Martyrdom in Pierrette: Balzac's unmasking of scapegoat violence.

Williams, Timothy J.

WITH the publication of Des choses cachees depuis la fondation du monde (Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, 1978), Rene Girard began to reveal more and more clearly the importance of Judeo-Christian scriptures for the origin and development of his ideas. Though Girard had already earned a considerable reputation as a literary critic with his Mensonge romantique et verite romanesque (Desire and Deceit in the Novel, 1961), the cultural relativism and anti-religious bias of post-modern literary criticism has somewhat diminished the acceptability of his Gospel-oriented scapegoat theory for many scholars in the field of literary studies. In other disciplines, however, the conversation about mimesis and collective persecution becomes more widespread and invigorating every year. But even these fellow "Girardians" in other fields sometimes have to be reminded that mimetic theory was first of all a theory of literature. (1) And literary studies that take no account of mimetic theory often reveal their limitations when confronted with works of literature where violence seems inexplicable, gratuitous, and mystifying.

An excellent example of this perplexity can be found in the few scholarly readings of Pierrette by Honore de Balzac, part of the trilogy comprising Les celibataires, and among the darkest tales of La comedie humaine. Despite being one of Balzac's more popular novels--as evidenced by its continuous publication in paperback editions (Pasco, "Allusive" 27)--this masterful work of a major nineteenth-century novelist has elicited surprisingly little critical commentary: just one student-oriented monograph, a number of more or less brief mentions in books or chapters, and only a dozen or so articles, few of them truly illuminating. (2) Whereas general readers evidently find something quite compelling in Pierrette, professionals appear to find it confounding. Indeed, Jean-Louis Tritter (editor of the scholarly Pleiade edition of Balzac's works) speaks of an "ostracisme tacite" (3) surrounding the novel, as critics seem wary of turning their attention toward a grim and difficult work. As I hope to illustrate, however, there is nothing particularly obscure about this novel as soon as one approaches the text from a Girardian perspective.

The story of Pierrette Lorrain concerns a young orphaned peasant from Bretagne, sent to live with her distant, middle-aged cousins in Provins. This uncultured pair of celibataires--Sylvie Rogron and her brother, Jerome-Denis--are retired merchants who have returned to their native town after making their fortune in Paris. Unable to gain acceptance from the small aristocratic society of Provins, the brother and sister become prey to terrible boredom and resentment. As a welcome distraction, they take in their impoverished little cousin, but proceed to abuse her as they used to do with their unfortunate apprentices. The liberals of Provins, led by Vinet and Gouraud--"the satanic lawyer and the wily coloner' ("le satanique avocat et le ruse colonel" [Balzac 190])--encourage the Rogron to open a salon for liberals, hoping to tap their fortune to finance a newspaper, thus advancing their political agenda against the royalists. (3) Through circumstances beyond her control, the helpless Pierrette finds herself entangled in this social strife, and she will finally perish from a violence and neglect that serves the purposes of almost everyone.

Mimesis turning to envy and rivalry; social strife leading to collective persecution; a strange dissipation of conflict and realignment of factions: without referencing Girardian theory, some readers come close to at least a fragmentary description of scapegoating in the works of Balzac and in Pierrette. For example, in writing about conflicts in La comedie humaine in general, Jean-Pierre Richard touches upon a critical situation found in Pierrette" What is at stake in the fight--marriage, inheritance, material or political fortune, election, etc.--or its psychological motivation --love, vengeance, desire, jealousy, hatred, etc.--counts much less than the arrangement of forces to which the struggle gives rise, and the tactical development of these forces. Now, one of these favorite arrangements, the one perhaps that most powerfully excites the Balzacian imagination, consists of opposing a single character ... to a hostile multiplicity. L'enjeu de la bagarre--mariage, heritage, fortune mondaine ou politique, election, etc.--ou sa motivation psychologique--amour, vengeance, desir, jalousie, haine, etc.--comptent bien moins pour elle que la disposition des forces auxquelles la lutte a donne lieu, et que le developpement tactique de ces forces. Or, l'une de ces dispositions favorites, celle peut-etre qui excite le plus puissamment l'imagination balzacienne, consiste a opposer un personnage unique ... a une multiplicite hostile. (11)

