Repertory of the Comedie Humaine/G
G
GABILLEAU, deserter from the Seventeenth infantry; chauffeur executed at Tulle, during the Empire, on the very day when he had planned an escape. Was one of the accomplices of Farrabesche who profited by a hole made in his dungeon by the condemned man to make his own escape. (The Country Parson)
GABRIEL, born about 1790; messenger at the Department of Finance, and check-receiver at the Theatre Royal, during the Restoration. A Savoyard, and nephew of Antoine, the oldest messenger in the department. Husband of a skilled lace-maker and shawl-mender. He lived with his uncle Antoine and another relative employed in the department, Laurent. (The Government Clerks)
GABUSSON, cashier in the employ of Dauriat the editor in 1821. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
journalist, proprietor or manager of newspapers. In 1822 he and Hector Merlin established a Royalist paper in which Rubempre, palinodist, aired opinions favorable to the existing government, and slashed a very good book of his friend Daniel d'Arthez. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris) Under Louis Philippe he was one of the owners of a very important political sheet. (Beatrix, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life) In 1845 he ran a strong paper. At first a man of wit, "he ended by becoming stupid on account of staying in the same environment." He interlarded his speech with epigrams from popular pieces, pronouncing them with the emphasis given by famous actors. Gaillard was good with his Odry and still better with Lemaitre. He lived at rue Menars. There he was met by Lora, Bixiou and Gazonal. (The Unconscious Humorists)
GAILLARD (Madame Theodore), born at Alencon about 1800. Given name Suzanne. "A Norman beauty, fresh, blooming, and sturdy." One of the employes of Mme. Lardot, the laundress, in 1816, the year when she left her native town after having obtained some money of M. du Bousquier by persuading him that she was with child by him. The Chevalier de Valois liked Suzanne immensely, but did not allow himself to be caught in this trap. Suzanne went to Paris and speedily became a fashionable courtesan. Shortly thereafter she reappeared at Alencon for a visit to attend Athanase Granson's funeral. She mourned with the desolate mother, saying to her on leaving: "I loved him!" At the same time she ridiculed the marriage of Mlle. Cormon with M. du Bousquier, thus avenging the deceased and Chevalier de Valois. (Jealousies of a Country Town) Under the name of Mme. du Val-Noble she became noted in the artistic and fashionable set. In 1821-22, she became the mistress of Hector Merlin. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, A Bachelor's Establishment) After having been maintained by Jacques Falleix, the broker who failed, she was for a short time in 1830 mistress of Peyrade who was concealed under the name of Samuel Johnson, "the nabob." She was acquainted with Esther Gobseck, who lived on rue Saint-Georges in a mansion that had been fitted up for her—Suzanne—by Falleix, and obtained by Nucingen for Esther. (Scenes in a Courtesan's Life) In 1838 she married Theodore Gaillard her lover since 1830. In 1845 she received Lora, Bixiou, and Gazonal. (Beatrix, The Unconscious Humorists)
GAILLARD, one of three guards who succeeded Courtecuisse, and under the orders of Michaud, in the care of the estate of General de Montcornet at Aigues. (The Peasantry)
GALARD, market-gardener of Auteuil; father of Mme. Lemprun, maternal grandfather of Mme. Jerome Thuillier. He died, very aged, of an accident in 1817. (The Peasantry)
GALARD (Mademoiselle), old maid, landed proprietor at Besancon, rue du Perron. She let the first floor of her house to Albert Savarus, in 1834. (Albert Savarus)
GALARDON (Madame), nee Tiphaine, elder sister of M. Tiphaine, president of the court at Provins. Married at first to a Guenee, she kept one of the largest retail dry-goods shops in Paris, on rue Saint-Denis. Towards the end of the year 1815 she sold out to Rogron and went back to Provins. She had three daughters whom she provided with husbands in the little town: the eldest married M. Lesourd, king's attorney; the second, M. Martener a physician; the third, M. Auffray a notary. Finally she herself married for her second husband, M. Galardon, receiver of taxes. She invariably added to her signature, "nee Tiphaine." She defended Pierrette Lorrain, and was at outs with the Liberals of Provins, who were induced to persecute Rogron's ward. (Pierrette)
GALATHIONNE (Prince and Princess), Russians. The prince was one of the lovers of Diane de Maufrigneuse. (The Secrets of a Princess) In September, 1815, he protected La Minoret a celebrated opera dancer, to whose daughter he gave a dowry. (The Middle Classes) In 1819 Marsay, appearing in the box of the Princess Galathionne, at the Italiens, had Mme. de Nucingen at his mercy. (Father Goriot) In 1821 Lousteau said that the story of the Prince Galathionne's diamonds, the Maubreuil affair and the Pombreton will, were fruitful newspaper topics. ([[A Distinguished Provincial at Paris]]) In 1834-35, the princess gave balls which the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse attended. (A Daughter of Eve) About 1840 the prince tried to get Mme. Schontz away from the Marquis de Rochefide; but she said: "Prince, you are no handsomer, but you are older than Rochefide. You would beat me, while he is like a father to me." (Beatrix)
GALOPE-CHOPINE. (See Cibot.)
