Murat. A victim of the last Revolution he was, in 1823, banished and poverty stricken. At this time he was sixty-five years old, though he looked eighty. He lived modestly enough with his young wife at Gersau — Lucerne — under the English name of Lovelace. He also passed for a certain Lamporani, who was at that time a well-known publisher of Milan. When in the presence of Rodolphe the prince resumed his true self he said: “I know how to make up. I was an actor during the Empire with Bourrienne, Mme. Murat, Mme. d’Abrantes, and any number of others.” — Character in a novel “L’Ambitieux par Amour,” published by Albert Savarus, in the “Revue de l’Est,” in 1834. Under this fictitious name the author related his own history: Rodolphe was himself and the Prince and Princesse Gandolphini were the Duc and Duchesse d’Argaiolo. Albert Savarus.

  GANDOLPHINI (Princesse), nee Francesca Colonna, a Roman of illustrious origin, fourth child of the Prince and Princess Colonna. While very young she married Prince Gandolphini, one of the richest landed proprietors of Sicily. Under the name of Miss Lovelace, she met Rodolphe in Switzerland and he fell in love with her. — Heroine of a novel entitled “L’Ambitieux par Amour,” by Albert Savarus. Albert Savarus.

  GANIVET, bourgeois of Issoudun, In 1822, in a conversation where Maxence Gilet was discussed, Commandant Potel threatened to make Ganivet “swallow his tongue without sauce” if he continued to slander the lover of Flore Brazier. A Bachelor’s Establishment.

  GANIVET (Mademoiselle), a woman of Issoudun “as ugly as the seven capital sins.” Nevertheless she succeeded in winning a certain Borniche-Hereau who in 1778 left her an income of a thousand crowns. A Bachelor’s Establishment.

  GANNERAC, in transfer business at Angouleme. In 1821-22 he was involved in the affair of the notes endorsed by Rubempre in imitation of the signature of his brother-in-law Sechard. Lost Illusions.

  GARANGEOT, in 1845 conducted the orchestra in a theatre run by Felix Gaudissart, succeeding Sylvain Pons to the baton. Cousin of Heloise Brisetout, who obtained the place for him. Cousin Pons.

  GARCELAND, mayor of Provins during the Restoration. Son-in-law of Guepin. Indirectly protected Pierrette Lorrain from the Liberals of the village led by Maitre Vinet, who acted for Rogron. Pierrette.

  GARCENAULT (De), first president of the Court of Besancon in 1834. He got the chapter of the cathedral to secure Albert Savarus as counsel in a lawsuit between the chapter and the city. Savarus won the suit. Albert Savarus.

  GARNERY, one of two special detectives in May, 1830, authorized by the attorney-general, De Granville, to seize certain letters written to Lucien de Rubempre by Mme. de Serizy, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and Mlle. Clotilde de Grandlieu. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  GASNIER, peasant living near Grenoble; born about 1789. Married and the father of several children whom he loved dearly. Inconsolable at the loss of the eldest. Doctor Benassis, mayor of the commune, mentioned this parental affection as a rare instance among tillers of the soil. The Country Doctor.

  GASSELIN, a Breton born in 1794; servant of the Guenics of Guerande, in 1836, having been in their employ since he was fifteen. A short, stout fellow with black hair, furrowed face; silent and slow. He took care of the garden and stables. In 1832 in the foolish venture of Duchesse de Berry, in which Gasselin took part with the Baron du Guenic and his son Calyste, the faithful servant received a sabre cut on the shoulder, while shielding the young man. This action seemed so natural to the family that Gasselin received small thanks. Beatrix.

  GASTON (Louis), elder natural son of Lady Brandon, born in 1805. Left an orphan in the early years of the Restoration, he was, though still a child, like a father to his younger brother Marie Gaston, whom he placed in college at Tours; after which he himself shipped as cabin-boy on a man-of-war. After being raised to the rank of captain of an American ship and becoming wealthy in India, he died at Calcutta, during the first part of the reign of Louis Philippe, as a result of the failure of the “famous Halmer,” and just as he was starting back to France, married and happy. La Grenadiere. Letters of Two Brides.

  GASTON (Marie), second natural son of Lady Brandon; born in 1810. Educated at the college of Tours, which he quitted in 1827. Poet; protege of Daniel d’Arthez, who often gave him food and shelter. In 1831 he met Louise de Chaulieu, the widow of Macumer, at the home of Mme. d’Espard. He married her in October, 1833, though she was older than he, and he was encumbered with debts amounting to 30,000 francs. The couple living quietly at Ville-d’Avray, were happy until a day when the jealous Louise conceived unjustifiable suspicions concerning the fidelity of her husband; on
which account she died after they had been married two years. During these two years Gaston wrote at least four plays. One of them written in collaboration with his wife was presented with the greatest success under the names of Nathan and “others.” La Grenadiere. Letters of Two Brides. In his early youth Gaston had published, at the expense of his friend Dorlange, a volume of poetry, “Les Perce-neige,” the entire edition of which found its way, at three sous the volume, to a second-hand book-shop, whence, one fine day, it inundated the quays from Pont Royal to Pont Marie. The Member for Arcis.