But Richard does not appear to notice how the resolution of conflict results from the persecution of this single victim of collective hostility. In the same way, Armine Kotin Mortimer clearly sees how social antagonism in Pierrette gradually focuses on a single individual, as the "maneuvers of the opposed camps both exploit and depend on Pierrette's martyrdom" (15). Interestingly, Mortimer also notices the "generalized lowering of social rank in Provins" (14), the kind of loss of distinction that Girard warns can result in increased hostility, since it places more competitors within reach of the objects of desire: "the absence of social distance encourages reciprocal imitation among equals" ("l'absence de distance sociale favorise l'imitation reciproque des egaux" [Route 76]). But Mortimer does not understand the novel's conclusion, stating: "In the final paragraphs, Balzac turns [Pierrette's] story into a myth" (12). In fact, Balzac does exactly the opposite. He permits the persecutors to twist and tarnish the memory of their innocent victim until the very last sentence of the novel, because the novelist understands that the resolution of hostilities through recourse to scapegoating depends upon the maintenance of a mythologized version of the persecution that has taken place. But as we shall see, Balzac does not permit the oppressors to have the last word.

On the other hand, at least one reader has seen that Balzac's very purpose is to demystify violence, even if this reader does not use the terminology of scapegoat theory. In his fine study of the allusive complex in the novel, Allan H. Pasco notes the dissipation of rivalries that occurs at the end of Pierrette and emphasizes the inexplicable choice of Pierrette as universal victim: "[Her] death comes from exploitation and abuse that can be neither explained nor justified" (32). Furthermore, Pasco reveals his awareness of Balzac's intention, stating that "the tragedy of Pierrette is foregrounded" (39). In Girardian terms, "foregrounding" is another way of saying "demythologizing," or in other words, exposing the scapegoat mechanism.

DESPITE the fact that a few readers have touched upon certain elements of scapegoating in Pierrette, to date there has been no systematic application of Girardian theory to this novel. In my view, this helps explain why Pierrette has remained a largely enigmatic work, unable to sustain attention from literary critics. And yet, this novel serves admirably well to illustrate one of Rene Girard's most important observations about literature, that great novels are a significant and reliable source of knowledge concerning the primacy of mimesis and scapegoating in human interactions: "the only texts that ever discovered mimetic desire and explored some of its consequences are literary texts" ("To double" vii). The failure of critics to receive this knowledge can leave some literary works, such as Pierrette, shrouded in obscurity and myth. Thus, Balzac's novel is especially valuable for making another point, namely that post-modern literary criticism has too quickly rejected Girardian thought.

By way of background to the tragedy of Pierrette, Balzac informs the reader that Sylvie Rogron and her brother had spent a brutal childhood in Provins, receiving only "l'horrible education du village" (112) before their father shipped them off to apprentice in Paris with a kick in the rear and the command: "Go make a fortune!" ("Va faire fortune!" [113]). After a harsh apprenticeship, the brother and sister thrive commercially by living as "two machines" ("deux mecaniques") devoid of human sentiments and entirely absorbed with making money: "Thus were these two characters excessively sinewy and dried out, hardened by toil, by privations, by the memory of their suffering during a long and harsh apprenticeship" ("Aussi ces deux natures etaient-elles excessivement filandreuses et seches, endurcies par le travail, par les privations, par le souvenir de leurs douleurs pendant un long et rude apprentissage" [118]). They earn a reputation for brutality in the treatment of their own apprentices, who are (as they once were themselves) young people sent from Provins to learn a trade and make a fortune: "all the unfortunate ones, destined for commerce by their parents" ("tous les malheureux, voues au commerce par leurs parents" [118]). One after the other, their apprentices escape as soon as possible, only to be replaced by an endless stream of "new victims" ("nouvelles victimes" [119]).

The prosperity of the brother and sister derives from frugal and scrupulous manners. With intelligence only for business and without any culture or refinement, Sylvie and Jerome-Denis never have a troubled conscience: "For them, virtue, honor, loyalty, and all human sentiments consisted of regularly paying one's bills" ("Pour eux, la vertu, l'honneur, la loyaute, tous les sentiments humains consistaient a payer regulierement ses billets" [118]). During their Paris years, the two spend their leisure time observing, coveting and acquiring furnishings of the type they see displayed around them, dreaming of the day when they will return to Provins to furnish an ostentatious home. Their embrace of unrestrained capitalism accustoms them to giving free reign to mimetic desires. The acquisitive mimesis of Jerome-Denis is summarized in three words: "he wanted everything" ("il voulait tout" [123]).