GAMARD (Sophie), old maid; owner of a house at Tours on rue de la Psalette, which backed the Saint Gatien church. She let part of it to priests. Here lodged the Abbes Troubert, Chapeloud and Francois Birotteau. The house had been purchased during the Terror by the father of Mlle. Gamard, a dealer in wood, a kind of parvenu peasant. After receiving Abbe Birotteau most cordially she took a disliking to him which was secretly fostered by Troubert, and she finally dispossessed him, seizing the furniture which he valued so greatly. Mlle. Gamard died in 1826 of a chill. Troubert circulated the report that Birotteau had caused her death by the sorrow which he had caused the old maid. (The Vicar of Tours)
GAMBARA (Paolo), musician, born at Cremona in 1791; son of an instrument-maker, a moderately good performer and a great composer who was driven from his home by the French and ruined by the war. These events consigned Paolo Gambara to a wandering existence from the age of ten. He found little quietude and obtained no congenial situation till about 1813 in Venice. At this time he put on an opera, "Mahomet," at the Fenice theatre, which failed miserably. Nevertheless he obtained the hand of Marianina, whom he loved, and with her wandered through Germany to settle finally in Paris in 1831, in a wretched apartment on rue Froidmanteau. The musician, an accomplished theorist, could not interpret intelligently any of his remarkable ideas and he would play to his wondering auditors jumbled compositions which he thought to be sublime inspirations. However he enthusiastically analyzed "Robert le Diable," having heard Meyerbeer's masterpiece while a guest of Andrea Marcosini. In 1837 he was reduced to mending musical instruments, and occasionally he went with his wife to sing duets in the open air on the Champs-Elysees, to pick up a few sous. Emilio and Massimilla de Varese were deeply sympathetic of the Gambaras, whom they met in the neighborhood of Faubourg Saint-Honore. Paolo Gambara had no commonsense except when drunk. He had invented an outlandish instrument which he called the "panharmonicon." (Gambara)
GAMBARA (Marianina), Venetian, wife of Paolo Gambara. With him she led a life of almost continual poverty, and for a long time maintained them at Paris by her needle. Her clients on rue Froidmanteau were mostly profligate women, who however were kind and generous towards her. From 1831 to 1836 she left her husband, going with a lover, Andrea Marcosini, who abandoned her at the end of five years to marry a dancer; and in January, 1837, she returned to her husband's home emaciated, withered and faded, "a sort of nervous skeleton," to resume a life of still greater squalor. (Gambara)
GANDOLPHINI (Prince), Neapolitan, former partisan of King Murat. A victim of the last Revolution he was, in 1823, banished and poverty stricken. At this time he was sixty-five years old, though he looked eighty. He lived modestly enough with his young wife at Gersau—Lucerne—under the English name of Lovelace. He also passed for a certain Lamporani, who was at that time a well-known publisher of Milan. When in the presence of Rodolphe the prince resumed his true self he said: "I know how to make up. I was an actor during the Empire with Bourrienne, Mme. Murat, Mme. d'Abrantes, and any number of others."—Character in a novel "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published by Albert Savarus, in the "Revue de l'Est," in 1834. Under this fictitious name the author related his own history: Rodolphe was himself and the Prince and Princesse Gandolphini were the Duc and Duchesse d'Argaiolo. (Albert Savarus)
GANDOLPHINI (Princesse), nee Francesca Colonna, a Roman of illustrious origin, fourth child of the Prince and Princess Colonna. While very young she married Prince Gandolphini, one of the richest landed proprietors of Sicily. Under the name of Miss Lovelace, she met Rodolphe in Switzerland and he fell in love with her.—Heroine of a novel entitled "L'Ambitieux par Amour," by Albert Savarus. (Albert Savarus)
GANIVET, bourgeois of Issoudun, In 1822, in a conversation where Maxence Gilet was discussed, Commandant Potel threatened to make Ganivet "swallow his tongue without sauce" if he continued to slander the lover of Flore Brazier. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
GANIVET (Mademoiselle), a woman of Issoudun "as ugly as the seven capital sins." Nevertheless she succeeded in winning a certain Borniche-Hereau who in 1778 left her an income of a thousand crowns. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
GANNERAC, in transfer business at Angouleme. In 1821-22 he was involved in the affair of the notes endorsed by Rubempre in imitation of the signature of his brother-in-law Sechard. (Lost Illusions)
GARANGEOT, in 1845 conducted the orchestra in a theatre run by Felix Gaudissart, succeeding Sylvain Pons to the baton. Cousin of Heloise Brisetout, who obtained the place for him. (Cousin Pons)
GARCELAND, mayor of Provins during the Restoration. Son-in-law of Guepin. Indirectly protected Pierrette Lorrain from the Liberals of the village led by Maitre Vinet, who acted for Rogron. (Pierrette)
GARCENAULT (De), first president of the Court of Besancon in 1834. He got the chapter of the cathedral to secure Albert Savarus as counsel in a lawsuit between the chapter and the city. Savarus won the suit. (Albert Savarus)
GARNERY, one of two special detectives in May, 1830, authorized by the attorney-general, De Granville, to seize certain letters written to Lucien de Rubempre by Mme. de Serizy, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and Mlle. Clotilde de Grandlieu. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GASNIER, peasant living near Grenoble; born about 1789. Married and the father of several children whom he loved dearly. Inconsolable at the loss of the eldest. Doctor Benassis, mayor of the commune, mentioned this parental affection as a rare instance among tillers of the soil. (The Country Doctor)
GASSELIN, a Breton born in 1794; servant of the Guenics of Guerande, in 1836, having been in their employ since he was fifteen. A short, stout fellow with black hair, furrowed face; silent and slow. He took care of the garden and stables. In 1832 in the foolish venture of Duchesse de Berry, in which Gasselin took part with the Baron du Guenic and his son Calyste, the faithful servant received a sabre cut on the shoulder, while shielding the young man. This action seemed so natural to the family that Gasselin received small thanks. (Beatrix)