  GASTON (Madame Louis), an Englishwoman of cold, distant manners; wife of Louis Gaston; probably married him in India where he died as a result of unfortunate business deals. As a widow she came to France with two children, where without resource she became a charge to her brother-in-law who visited and aided her secretly. She lived in Paris on rue de la Ville-Eveque. The visits made by Marie Gaston were spoken of to his wife who became jealous, not knowing their object. Mme. Louis Gaston was thus innocently the cause of Mme. Marie Gaston’s death. Letters of Two Brides.

  GASTON (Madame Marie), born Armande-Louise-Marie de Chaulieu, in 1805. At first destined to take the veil; educated at the Carmelite convent of Blois with Renee de Maucombe who became Mme. de l’Estorade. She remained constant in her relations with this faithful friend — at least by letter — who was a prudent and wise adviser. In 1825 Louise married her professor in Spanish, the Baron de Macumer, whom she lost in 1829. In 1833 she married the poet Marie Gaston. Both marriages were sterile. In the first she was adored and believed that she loved; in the second she was loved as much as she loved, but her insane jealousy, and her horseback rides from Ville-d’Avray to Verdier’s were her undoing, and she died in 1835 of consumption, contracted purposely through despair at the thought that she had been deceived. After leaving the convent she had lived successively at the following places: on Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris, where she saw M. de Bonald; at Chantepleur, an estate in Burgundy, at La Crampade, in Provence, with Mme. de l’Estorade; in Italy; at Ville-d’Avray, where she sleeps her last sleep in a park of her own planning. Letters of Two Brides.

  GATIENNE, servant of Mme. and Mlle. Bontems, at Bayeux, in 1805. A Second Home.

  GAUBERT, one of the most illustrious generals of the Republic; first husband of a Mlle. de Ronquerolles whom he left a widow at the age of twenty, making her his heir. She married again in 1806, choosing the Comte de Serizy. A Start in Life.

  GAUBERTIN (Francois), born about 1770; son of the ex-sheriff of Soulanges, Burgundy, before the Revolution. About 1791, after five years’ clerkship to the steward of Mlle. Laguerre at Aigues, he succeeded to the stewardship. His father having become public prosecutor in the department, time of the Republic, he was made mayor of Blangy. In 1796 he married the “citizeness” Isaure Mouchon, by whom he had three children: a son, Claude, and two daughters, Jenny — Mme. Leclercq — and Eliza. He had also a natural son, Bournier, whom he placed in charge of a local newspaper. At the death of Mlle. Laguerre, Gaubertin, after twenty-five years of stewardship, possessed 600,000 francs. He ended by dreaming of acquiring the estate at Aigues; but the Comte de Montcornet purchased it, retained him in charge, caught him one day in a theft and discharged him summarily. Gaubertin received at that time sundry lashes with a whip of which he said nothing, but for which he revenged himself. The old steward became, nevertheless, a person of importance. In 1820 he was mayor of Ville-aux-Fayes, and supplied one-third of the Paris wood. Being general agent of this rural industry, he managed the forests, lumber and guards. Gaubertin was related throughout a whole district, like a “boa-constrictor twisted around a gigantic tree”; the church, the magistracy, the municipality, the government — all did his bidding. Even the peasantry served his interests indirectly. When the general, disgusted by the numberless vexations of his estate, wished to sell the property at Aigues, Gaubertin bought the forests, while his partners, Rigou and Soudry, acquired the vineyards and other grounds. The Peasantry.

  GAUBERTIN (Madame), born Isaure Mouchon in 1778. Daughter of a member of the Convention and friend of Gaubertin senior. Wife of Francois Gaubertin. An affected creature of Ville-aux-Fayes who played the great lady mightily. The Peasantry.

  GAUBERTIN (Claude), son of Francois Gaubertin, godson of Mlle. Laguerre, at whose expense he was educated at Paris. The busiest attorney at Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823. After five years’ practice he spoke of selling his office. He probably became judge. The Peasantry.

  GAUBERTIN (Jenny), elder daughter of Francois Gaubertin. (See Leclercq, Madame.)

  GAUBERTIN (Elisa or Elise), second daughter of Francois Gaubertin. Loved, courted and longed for since 1819 by the sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, M. des Lupeaulx — the nephew. M. Lupin, notary at Soulanges, sought on his part the young girl’s hand for his only son Amaury. The Peasantry.

  GAUBERTIN-VALLAT (Mademoiselle), old maid, sister of Mme. Sibilet, wife of the clerk of the court at Ville-aux-Fayes, in 1823. She ran the town’s stamp office. The Peasantry.