Upon their retirement from business and their return to Provins, the Rogron immediately set about to embellish their bourgeois residence. In very Pascalian terms, Balzac insists that the Rogron's transition from "incessant talking" ("bavardage continuei") and "activite parisienne" to the typical "immobilite provinciale" results in a "genuine illness" ("veritable maladie") (127). The brother and sister find temporary relief from this ennui by engaging in furious home redecorating. The various merchants, entrepreneurs, and artisans of Provins know very well how to inflame the mimetic passions of such returning provincials, and they have no difficulty persuading the Rogron that they must purchase this or that chandelier, sofa, or banister, since their neighbors' homes are thus furnished. With no taste of her own, Sylvie willingly conforms to the tastes of the upper-class Provinois: "Any similarity whatsoever with one of the rich bourgeois of Provins always ended the battle in the contractor's favor.--'The minute Monsieur Garceland has that in his house, put it in!' said Mademoiselle Rogron. 'It must be good. He has good taste'" ("Une similitude quelconque avec un des riches bourgeois de Provins finissait toujours le combat a l'avantage de l'entrepreneur.--Du moment que M. Garceland a cela chez lui, mettez ! disait Mlle Rogron. Cela doit etre bien. Il a bon gout" [128]). Jerome-Denis believes this conformity will prove their worth among rivals: "at least the Lesourd will see that we're worth just as much as them" ("les Lesourd verront du moins que nous les valons bien!" [129]).

The Rogron are eager to gain acceptance by the principal families of Provins, and especially to be admitted to the little aristocratic society that meets twice weekly in the home of the beautiful Madame Tiphaine, who is described as "a pearl, a treasure, the pride of Provins" ("une perle, un tresor, l'orgueil de Provins" [131]). But their first dinner among this cultured elite is a complete disaster and earns nothing but ridicule for the vulgar brother and sister. They are soon banished from polite society and their invitations to Madame Tiphaine and her associates to come admire their pretentious house are left unanswered. The aristocrats are aware that offending the Rogron has the potential to create a wealthy rival clan in the village, but Madame Tiphaine is scornful of the danger: "Where there are no enemies, there are no triumphs" ("La ou il n'y a pas d'ennemis, il n'y a pas de triomphes" [135]).

MADAME Tiphaine's attitude suggests the highly polarized nature of the community of Provins. Everyone belongs, and must belong, to one camp or the other. Pasco has pointed out how scene and intrigue emphasize duality in Pierrette. Provins has two rivers, is divided into two sections, with two salons, two political groups, and two newspapers: "Two is, of course, the number of opposition and conflict, rivalry and antagonism" ("Allusive" 37). Eventually, the Rogron will find their way to the "lower city," the opposing side, largely for the simple reason that they have been rejected by the inhabitants of the "upper city."

This rejection engenders in Sylvie a virulent hatred against the aristocratic society of Provins, whose members she calls "la clique" (Balzac 143). After two winters of being social outcasts and having nothing to do, a frightful boredom afflicts the Rogron. Without models, without rivals, with no apprentices to dominate and abuse, the brother and sister direct their frustrations against each other with frightening results: "Sometimes, people ... would hear screams from the Rogron's house, as if the brother were assassinating the sister: you could recognize the horrible gaping of a haberdasher at bay. These two machines had nothing to crush in their rusty gears. They were screeching" ("Quelquefois, les personnes ... entendaient des cris chez les Rogron, comme si le frere assassinait la sceur: on reconnut les horribles baillements d'un mercier aux abois. Ces deux mecaniques n'avaient rien a broyer entre leurs rouages rouilles, elles criaient" [148]).

