In hardly any of his books, with the possible exception of "Eugenie Grandet," does Balzac seem to have taken a greater interest than in "The Country Doctor;" and the fact of this interest, together with the merit and intensity of the book in each case, is, let it be repeated, a valid argument against those who would have it that there was something essentially sinister both in his genius and in his character.<br><br>"The Country Doctor" was an early book; it was published in 1833, a date of which there is an interesting mark in the selection of the name "Evelina," the name of Madame Hanska, whom Balzac had just met, for the lost Jansenist love of Benassis; and it had been on the stocks for a considerable time. It is also noteworthy, as lying almost entirely outside the general scheme of the "Comedie Humaine" as far as personages go. Its chief characters in the remarkable, if not absolutely impeccable, repertoire of MM. Cerfberr and Chris-tophe (they have, a rare thing with them, missed Agathe the forsaken mistress) have no references appended to their articles, except to the book itself; and I cannot remember that any of the more generally pervading dramatis persona of the Comedy makes even an incidental appearance here. The book is as isolated as its scene and subject - I might have added, as its own beauty, which is singular and unique, nor wholly easy to give a critical account of.