Farewell

In his startling and tragic novella Farewell (Adieu), Balzac adds to the 19th centurys literature of the hysterical woman: sequestered, confined in her madness; mute, or eerily chanting in her moated grange. The first Mrs Rochester lurks in the wings; the Lady of Shalott waits for the shadowy reflection of the world outside to shatter her illusion. Freuds earliest patients will soon enter the waiting-room in their turn.