The Physiology of Marriage

The Physiology of Marriage (1829)
by Honoré de Balzac, translated by Joseph Walker McSpadden
Honoré de Balzac187172The Physiology of Marriage1829Joseph Walker McSpadden

DEDICATION

Notice the words: The man of distinction to whom this book is dedicated. Need I say: "You are that man."--THE AUTHOR.

The woman who may be induced by the title of this book to open it, can save herself the trouble; she has already read the work without knowing it. A man, however malicious he may possibly be, can never say about a woman as much good or as much evil as they themselves think. If, in spite of this notice, a woman will persist in reading the volume, she ought to be prevented by delicacy from despising the author, from the very moment that he, forfeiting the praise which most artists welcome, has in a certain way engraved on the title page of his book the prudent inscription written on the portal of certain establishments: Ladies must not enter.


THE PHYSIOLOGY OF MARRIAGE;

OR,

THE MUSINGS OF AN ECLECTIC PHILOSOPHER ON THE HAPPINESS AND

UNHAPPINESS OF MARRIED LIFE


Introduction

First Part
Second PartIncomplete
Third Part