BALUSTER

a small circular pilaster of Ital. invention, supporting a hand-rail, | coping, balcony, or terrace. A row oO balusters forms a balustrade. scholar; pub. Capitular i a Regum Fran- (1677); Letters of Pope Innocent II. (1682); Vitae Paparum Avenionensium, 1305-94 (1693). Fr. novelist; 6. Tours; ed. Collége de Vendéme and Sorbonne; intended by his f. for the law, Honoré had other intentions, and went to Paris (1819) to seek his fortune as an author. Here for ten years he struggled, achieving no succe . It was not until he was thirty that he made a reputation with his Les Derniers Chouans, followed by La Peau de Chagrin and other novels. Then he conceived the idea of presenting, under the general title of the Comedie Humaine, a large series of novels which should give a complete panorama of modern life, including men and women of every rank and occupation. With this purpose in view, B. produced in rapid succe ion La Recherche del Absolu, Le Pere Goriot, Les Illusions Perdues, etc. He wrote some eighty novels in twenty years, working sometimes eighteen hours daily, yet he was involved in debt to the end of his days. Criticism has raged round B.’s writings, and, despite his unique position, he is far from receiving unmixed eulogy from important critics. Many of his books are devoted to the emotions of trivial people, and the excitements and ideals of the drawing-room, and the wit which makes such things acceptable is lacking; though that B. had a genuine, if not subtle, sense of humor is shown by the Contes drolatiques. He is at his lightest and happiest in sketching tragedies of the common people like Le Pere Gortot; he sought force rather than