Thus, at the height of their anguish and their need for a release of tension, the Rogron have only each other to persecute. Fortunately, a possible solution emerges: "Then Sylvie, who understood the need to have a third person in the house, remembered their poor cousin" ("Sylvie, qui comprit la necessite d'avoir un tiers au logis, se souvint alors de leur pauvre cousine" [148]). The Rogron turn their attention toward this orphaned cousin, whose pitiful condition had been communicated to them a year earlier in a letter seeking their assistance. What had seemed at the time to be an unwelcome expense now appears as a remedy for their destructive boredom, and possibly a new introduction to the upper-class of Provins. Sylvie and Jerome-Denis will soon have "a beautiful, young heiress to offer to society" ("une belle et jeune heritiere a offrir au monde" [149]). Balzac insists on the manner in which Pierrette will function as a substitute for the young shop clerks the Rogron no longer have for abusing: "You would have to have been ... a retired merchant with no clerk to aggravate in order to know how impatiently the brother and sister awaited their cousin Lorrain" ("Il faudrait avoir ete ... negociant retire sans commis a tracasser, pour savoir avec quelle impatience le frere et la soeur attendirent leur cousine Lorrain" [149]).

At the same time, the Rogron are encouraged by the liberal faction of Provins to open their own salon, which will soon become a place of importance for all those who feel animosity towards the aristocratic element of society: "their salon was to become the center for factions seeking a means to act" ("leur salon allait devenir le centre d'interets qui cherchaient un theatre" [152]). Gouraud and Vinet recognize the opportunity to profit from the Rogron's hatred of the Tiphaine, eventually persuading the Rogron to finance the liberal newspaper, le Courrier de Provins (182), to assist in winning converts--or at least voters--to the liberal cause.

But first, Sylvie and Jerome-Denis will spend lavishly on a wardrobe for their newly arrived cousin in a renewed frenzy of mimetic rivalry with the wealthy and elegant aristocrats: "With the cousin, it was just like with the house. Pierrette had to be dressed as nicely as Madame Garceland's little girl" ("Il en fut de la cousine comme de la maison. Pierrette dut etre mise aussi bien que la petite de Mme Garceland" [168]). The natural beauty and grace of the young girl is enhanced by her new clothes, and she is soon acknowledged as being "the most marvelous little girl in all Provins" ("la plus delicieuse petite fille de tout Provins" [168]). Quite unlike her older cousins, Pierrette is embraced everywhere in public by the fine ladies of the town and their daughters, and she receives all the invitations to private gatherings that the Rogron were unable to obtain for themselves. The result of all this is a deepening of Sylvie's jealousy and bitterness. Balzac insists on the contrast between maternal instincts and rivalry: "A mother would have been very pleased with her child's happiness, but the Rogron had taken in Pierrette for themselves and not for her: far from being parental, their feelings were tainted by egotism and a kind of commercial exploitation" ("Une mere eut ete tres heureuse du bonheur de son enfant, mais les Rogron avaient pris Pierrette pour eux et non pour elle: leurs sentiments, loin d'etre paternels, etaient entaches d'egoisme et d'une sorte d'exploitation commerciale" [169]). The lawyer, Vinet--whose role Balzac has already identified as being diabolical --exploits the jealousy of the Rogron, wishing to create an irreparable breach between the factions of Provins. Balzac describes Vinet's actions in terms that recall Girard's thoughts on the satanic principle of mimetic rivalry and animosity: "he fueled the anger and aroused the vengeful spirit in these two desiccated characters" ("il alluma la colere et reveilla l'esprit de vengeance chez ces deux natures seches" [175]).

The Rogron can do nothing against the aristocratic faction that rejects and ridicules them. Unable to strike back at their mimetic rivais, the source of their torment, their predicament is very familiar: "Rogron and his sister were languishing for lack of victims" ("Rogron et sa soeur perissaient faute de victimes" [170]). To alleviate their anguish--as Balzac terms it, "for the sake of their nerves" ("pour le jeu de leurs nerfs" [170])--they redirect their hostility toward their socially successful little cousin. In describing the Rogron's rapid descent into a dreadful routine of child abuse, Balzac is absolutely aware that this type of scapegoating is not a manifestation of uniquely evil characters, but rather an unknowing, instinctual mechanism: "This was not the plot of mean and cruel beings, it was the instinct of an imbecilic tyranny" ("Ce ne fut pas le complot d'etres mechants et cruels, ce fut l'instinct d'une tyrannie imbecile" [170-71]). In an even more remarkable sentence, Balzac reveals his understanding that this dynamic of victimization is at the heart of most social interactions: "Add the vehicle of self-interest, and you will have the enigma of the majority of social events" ("Ajoutez le vehicule de l'interet, et vous aurez l'enigme de la plupart des choses sociales" [170]).