GASTON (Louis), elder natural son of Lady Brandon, born in 1805. Left an orphan in the early years of the Restoration, he was, though still a child, like a father to his younger brother Marie Gaston, whom he placed in college at Tours; after which he himself shipped as cabin-boy on a man-of-war. After being raised to the rank of captain of an American ship and becoming wealthy in India, he died at Calcutta, during the first part of the reign of Louis Philippe, as a result of the failure of the "famous Halmer," and just as he was starting back to France, married and happy. (La Grenadiere, Letters of Two Brides)
GASTON (Marie), second natural son of Lady Brandon; born in 1810. Educated at the college of Tours, which he quitted in 1827. Poet; protege of Daniel d'Arthez, who often gave him food and shelter. In 1831 he met Louise de Chaulieu, the widow of Macumer, at the home of Mme. d'Espard. He married her in October, 1833, though she was older than he, and he was encumbered with debts amounting to 30,000 francs. The couple living quietly at Ville-d'Avray, were happy until a day when the jealous Louise conceived unjustifiable suspicions concerning the fidelity of her husband; on which account she died after they had been married two years. During these two years Gaston wrote at least four plays. One of them written in collaboration with his wife was presented with the greatest success under the names of Nathan and "others." (La Grenadiere, Letters of Two Brides) In his early youth Gaston had published, at the expense of his friend Dorlange, a volume of poetry, "Les Perce-neige," the entire edition of which found its way, at three sous the volume, to a second-hand book-shop, whence, one fine day, it inundated the quays from Pont Royal to Pont Marie. (The Member for Arcis)
GASTON (Madame Louis), an Englishwoman of cold, distant manners; wife of Louis Gaston; probably married him in India where he died as a result of unfortunate business deals. As a widow she came to France with two children, where without resource she became a charge to her brother-in-law who visited and aided her secretly. She lived in Paris on rue de la Ville-Eveque. The visits made by Marie Gaston were spoken of to his wife who became jealous, not knowing their object. Mme. Louis Gaston was thus innocently the cause of Mme. Marie Gaston's death. (Letters of Two Brides)
GASTON (Madame Marie), born Armande-Louise-Marie de Chaulieu, in 1805. At first destined to take the veil; educated at the Carmelite convent of Blois with Renee de Maucombe who became Mme. de l'Estorade. She remained constant in her relations with this faithful friend—at least by letter—who was a prudent and wise adviser. In 1825 Louise married her professor in Spanish, the Baron de Macumer, whom she lost in 1829. In 1833 she married the poet Marie Gaston. Both marriages were sterile. In the first she was adored and believed that she loved; in the second she was loved as much as she loved, but her insane jealousy, and her horseback rides from Ville-d'Avray to Verdier's were her undoing, and she died in 1835 of consumption, contracted purposely through despair at the thought that she had been deceived. After leaving the convent she had lived successively at the following places: on Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris, where she saw M. de Bonald; at Chantepleur, an estate in Burgundy, at La Crampade, in Provence, with Mme. de l'Estorade; in Italy; at Ville-d'Avray, where she sleeps her last sleep in a park of her own planning. (Letters of Two Brides)
GATIENNE, servant of Mme. and Mlle. Bontems, at Bayeux, in 1805. (A Second Home)
GAUBERT, one of the most illustrious generals of the Republic; first husband of a Mlle. de Ronquerolles whom he left a widow at the age of twenty, making her his heir. She married again in 1806, choosing the Comte de Serizy. (A Start in Life)
GAUBERTIN (Francois), born about 1770; son of the ex-sheriff of Soulanges, Burgundy, before the Revolution. About 1791, after five years' clerkship to the steward of Mlle. Laguerre at Aigues, he succeeded to the stewardship. His father having become public prosecutor in the department, time of the Republic, he was made mayor of Blangy. In 1796 he married the "citizeness" Isaure Mouchon, by whom he had three children: a son, Claude, and two daughters, Jenny—Mme. Leclercq—and Eliza. He had also a natural son, Bournier, whom he placed in charge of a local newspaper. At the death of Mlle. Laguerre, Gaubertin, after twenty-five years of stewardship, possessed 600,000 francs. He ended by dreaming of acquiring the estate at Aigues; but the Comte de Montcornet purchased it, retained him in charge, caught him one day in a theft and discharged him summarily. Gaubertin received at that time sundry lashes with a whip of which he said nothing, but for which he revenged himself. The old steward became, nevertheless, a person of importance. In 1820 he was mayor of Ville-aux-Fayes, and supplied one-third of the Paris wood. Being general agent of this rural industry, he managed the forests, lumber and guards. Gaubertin was related throughout a whole district, like a "boa-constrictor twisted around a gigantic tree"; the church, the magistracy, the municipality, the government—all did his bidding. Even the peasantry served his interests indirectly. When the general, disgusted by the numberless vexations of his estate, wished to sell the property at Aigues, Gaubertin bought the forests, while his partners, Rigou and Soudry, acquired the vineyards and other grounds. (The Peasantry)
GAUBERTIN (Madame), born Isaure Mouchon in 1778. Daughter of a member of the Convention and friend of Gaubertin senior. Wife of Francois Gaubertin. An affected creature of Ville-aux-Fayes who played the great lady mightily. (The Peasantry)
GAUBERTIN (Claude), son of Francois Gaubertin, godson of Mlle. Laguerre, at whose expense he was educated at Paris. The busiest attorney at Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823. After five years' practice he spoke of selling his office. He probably became judge. (The Peasantry)
GAUBERTIN (Jenny), elder daughter of Francois Gaubertin. (See Leclercq, Madame.)
