The _Histoire des Treize_ consists--or rather is built up--of three stories: _Ferragus_ or the _Rue Soly_, _La Duchesse de Langeais_ or _Ne touchez-paz a la hache_, and _La Fille aux Yeux d’Or_. To tell the truth, there is more power than taste throughout the _Histoire des Treize_, and perhaps not very much less unreality than power. Balzac is very much better than Eugene Sue, though Eugene Sue also is better than it is the fashion to think him just now. But he is here, to a certain extent competing with Sue on the latter’s own ground. The notion of the “Devorants”--of a secret society of men devoted to each other’s interests, entirely free from any moral or legal scruple, possessed of cons…
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