Honoré de Balzac’s main oevre consists of 91 stories, novels and analytical essays, and 46 unfinished works together constituting a grand Comédie Humaine. This colossal series of works, with the subtitle Study of mores, aims to describe all aspects of society. Each novel or story focuses on a different layers, genders, social classes, ages, professions and institutions in French society during the Restauration and July Monarch period (1815 – 1848), showing the causes and effects in society.

A less well-known part of Balzac’s oevre are the five stories constituting Peines de coeur d'une chatte anglaise. These stories are directly linked to La Comédie Humaine. They are parables which make the reader reflect on human society through the eyes of animals.

These five stories were written by Honoré de Balzac as a contribution to a series of short stories, plays, etc collected and edited by Pierre-Jules Hetzel, who used the pen name P.-J. Stahl. Hetzel was active as an editor as well as writer. He knew and was friends with many French authors who were active during the first half of the nineteenth century, including many great illustrators and artists, whom he asked to contribute to the magazines and collaborative book projects he initiated. Besides his editorial work, Pierre-Jules Hetzel produced a considerable oevre which can appreciated in its own right.

Hetzel’s first success was with Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux. Études de mœurs contemporaines. This serialized work consists of novellas, satirical stories, and short plays, each richly illustrated with wood cuts by Jean Ignace Isidore Gérard, usually known under the pen names J.J. Grandville or Jean-Jacques Grandville. Grandville specialized in zoomorphic pictures, and illustrated books and magazines of various authors during his life time. Over a period of two years he contributed 320 wood cuts to Hetzel’s Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux.

Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux first appeared serialized between 1840 and 1842, and then in book form in two volumes in 1841 and 1842. The books were very successful and were reprinted several times throughout the nineteenth century.

Volume one of consists of sixteen episodes. P.-J. Stahl is the main contributor, writing the Prologue and three episodes. Honoré de Balzac also contributed four episodes to the first volume, but one of his contributions in this volume, , although written by Balzac was attributed to George Sand. Other authors who contributed to volume I are Émile de La Bédollière, Gustave Droz, Jules Janin, Édouard Lemoine, Paul de Musset, Charles Nodier and Louis Viardot.
Volume two consists of fourteen episodes, five by Stahl, two by Droz, and one each by Bédollière , Alfred de Musset, L. Baude, Ménessier Nodier (daughter of Charles Nodier), Pierre Bernard and Honoré de Balzac.

The five episodes or novellas written by Balzac are collected and published as a separate volume. This type of “out-of-context” publication makes for quite difficult reading. For example, my edition has neither an introduction which might explain the broader framework of Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux, nor footnotes, nor illustrations. Knowledge of the broader framework is needed to understand direct references to the framework. In the Prologue the animals form an editorial board for the whole work, so when Balzac opens his second story as follows:

Messieurs les Rédacteurs, les Ânes sentent le besoin de s'opposer, à la Tribune Animale, contre l'injuste opinion qui fait de leur nom un symbole de bêtise. (p. 133)

Seasoned readers would know who those Rédacteurs (editors ) are, but without proper references the reader is at a loss.

Generally, Peines de coeur d'une chatte anglaise is difficult to read because of many references to politicians, scientists and other real-life people during the first half of the nineteenth century, and cross references between the episodes, to episodes contributed by other authors. Therefore, Peines de coeur d'une chatte anglaise may not be such a light read, and for full appreciation, the reader without an annotated edition may have to spend some time looking up references.

Balzac’s first novella is titled Peines de coeur d'une chatte anglaise. It is an amusing story which can be read without much difficulty. It very clearly portrays Victorian mores about what does and what does not constitute proper behaviour in public. Like all other stories it is completely, cleverly and convincingly, written from the point of animals, in this case cats, and therefore presents humourous descriptions of how cats eat, drink milk or spend the whole night sleeping on the lap of their owner whilst he plays whist. Peines de coeur d'une chatte anglaise is a love story, describing the love of a fairly common cat for an “aristocratic” breed, and subsequent developments.

The second story by Balzac Guide-âne à l’usage des animaux qui veulent parvenir aux honneurs is much more difficult to understand as it refers to a scientific debate about the classification of animals by competing zoologists at the time the story was written.
The third story, Voyage d’un moineau de Paris à la recherche du meilleur gouvernement is more readable again. It is this story which was attributed to George Sand, as Balzac said he did not want to dominate volume 1. As a kind of introduction, the story opens describing the social structure of classes in Paris, or rich and poor sparrows, suggesting that the growing gap between the classes needs to be addressed by finding a more suitable form of government. Subsequently, the sparrow travels to three imaginary realms, the realm of the Ants, the Kingdom of the Bees, with their glorious Queen, clearly a reference to Victorian Britain, and the realm of the Wolves, to descide on the most appropriate form of state.
The next story, Voyage d’un lion d’Afrique à Paris, et ce qui s’ensuivit was difficult to follow. Superficially, it describes the visit of the Lion, the crown prince, to Paris. He is astounded to find that in France “the King reigns but the people rule” (A Paris, the roi règne et ne gouverne pas (p.204). The Lion describes contemporary Paris where anything is sold and anything can be bought. The story is written in epistolary from, of letters written home to his father. It is a satire of the demi-monde of Paris at that time (a propos the word “demi-monde” wasn’t coined until 1855). The story was difficult to understand because many references are not clear.

The last story Les amours de deux bêtes offerts en exemple aux gens d’esprit : histoire animau-sentimentale was the most readable, and most beautiful story to read. It is a love story that reads like a fairytale about the love of a Ladybug for a Caterpillar. The structure of the story is a little bit confusing because the story is set up as people’s observations of true love among animals, while the story contains references to the human world, the animal world an another realm inhabited by imaginary animals. These three layers are a bit confusing, but do not prevent the reader from an enchanting, magic reading experience. This story, was by far the most beautiful.

Overall, Balzac’s Peines de coeur d'une chatte anglaise is a very difficult, but with the right references, very rewarding, and thence, also, very enjoyable read. It is definitely advisable to buy an annotated edition, or read the stories within the context of Hetzel’s Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux. ( )

Peines de cœur d’une chatte anglaise est notamment la transposition de la relation que Balzac à eu avec la comtesse Guibodoni-Visconti née Sarah Lovell et dont le Fils Lionel-richard est probablement un des deux enfants (illégitimes) qu’eut Balzac.