GAUBERTIN (Elisa or Elise), second daughter of Francois Gaubertin. Loved, courted and longed for since 1819 by the sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, M. des Lupeaulx—the nephew. M. Lupin, notary at Soulanges, sought on his part the young girl's hand for his only son Amaury. (The Peasantry)
GAUBERTIN-VALLAT (Mademoiselle), old maid, sister of Mme. Sibilet, wife of the clerk of the court at Ville-aux-Fayes, in 1823. She ran the town's stamp office. (The Peasantry)
GAUCHER was in 1803 a boy working for Michu. (The Gondreville Mystery)
GAUDET, second clerk in Desroches' law office in 1824. (A Start in Life)
GAUDIN, chief of squadron in the mounted grenadiers of the Imperial Guard; made baron of the Empire, with the estate of Wistchnau. Made prisoner by Cossacks at the passage of the Beresina, he escaped, going to India where he was lost sight of. However he returned to France about 1830, in bad health, but a multi-millionaire. (The Magic Skin)
GAUDIN (Madame), wife of foregoing, managed the Hotel Saint-Quentin, rue des Cordiers, Paris, during the Restoration. Among her guests was Raphael de Valentin. Her husband's return in 1830 made her wealthy and a baroness. (The Magic Skin)
GAUDIN (Pauline), daughter of the foregoing. Was acquainted with, loved, and modestly aided Raphael de Valentin, a poor lodger at Hotel Saint-Quintin. After the return of her father she lived with her parents on rue Saint-Lazare. For a long time her whereabouts were unknown to Raphael who had quitted the hotel abruptly; then he met her again one evening at the Italiens. They fell into each other's arms, declaring their mutual love. Raphael who also had become rich resolved to espouse Pauline; but frightened by the shrinkage of the "magic skin" he fled precipitately and returned to Paris. Pauline hastened after him, only to behold him die upon her breast in a transport of furious, impotent love. (The Magic Skin)
GAUDISSART (Jean-Francois), father of Felix Gaudissart. (Cesar Birotteau)
GAUDISSART (Felix), native of Normandy, born about 1792, a "great" commercial traveler making a specialty of the hat trade. Known to the Finots, having been in the employ of the father of Andoche. Also handled all the "articles of Paris." In 1816 he was arrested on the denunciation of Peyrade—Pere Canquoelle. He had imprudently conversed in the David cafe with a retired officer concerning a conspiracy against the Bourbons that was about to break out. Thus the conspiracy was thwarted and two men were sent to the scaffold. Gaudissart being released by Judge Popinot was ever after grateful to the magistrate and devoted to the interests of his nephew. When he became minister, Anselme Popinot obtained for Gaudissart license for a large theatre on the boulevard, which in 1834 aimed to supply the demand for popular opera. This theatre employed Sylvain Pons, Schmucke, Schwab, Garangeot and Heloise Brisetout, Felix's mistress. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Cousin Pons) "Gaudissart the Great," then a young man, attended the Birotteau ball. About that time he probably lived on rue des Deux-Ecus, Paris. ([[Cesar Birotteau]]) During the Restoration, a "pretended florist's agent" sent by Judge Popinot to Comte Octave de Bauvan, he bought at exorbitant prices the artificial flowers made by Honorine. (Honorine) At Vouvray in 1831 this man, so accustomed to fool others, was himself mystified in rather an amusing manner by a retired dyer, a sort of "country Figaro" named Vernier. A bloodless duel resulted. After the episode, Gaudissart boasted that the affair had been to his advantage. He was "in this Saint-Simonian period" the lover of Jenny Courand. (Gaudissart the Great)
GAUDRON (Abbe), an Auvergnat; vicar and then curate of the church of Saint-Paul-Saint-Louis, rue Saint-Antoine, Paris, during the Restoration and the Government of July. A peasant filled with faith, square below and above, a "sacerdotal ox" utterly ignorant of the world and of literature. Being confessor of Isidore Baudoyer he endeavored in 1824 to further the promotion of that incapable chief of bureau in the Department of Finance. In the same year he was present at a dinner at the Comte de Bauvan's when were discussed questions relating to woman. (The Government Clerks, Honorine) In 1826 Abbe Gaudron confessed Mme. Clapart and led her into devout paths; the former Aspasia of the Directory had not confessed for forty years. In February, 1830, the priest obtained the Dauphiness' protection for Oscar Husson, son of Mme. Clapart by her first husband, and that young man was promoted to a sub-lieutenancy in a regiment where he had been serving as subaltern. (A Start in Life)
