Letters To Madame Hanska

The following book is a collection of letter-based correspondence between Ewelina Rzewuska and Honoré de Balzac before their marriage. She married landowner Wacław Hański when she was a teenager. Hański, who was about 20 years her senior, suffered from depression. In the late 1820s, Hańska began reading Balzac's novels, and in 1832, she sent him an anonymous letter. This began a decades-long correspondence in which Hańska and Balzac expressed a deep mutual affection—which is collated in this publication.