The Rogron need Pierrette as their own personal victim. But Sylvie is especially hostile to the girl, whom she believes to be a rival for the affections of Gouraud. (The colonel has feigned a romantic interest in Sylvie as part of Vinet's strategy for obtaining the Rogron fortune to further his political aims.) When a young man named Brigaut arrives secretly from Bretagne to visit Pierrette, his childhood companion, his nighttime appearance beneath the girl's window leads Sylvie to suspect she has been betrayed by Gouraud, and she begins accusing the innocent Pierrette of moral depravity. Later, Pierrette is left bruised and bleeding when Sylvie attempts to force her to hand over letters she believes to have been written by Gouraud.

ALTHOUGH the hostility that Sylvie directs toward Pierrette is uniquely violent, a profound indifference to the child's persecution--and later, even her death--gradually characterizes all the rival factions in Provins. Balzac explains the situation very straightforwardly: "General self-interest required the degradation of this poor victim" ("L'interet general exigeait l'abaissement de cette pauvre victime" [191]). Her position as the sole inheritor of the Rogron fortune becomes an obstacle to parties who wish to marry either Sylvie or Jerome-Denis in order to take hold of the estate. Ultimately, the victimization of Pierrette becomes useful and necessary for the aristocratic faction--the very people who welcomed and were charmed by the little girl--in order to heap scandal and legal trouble upon the Rogron and the entire liberal faction they support. Thus, "intrigues politiques" become entangled with "intrigues matrimoniales" (190-91). Like all scapegoats, "crushed between implacable interests" ("broyee entre les interets implacables" [191]), Pierrette is simply "un obstacle" (192) to the realization of competing ambitions.

Though obscured by somewhat poetic language, Balzac is surely revealing an awareness of the mimetic crisis that unleashes the scapegoat mechanism when he speaks of "strange, secret events, cruel feelings ... [that] were going to tumble down over Pierrette like a cold avalanche" ("d'etranges evenements secrets, de cruels sentiments ... [qui] allaient retomber comine une froide avalanche sur Pierrette [198]). Moreover, in very Girardian terms, Balzac points out the parallel between historical upheavals and representations of violence in works of art. Both history and literature illustrate the workings of mimetic rivalry and scapegoat persecution: "This world of mysterious things, that must perhaps be termed the rubbish of the human heart, lies at the bottom of the greatest political, social or dramatic revolutions" ("Ce monde de choses mysterieuses, et qu'il faudrait peut-etre nommer les immondices du cceur humain, gisent [sic] a la base des plus grandes revolutions politiques, sociales ou dramatiques" [198]).

As hostilities focus increasingly on Pierrette, all the antagonists observe her gradual decline in health, but few are genuinely alarmed, as a complicit silence serves the interests of all. When the child receives an accidental blow to the head--the injury that, untreated, will eventually lead to her death--Sylvie gives voice to the common and necessary belief that the scapegoat deserves her persecution, declaring "God has punished you" ("Dieu vous a punie" [232]). Finally, it is when hostilities reach their highest point--with "the war between the Vinet faction and the Tiphaine faction ... at its peak" ("la guerre entre le parti Vinet et le parti Tiphaine ... a son apogee" [259])--that the role of the scapegoat becomes clear, the martyrdom of Pierrette leading to the restoration of calm in Provins. Her death, combined with the marriage of Jerome-Denis to an impoverished aristocrat, resolves the crucial question of inheritance, removing a glittering fortune from before the envious eyes of all the rivals. Very quickly, the bitterest antagonisms are resolved and political alliances are completely reoriented in a manner that reveals the superficiality and pretextual nature of prior commitments and old hostilities: "The formerly beautiful Madame Tiphaine is on good terms with the beautiful Madame Rogron. Vinet could not get along better with President Tiphaine" ("L'exbelle Mme Tiphaine vit en bonne intelligence avec la belle Mme Rogron. Vinet est au mieux avec le president Tiphaine" [284].