GAULT, warden of the Conciergerie in May, 1830, when Jacques Collin and Rubempre were imprisoned there. He was then aged. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GAY, boot-maker in Paris, rue de la Michodiere, in 1821, who furnished the boots for Rubempre which aroused Matifat's suspicion. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
GAZONAL (Sylvestre-Palafox-Castel), one of the most skillful weavers in the Eastern Pyrenees; commandant of the National Guard, September, 1795. On a visit to Paris in 1845 for the settlement of an important lawsuit he sought out his cousin, Leon de Lora, the landscape artist, who in one day, with Bixiou the caricaturist, showed him the under side of the city, opening up to him a whole gallery full of "unconscious humorists"—dancers, actresses, police-agents, etc. Thanks to his two cicerones, he won his lawsuit and returned home. (The Unconscious Humorists)
GENDRIN, caricaturist, tenant of M. Molineux, Cour Batave, in 1818. According to his landlord, the artist was a profoundly immoral man who drew caricatures against the government, brought bad women home with him and made the hall uninhabitable. (Cesar Birotteau)
GENDRIN, brother-in-law of Gaubertin the steward of Aigues. He also had married a daughter of Mouchon. Formerly an attorney, then for a long time a judge of the Court of First Instance at Ville-aux-Fayes, he at last became president of the court, through the influence of Comte de Soulanges, under the Restoration. (The Peasantry)
GENDRIN, court counselor of a departmental seat in Burgundy, and a distant relative of President Gendrin. (The Peasantry)
GENDRIN, only son of President Gendrin; recorder of mortgages in that sub-prefecture in 1823. (The Peasantry)
GENDRIN-WATTEBLED (or Vatebled), born about 1733. General supervisor of streams and forests at Soulanges, Burgundy, from the reign of Louis XV. Was still in office in 1823. A nonagenarian he spoke, in his lucid moments, of the jurisdiction of the Marble Table. He reigned over Soulanges before Mme. Soudry's advent. (The Peasantry)
GENESTAS (Pierre-Joseph), cavalry officer, born in 1779. At first a regimental lad, then a soldier. Sub-lieutenant in 1802; officer of the Legion of Honor after the battle of Moskowa; chief of squadron in 1829. In 1814 he married the widow of his friend Renard, a subaltern. She died soon after, leaving a child that was legally recognized by Genestas, who entrusted him, then a young man, to the care of Dr. Benassis. In December, 1829, Genestas was promoted to be a lieutenant-colonel in a regiment quartered at Poitiers. (The Country Doctor)
GENESTAS (Madame Judith), Polish Jewess, born in 1795. Married in 1812 after the Sarmatian custom to her lover Renard, a French quartermaster, who was killed in 1813. Judith gave him one son, Adrien, and survived the father one year. In extremis she married Genestas a former lover, who adopted Adrien. (The Country Doctor)
GENESTAS (Adrien), adopted son of Commandant Genestas, born in 1813 to Judith the Polish Jewess and Renard who was killed before the birth of his son. Adrien was a living picture of his mother—olive complexion, beautiful black eyes of a spirituelle sadness, and a head of hair too heavy for his frail body. When sixteen he seemed but twelve. He had fallen into bad habits, but after living with Dr. Benassis for eight months, he was cured and became robust. (The Country Doctor)
GENEVIEVE, an idiotic peasant girl, ugly and comparatively rich. Friend and companion of the Comtesse de Vandieres, then insane and an inmate of the asylum of Bons-Hommes, near Isle-Adam, during the Restoration. Jilted by a mason, Dallot, who had promised to marry her, Genevieve lost what little sense love had aroused in her. (Farewell)
GENOVESE, tenor at the Fenice theatre, Venice, in 1820. Born at Bergamo in 1797. Pupil of Veluti. Having long loved La Tinti, he sang outrageously in her presence, so long as she resisted his advances, but regained all his powers after she yielded to him. (Massimilla Doni) In the winter of 1823-24, at the home of Prince Gandolphini, in Geneva, Genovese sang with his mistress, an exiled Italian prince, and Princess Gandolphini, the famous quartette, "Mi manca la voce." (Albert Savarus)
GENTIL, old valet in service of Mme. de Bargeton, during the Restoration. During the summer of 1821, with Albertine and Lucien de Rubempre, he accompanied his mistress to Paris. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
GENTILLET, sold in 1835 an old diligence to Albert Savarus when the latter was leaving Besancon after the visit on the part of Prince Soderini. (Albert Savarus)
GENTILLET (Madame), maternal grandmother of Felix Grandet. She died in 1806 leaving considerable property. In Grandet's "drawing room" at Saumur was a pastel of Mme. Gentillet, representing her as a shepherdess. (Eugenie Grandet)