  GAUCHER was in 1803 a boy working for Michu. The Gondreville Mystery.

  GAUDET, second clerk in Desroches’ law office in 1824. A Start in Life.

  GAUDIN, chief of squadron in the mounted grenadiers of the Imperial Guard; made baron of the Empire, with the estate of Wistchnau. Made prisoner by Cossacks at the passage of the Beresina, he escaped, going to India where he was lost sight of. However he returned to France about 1830, in bad health, but a multi-millionaire. The Magic Skin.

  GAUDIN (Madame), wife of foregoing, managed the Hotel Saint-Quentin, rue des Cordiers, Paris, during the Restoration. Among her guests was Raphael de Valentin. Her husband’s return in 1830 made her wealthy and a baroness. The Magic Skin.

  GAUDIN (Pauline), daughter of the foregoing. Was acquainted with, loved, and modestly aided Raphael de Valentin, a poor lodger at Hotel Saint-Quintin. After the return of her father she lived with her parents on rue Saint-Lazare. For a long time her whereabouts were unknown to Raphael who had quitted the hotel abruptly; then he met her again one evening at the Italiens. They fell into each other’s arms, declaring their mutual love. Raphael who also had become rich resolved to espouse Pauline; but frightened by the shrinkage of the “magic skin” he fled precipitately and returned to Paris. Pauline hastened after him, only to behold him die upon her breast in a transport of furious, impotent love. The Magic Skin.

  GAUDISSART (Jean-Francois), father of Felix Gaudissart. Cesar Birotteau.

  GAUDISSART (Felix), native of Normandy, born about 1792, a “great” commercial traveler making a specialty of the hat trade. Known to the Finots, having been in the employ of the father of Andoche. Also handled all the “articles of Paris.” In 1816 he was arrested on the denunciation of Peyrade — Pere Canquoelle. He had imprudently conversed in the David cafe with a retired officer concerning a conspiracy against the Bourbons that was about to break out. Thus the conspiracy was thwarted and two men were sent to the scaffold. Gaudissart being released by Judge Popinot was ever after grateful to the magistrate and devoted to the interests of his nephew. When he became minister, Anselme Popinot obtained for Gaudissart license for a large theatre on the boulevard, which in 1834 aimed to supply the demand for popular opera. This theatre employed Sylvain Pons, Schmucke, Schwab, Garangeot and Heloise Brisetout, Felix’s mistress. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. Cousin Pons. “Gaudissart the Great,” then a young man, attended the Birotteau ball. About that time he probably lived on rue des Deux-Ecus, Paris. Cesar Birotteau. During the Restoration, a “pretended florist’s agent” sent by Judge Popinot to Comte Octave de Bauvan, he bought at exorbitant prices the artificial flowers made by Honorine. Honorine. At Vouvray in 1831 this man, so accustomed to fool others, was himself mystified in rather an amusing manner by a retired dyer, a sort of “country Figaro” named Vernier. A bloodless duel resulted. After the episode, Gaudissart boasted that the affair had been to his advantage. He was “in this Saint-Simonian period” the lover of Jenny Courand. Gau
dissart the Great.

  GAUDRON (Abbe), an Auvergnat; vicar and then curate of the church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, rue Saint-Antoine, Paris, during the Restoration and the Government of July. A peasant filled with faith, square below and above, a “sacerdotal ox” utterly ignorant of the world and of literature. Being confessor of Isidore Baudoyer he endeavored in 1824 to further the promotion of that incapable chief of bureau in the Department of Finance. In the same year he was present at a dinner at the Comte de Bauvan’s when were discussed questions relating to woman. The Government Clerks. Honorine. In 1826 Abbe Gaudron confessed Mme. Clapart and led her into devout paths; the former Aspasia of the Directory had not confessed for forty years. In February, 1830, the priest obtained the Dauphiness’ protection for Oscar Husson, son of Mme. Clapart by her first husband, and that young man was promoted to a sub-lieutenancy in a regiment where he had been serving as subaltern. A Start in Life.

  GAULT, warden of the Conciergerie in May, 1830, when Jacques Collin and Rubempre were imprisoned there. He was then aged. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  GAY, boot-maker in Paris, rue de la Michodiere, in 1821, who furnished the boots for Rubempre which aroused Matifat’s suspicion. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.

  GAZONAL (Sylvestre-Palafox-Castel), one of the most skillful weavers in the Eastern Pyrenees; commandant of the National Guard, September, 1795. On a visit to Paris in 1845 for the settlement of an important lawsuit he sought out his cousin, Leon de Lora, the landscape artist, who in one day, with Bixiou the caricaturist, showed him the under side of the city, opening up to him a whole gallery full of “unconscious humorists” — dancers, actresses, police-agents, etc. Thanks to his two cicerones, he won his lawsuit and returned home. The Unconscious Humorists.