The dissipation of hostilities in the story is impossible to miss, but with a non-Girardian reading of the text, its meaning remains ambiguous. Mortimer observes that "the opposing camps have dissolved" (24) by the end the story, but does not seem to notice that it is precisely the demise of Pierrette that has brought about this "peaceful" resolution. Moreover, although Balzac assures us that "None of the characters mixed up in Pierrette's death feels the least remorse" ("Aucun des personnages qui ont trempe dans la mort de Pierrette n'a le moindre remords" [285]), Mortimer attributes their false narrative of the events to "a guilty conscience" (16). In fact, it is essential that the sacrifice of Pierrette be concealed in a mythological retelling if her death is not to be the source of renewed rivalry. If this death is recognized as resulting from the brutal treatment of an innocent girl, one political faction in Provins will continue to assail the other by exploiting the crime. But this does not happen. The legal system collapses in a perversion of justice, and the amoral political factions become realigned and reconciled. The truth about the horrible martyrdom of Pierrette is maintained by only a handful of marginalized figures, such as a ridiculed priest "[who] consults his wine-cellar more than his memory" ("[qui] consulte plus sa cave que sa memoire" [286]).

BECAUSE Pierrette's death occurs at the same time as the realignment and pacification of political factions--and has in fact contributed to this reconciliation--the principal characters of the novel are easily persuaded that there is nothing scandalous about the poor girl's fate. The Rogron must be rehabilitated in order for the newly recovered social harmony to endure, and Pierrette's reputation must be sullied in order to vindicate the treatment she received from her cousins. This blaming of the scapegoat for her own persecution is a feature found in all scapegoating. But the fictionalized retelling of Pierrette's tragedy by the Provinois leads Mortimer to misunderstand the final sentence of the novel. Whereas almost everyone in the story adheres to the false characterization of Pierrette as a justly punished girl of loose morals, Balzac has exposed the truth throughout the novel, and he dismisses the court verdict and political resolution as mere chicanery, something both be and we are able to see because of the existence of a transcendent source of knowledge. The novel ends with a bold and clear assertion of the truth: "Let us agree that the legality of society's knavery would be a beautiful thing, if God did not exist" ("Convenons entre nous que la legalite serait pour les friponneries sociales une belle chose, si Dieu n'existait pas" [286]). Certainly, this sweeping judgment does reveal Balzac's exalted view of the role of an artist. But in maintaining the truth about Pierrette, the author is not attempting "to elevate the preserver of this small story to divine existence" (Mortimer 24). Though preserving the truth about scapegoating, the novelist is not claiming to be the original source of our knowledge about such violence. Balzac's final invocation points to the true source of our awareness of scapegoating, the Gospels whose central tale of persecution has been alluded to throughout the novel.

In numerous passages, Balzac has drawn parallels between the innocence and agony of Pierrette and the purity and suffering of Christ and the saints. For example, at the height of her persecution, the child responds to calumny and false accusations with the quiet resolve of martyrs, modeled after the silence of Christ before Pilate: "Pierrette did as people who suffer beyond their strength, she kept silent. For those who are attacked, this silence is the only means of triumph" ("Pierrette fit comme les gens qui souffrent au-dela de leurs forces, elle garda le silence. Ce silence est, pour tous les etres attaques, le seul moyen de triompher" [209]). Analogies with the Passion of Christ become the most obvious upon the death of Pierrette, which occurs during Holy Week--"on Easter Tuesday" ("le mardi de Paques" [279])--at exactly three o'clock in the afternoon, the very hour tradition designates for the crucifixion. Balzac's intention could not be more clear. There is a precise correspondence between the victimization of Pierrette and that other story of persecution, the narrative of the perfectly innocent sacrificial victim whose death--according to Girard--has forever unmasked the falseness of scapegoat persecution. Through the transparently Christ-like martyrdom of Pierrette, through his demythologized story of mimetic crisis and murderous sacrifice, Balzac is condemning his society (and ours), reminding his readers that we have no excuse for our continued reliance on the persecution of scapegoats.

Had Balzac been interested in supporting his society's myths--political, moral, and economic--the story of Pierrette's sufferings and death would not have been written from the perspective of the victim. Indeed, be would not have turned to writing novels at all, for the novel is that modern literary genre which, according to Girard, most undermines myths that support structures of power and violence in society. In a manner entirely consistent with Girard's notion of the scapegoat mechanism, the vast majority of characters in Pierrette end up convinced that justice has prevailed, that guilt has been punished and innocence rewarded, because their own interests have been satisfied. However, by constantly reminding his readers of parallels between the sufferings of his protagonist and the Gospel narrative, Balzac is assuring that we will see through and understand the perversity of what has transpired. Just like Girard, Balzac knows that we, his readers, are not fully able to discard our Biblical culture, to pretend that the Gospel's unmasking of scapegoat violence never occurred. The novelist relies on this knowledge in telling us two stories, confident that we will know how to choose between that which is false and that which is true: the myth of human justice in provincial France of 1830, versus the timeless, demythologized story of the martyrdom of Pierrette Lorrain.