GEORGES, confidential valet of Baron de Nucingen, at Paris, time of Charles X. Knew of his aged master's love affairs and aided or thwarted him at will. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GERARD (Francois-Pascal-Simon, Baron), celebrated painter—1770-1837—procured for Joseph Bridau in 1818 two copies of Louis XVIII.'s portrait which were worth to the beginner, then very poor, a thousand francs, a tidy sum for the Bridau family. (A Bachelor's Establishment) The Parisian salon of Gerard, much sought after, had a rival at Chaussee-d'Antin in that of Mlle. de Touches. (Beatrix)
GERARD, adjutant-general of the Seventy-second demi-brigade, commanded by Hulot. A careful education had developed a superior intellect in Gerard. He was a staunch Republican. Killed by the Chouan, Pille-Miche, at Vivetiere, December 1799. (The Chouans)
GERARD (Gregoire), born in 1802, probably in Limousin. Protestant of somewhat uncouth exterior, son of a journeyman carpenter who died when rather young; godson of F. Grossetete. From the age of twelve the banker had encouraged him in the study of the exact sciences for which he had natural aptitude. Studied at Ecole Polytechnique from nineteen to twenty-one; then entered as a pupil of engineering in the National School of Roads and Bridges, from which he emerged in 1826 and stood the examinations for ordinary engineer two years later. He was cool-headed and warm-hearted. He became disgusted with his profession when he ascertained its many limitations, and he plunged into the July (1830) Revolution. He was probably on the point of adopting the Saint-Simonian doctrine, when M. Grossetete prevailed upon him to take charge of some important works on the estate of Mme. Pierre Graslin in Haute-Vienne. Gerard wrought wonders aided by Fresquin and other capable men. He became mayor of Montegnac in 1838. Mme. Graslin died about 1844. Gerard followed out her final wishes, and lived with her children, assuming guardianship of Francis Graslin. Three months later, again furthering the desires of the deceased, Gerard married a native girl, Denise Tascheron, the sister of a man who had been executed in 1829. (The Country Parson)
GERARD (Madame Gregoire), wife of foregoing, born Denise Tascheron, of Montegnac, Limousin; youngest child of a rather large family. She lavished her sisterly affection on her brother, the condemned Tasheron, visiting him in prison and softening his savage nature. With the aid of another brother, Louis-Marie, she made away with certain compromising clues of her eldest brother's crime, and restored the stolen money, afterwards she emigrated to America, where she became wealthy. Becoming homesick she returned to Montegnac, fifteen years later, where she recognized Francis Graslin, her brother's natural son, and became a second mother to him when she married the engineer, Gerard. This marriage of a Protestant with a Catholic took place in 1844. "In grace, modesty, piety and beauty, Mme. Gerard resembled the heroine of 'Edinburgh Prison.'" (The Country Parson)
GERARD (Madame), widow, poor but honest, mother of several grown-up daughters; kept a furnished hotel on rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris, about the end of the Restoration. Being under obligations to Suzanne du Val-Noble—Mme. Theodore Gaillard—she sheltered her when the courtesan was driven away from a fine apartment on rue Saint-Georges, following the ruin and flight of her lover, Jacques Falleix, the stockbroker. Mme. Gerard was not related to the other Gerards mentioned above. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GIARDINI, Neapolitan cook somewhat aged. He and his wife ran a restaurant in rue Froidmanteau, Paris, in 1830-31. He had established, so he said, three restaurants in Italy: at Naples, Parma and Rome. In the first years of Louis Philippe' s reign, his peculiar cookery was the fare of Paolo Gambara. In 1837 this crank on the subject of special dishes had fallen to the calling of broken food huckster on rue Froidmanteau. (Gambara)
GIBOULARD (Gatienne), a very pretty daughter of a wealthy carpenter of Auxerre; vainly desired, about 1823, by Sarcus for wife, but his father, Sarcus the Rich, would not consent. Later the social set of Mme. Soudry, the leading one of a neighboring village, dreamed for a moment of avenging themselves on the people of Aigues by winning over Gatienne Giboulard. She could have embroiled M. and Mme. Montcornet, and perhaps even compromised Abbe Brossette. (The Peasantry)
GIGELMI, Italian orchestra conductor, living in Paris with the Gambaras. After the Revolution of 1830, he dined at Giardini's on rue Froidmanteau. (Gambara)
GIGONNET. (See Bidault.)
