Introduction to the “Quality” section

This article focuses on Le Tartare ou Le Retour de l’exilé (1822) by Viellerglé, the pseudonym of Auguste Lepoitevin de l’Égreville and Balzac’s first collaborator—assuming the latter contributed to the novel. We first consider the flexibility of the contracts between Lepoitevin and Balzac, postulating the possibility that Balzac took part even in works signed Viellerglé. Then, referring to Balzac’s correspondence, we consider the preparedness of his sister Laure and Eugène Surville to help the novelist with a project compatible with that of Le Tartare. The article then analyzes the prefaces and quotations at the beginning of each chapter, consistent as they are with Balzac’s cultural references at the time. The study also addresses the novel’s affinity for meta-literary reflexivity and the presence of a poetics, albeit rudimentary, of observation and type. We end with an analysis of the thematic continuities between Le Tartare and Balzac’s early novels and the former’s anticipation of themes representative of the novelist’s literary maturity.