Works Cited

Balzac, Honore de. Le cure de Touro; Pierrette. Avec introduction, notes et variantes par Maurice Allem. Paris: Garnier, 1953.

Berthier, Patrick. "Regards sur le manuscrit de Pierrette." Annee Balzacienne 20.2 (decembre 1999): 491-502.

Chambard, Lucette, et Marguerite Rochette. Pierrette de Honore de Balzac. Folio Guides 2. Paris: Armand Colin/Gallimard, 1976.

Citron, Pierre. "Une source possible de Pierrette." L'annee balzacienne 6 (1966): 373-378.

Colombani Giaufret, Helene. "Balzac linguiste dans Les Celibataires." In Studi di storia della civilta letteraria francese: Melanges offerts a Lionello Sozzi. Paris: Champion, 1996. 695-717.

Fargeaud, Madeleine. "De l'image au mythe: La Bretagne vendeenne dans la vie et l'oeuvre de Balzac." Melanges de litterature francaise offerts a Monsieur Rene Pintard. Ed. Noemi Hepp, et al. Strasbourg: Klincksieck, 1975. 641-651.

Farrant, Tim. Balzac's Shorter Fictions: Genesis and Genre. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2002.

Girard, Rene. Des choses cachees depuis la fondation du monde. Paris: Grasset et Fasquelle, 1978.

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--. La route antique des homes pervers. Paris: Grasset et Fasquelle, 1985.

--. "To double business bound": Essays on Literature, Mimesis, and Anthropology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1978.

Kashiwagi, Takao. La trilogie des Celibataires d'Honore de Balzac. Paris: Nizet, 1983.

Mortimer, Armine Kotin. "Myth and Mendacity: Balzac's Pierrette and Beatrice Cenci." Dalhousie French Studies 51 (Summer 2000): 12-25.

Pasco, Allan H. "The Allusive Complex of Balzac's Pierrette." French Forum 26.3 (Fall 2001): 27-42.

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Richard, Jean-Pierre. "Balzac, de la force a la forme." Poetique 1 (1970): 10-24.

Schuerwegen, Franc. "Paratexte et completude: Notes sur l'Avant-propos et sur la Preface de Pierrette." Balzac, OEuvres completes: Le moment de La Comedie humaine. Ed. Claude Duchet et Isabelle Tournier. Saint-Denis, France: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1993. 137-148.

Tritter, Jean-Louis. "A propos des epreuves de 'Pierette.'" L'annee Balzacienne 13 (1973): 19-29.

--. Introduction. Pierrette. La comedie humaine. Bibliotheque de la Pleiade. Paris: Gallimard, 1976. IV: 3-20.

Vanoncini, Andre. Pierrette et la renovation du code melodramatique. Balzac, OEuvres completes: Le moment de La Comedie humaine. Ed. Claude Duchet et Isabelle Tournier. Saint-Denis, France: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 1993. 257-267.

Wirtz, Dorothy. "Animalism in Balzac's Cure de Tour and Pierrette." Romance Notes 11.1 (Autumn 1969): 61-67.

Williams, Timothy J. "Dessein hagiographique balzacien: A propos de Pierrette." Dalhousie French Studies 28 (Fall 1994): 87-97.

Notes

(1) An earlier version of this essay was presented at the Colloquium on Violence & Religion, at the University of California--Riverside, June 18-21, 2008. At this very diverse, annual meeting of scholars working with mimetic theory, only a handful of the nearly 150 presentations included a substantial discussion of literature.

(2) From the very short list of truly enlightening studies, I exclude my own previous article on the novel, a kind of source study drawing parallels between Pierrette's tale and the fourteenth-century life of St. Peter of Verona (and medieval hagiography in general). Written before I began working extensively with Girardian theory, this study points out how Pierrette's sufferings are a kind of saintly martyrdom, without sufficiently explaining Balzac's technique and purpose in recounting an episode of scapegoat persecution.

(3) For both primary and secondary French sources, all English translations are my own. In some cases, individual words and brief phrases that are readily understood by readers of English have been left untranslated.