GIGUET (Colonel), native probably of Arcis-sur-Aube, where he lived after retirement. One of Mme. Marion's brothers. One of the most highly esteemed officers of the Grand Army. Had a fine sense of honor; was for eleven years merely captain of artillery; chief of battalion in 1813; major in 1814. On account of devotion to Napoleon he refused to serve the Bourbons after the first abdication; and he gave such proofs of his fidelity in 1815, that he would have been exiled had it not been for the Comte de Gondreville, who obtained for him retirement on half-pay with the rank of colonel. About 1806 he married one of the daughters of a wealthy Hamburg banker, who gave him three children and died in 1814. Between 1818 and 1825 Giguet lost the two younger children, a son named Simon alone surviving. A Bonapartist and Liberal, the colonel was, during the Restoration, president of the committee at Arcis, where he came in touch with Grevin, Beauvisage and Varlet, notables of the same stamp. He abandoned active politics after his ideas triumphed, and, during the reign of Louis Philippe, he became a noted horticulturist, the creator of the famous Giguet rose. Nevertheless the colonel continued to be the god of his sister's very influential salon where he appeared at the time of the legislative elections of 1839. In the first part of May of that year the little old man, wonderfully preserved, presided over an electoral convention at Frappart's, the candidates in the field being his own son, Simon Giguet, Phileas Beauvisage, and Sallenauve-Dorlange. (The Member for Arcis)
GIGUET (Colonel), brother of the preceding and of Mme. Marion; was brigadier of gendarmes at Arcis-sur-Aube in 1803; promoted to a lieutenancy in 1806. As brigadier Giguet was one of the most experienced men in the service. The commandant of Troyes mentioned him especially to the two Parisian detectives, Peyrade and Corentin, entrusted with watching the actions of the Simeuses and the Hauteserres which resulted in the ruin of these young Royalists on account of the pretended seizure of Gondreville. However, an adroit manoeuvre on the part of Francois Michu at first prevented Brigadier Giguet from seizing these conspirators whom he had tracked to earth. After his promotion to lieutenant he succeeded in arresting them. He finally became colonel of the gendarmes of Troyes, whither Mme. Marion, then Mlle. Giguet, went with him. He died before his brother and sister, and made her his heir. (The Gondreville Mystery, The Member for Arcis)
GIGUET (Simon), born during the first Empire, the oldest and only surviving child of Colonel Giguet of the artillery. In 1814 he lost his mother, the daughter of a rich Hamburg banker, and in 1826 his maternal grandfather who left him an income of two thousand francs, the German having favored others of the large family. He did not hope for any further inheritance save that of his father's sister, Mme. Marion, which had been augmented by the legacy of Colonel Giguet of the gendarmes. Thus it was that, after studying law with the subprefect Antonin Goulard, Simon Giguet, deprived of a fortune which at first seemed assured to him, became a simple attorney in the little town of Arcis, where attorneys are of little service. His aunt's and his father's position fired him with ambition for a political career. Giguet ogled at the same time for the hand and dowry of Cecile Beauvisage. Of mediocre ability; upheld the Left Centre, but failed of election in May, 1839, when he presented himself as candidate for Arcis-sur-Aube. (The Member for Arcis)
GILET (Maxence), born in 1789. He passed at Issoudun for the natural son of Lousteau, the sub-delegate. Others thought him the son of Dr. Rouget, a friend and rival of Lousteau. In short "fortunately for the child both claimed him"; though he belonged to neither. His true father was found to be a "charming officer of dragoons in the garrison at Bourges." His mother, the wife of a poor drunken cobbler of Issoudun, had the marvelous beauty of a Transteverin. Her husband was aware of his wife's actions and profited by them: through interested motives, Lousteau and Rouget were allowed to believe whatever they wished about the child's paternity, for which reason both contributed to the education of Maxence, usually known as Max. In 1806, at the age of seventeen, Max enlisted in a regiment going to Spain. In 1809 he was left for dead in Portugal in an English battery; taken by the English and conveyed to the Spanish prison-hulks at Cabrera. There he remained from 1810 to 1814. When he returned to Issoudun his father and his mother had both died in the hospital. On the return of Bonaparte, Max served as captain in the Imperial Guard. During the second Restoration he returned to Issoudun and became leader of the "Knights of Idlesse" which were addicted to nocturnal escapades more or less agreeable to the inhabitants of the town. "Max played at Issoudun a part almost identical with that of Smith in 'The Fair Maid of Perth'; he was the champion of Bonapartism and opposition. They relied upon him, as the citizens of Perth had relied upon Smith on great occasions." A possible Caesar Borgia on more extensive ground, Gilet lived very comfortably, although without a personal income. And that is why Max with certain inherited qualities and defects rashly went to live with his supposed natural father, Jean-Jacques Rouget, a rich and witless old bachelor who was under the thumb of a superb servant-mistress, Flore Brazier, known as La Rabouilleuse. After 1816 Gilet lorded it over the household; the handsome chap had won the heart of Mlle. Brazier. Surrounded by a sort of staff, Maxence contested the important inheritance of Rouget, maintaining his ground with marvelous skill against the two lawful heirs, Agathe and Joseph Bridau; and he would have appropriated it but for the intervention of a third heir, Philippe Bridau. Max was killed in a duel by Philippe Bridau in the early part of December, 1822. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
