Honoré de Balzac
The Vicar of Tours:
eBook
( Feb. 2, 2014)
Le Curé de Tours is a long short story (or, more properly, a novella) by Honoré de Balzac, written in 1832. Originally entitled Les Célibataires (The Celibates), it was published in that year in volume III of the 2nd edition of Scènes de la vie privée, then republished in 1833 and again in 1839, still with the same title but as one of the Scènes de la vie de province. Not until 1843 did it take on its present title of Le Curé de Tours when it appeared in volume II of Scènes de la vie de province (volume VI of his vast narrative series La Comédie humaine).
Le Curé de Tours is one of the best known of all Balzac’s fictions.
The action of the novella takes place in or near Tours, with a brief excursion to Paris, in the year 1826.