Balzac’s Cane

Delphine de Girardin (1804-1855) was the daughter of famous writer and playwright Sophie Gay (1776-1852). She began writing at an early age, publishing two books of poems in 1824 and 1824, and a popular collection of children’s stories in 1833. She later married writer-journalist Emile de Girardin (1802-1881) and became an important figure in the Romantic Movement. This book collects two of her best Romantic fantasies: The Lorgnon (1831), about a pair of glasses that enables their wearer to read thoughts, and Balzac’s Cane (1836), in which the famous author allows a young man down on is luck to borrow the eponymous object, which confers upon its owner the gift of invisibility. These two stories remain highly readable today, all the more so if one can discover them with an awareness of their ground-breaking qualities.