Ursule Mirouët · Chapter
Dedication explained
Balzac dedicates the novel to his niece, Sophie Surville, praising her pure judgment and expressing hope that her approval is genuine, not influenced by affection.
What happens
Balzac dedicates the novel to his niece, Sophie Surville, praising her pure judgment and expressing hope that her approval is genuine, not influenced by affection.
Key passages
“It is a real pleasure, my dear niece, to dedicate to you a book of which the subject and the details have gained the approbation—so difficult to secure—of a young girl to whom the world is as yet unknown, and who will make no compromise with the high principles derived from a pious education.”
Balzac expresses genuine delight in dedicating this book to his niece, noting that its content has earned the rare approval of a virtuous young woman unfamiliar with the world.
Balzac highlights the moral purity of his niece as a benchmark for the book's propriety.
“You young girls are a public to be dreaded; you ought never to be suffered to read any book less pure than your own pure souls, and you are forbidden certain books, just as you are not allowed to see society as it really is.”
Young girls are a formidable audience because they should only read books as pure as their own souls, being shielded from both certain literature and the harsh realities of society.
Balzac reflects on the protective upbringing of young women and the high standard they impose on literature.
“Is it not enough, then, to make a writer proud, to know that he has satisfied you? Heaven grant that affection may not have misled you! Who can say? The future only, which you, I hope, will see, though he may not, who is your uncle De Balzac.”
Balzac wonders if a writer should feel proud simply by pleasing his niece, and hopes her approval is not biased by family affection—only time will tell.
Balzac expresses humility and uncertainty about the lasting merit of his work.