GILLE, once printer to the Emperor; owner of script letters which Jerome-Nicolas Sechard made use of in 1819, claiming for them that they were the ancestors of the English type of Didot. (Lost Illusions)
GINA, character in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," autobiographical novel by Albert Savarus; a sort of "ferocious" Sormano. Represented as a young Sicilian girl, fourteen years old, in the services of the Gandolphinis, political refugees at Gersau, Switzerland, in 1823. So devoted as to pretend dumbness on occasion, and to wound more or less seriously the hero of the romance, Rodolphe, who had secretly entered the Gandolphini home. (Albert Savarus)
GINETTA (La), young Corsican girl. Very small and slender, but no less clever. Mistress of Theodore Calvi, and an accomplice in the double crime committed by her lover, towards the end of the Restoration, when she was able on account of her small size to creep down an open chimney at the widow Pigeau's, and thus to open the house door for Theodore who robbed and murdered the two inmates, the widow and the servant. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GIRARD, banker and discounter at Paris during the Restoration; perhaps also somewhat of a pawnbroker; an acquaintance of Esther Gobseck's. Like Palma, Werbrust and Gigonnet, he held a number of notes signed by Maxime de Trailles; and Gobseck who knew it used them against the count, then the lover of Mme. de Restaud, when Trailles went to the usurer in rue des Gres and besought assistance in vain. (Gobseck)
GIRARD (Mother), who ran a little restaurant at Paris in rue de Tournon, prior to 1838, had a successor with whom Godefroid promised to board when he was inspecting the left bank of the Seine, and trying to aid the Bourlac-Mergis. (The Seamy Side of History)
GIRARDET, attorney at Besancon, between 1830 and 1840. A talkative fellow and adherent of Albert Savarus, he followed, probably in the latter's interest, the beginning of the Watteville suit. When Savarus left Besancon suddenly, Girardet tried to straighten out his colleague's affairs, and advanced him five thousand francs. (Albert Savarus)
GIRAUD (Leon), was at Paris in 1821 member of the Cenacle of rue des Quatre-Vents, presided over by Daniel d'Arthez. He represented the philosophical element. His "doctrines" predicted the end of Christianity and of the family. In 1821 he was also in charge of a "grave and dignified" opposition journal. He became the head of a moral and political school, whose "sincerity atoned for its errors." (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris) About the same time Giraud frequented the home of the mother of his friend Joseph Bridau, and was going there at the time when the painter's elder brother, the Bonapartist Philippe, got into trouble. (A Bachelor's Establishment) The Revolution of July opened the political career of Leon Giraud who became master of requests in 1832, and afterwards councillor of state. In 1845 Giraud was a member of the Chamber, sitting in the Left Centre. (The Secrets of a Princess, The Unconscious Humorists)
GIREL, of Troyes. According to Michu, Girel, a Royalist like himself, during the first Revolution, played the Jacobin in the interest of his fortune. From 1803 to 1806, at any rate, he was in correspondence with the Strasbourg house of Breintmayer, which dealt with the Simeuse twins when they were tracked by Bonaparte's police. (The Gondreville Mystery)
GIRODET (Anne-Louis), celebrated painter, born at Montargis, in 1767, died at Paris in 1824. Under the Empire he was on friendly terms with his colleague, Theodore de Sommervieux. One day in the latter's studio he greatly admired a portrait of Augustine Guillaume and an interior, which he advised him, but in vain not to exhibit at the Salon, thinking the two works too true to nature to be appreciated by the public. (At the Sign of the Cat and Racket)
GIROUD (Abbe), confessor of Rosalie de Watteville at Besancon between 1830 and 1840. (Albert Savarus)
GIROUDEAU, born about 1774. Uncle of Andoche Finot; began as simple soldier in the army of Sambre and Meuse; five years master-at-arms in the First Hussars—army of Italy; charged at Eylau with Colonel Chabert. He passed into the dragoons of the Imperial Guard, where he was captain in 1815. The Restoration interrupted his military career. Finot, manager of various Parisian papers and reviews, put him in charge of the cash and accounts of a little journal devoted to dramatic news, which he ran from 1821 to 1822. Giroudeau was also editor, and his duty it was to wage the warfare; beyond that he lived a gay life. Although on the wrong side of forty and afflicted with catarrh he had for mistress Florentine Cabirolle of the Gaite. He went with the high-livers—among others with his former mess-mate Philippe Bridau, at whose wedding with Flore Brazier he was present in 1824. In November, 1825, Frederic Marest gave a grand breakfast to Desroches' clerks at the Rocher de Cancale, to which Giroudeau was invited. All spent the evening with Florentine Cabirolle who entertained them royally but involuntarily got Oscar Husson into trouble. Ex-Captain Giroudeau bore firearms during the "three glorious days," re-entered the service after the accession of citizen royalty and soon became colonel then general, 1834-35. At this time he was enabled to satisfy a legitimate resentment against his former friend, Bridau, and block his advancement. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, A Start in Life, A Bachelor's Establishment)
GIVRY, one of several names of the second son of the Duc de Chaulieu, who became by his marriage with Madeleine de Mortsauf a Lenoncourt-Givry-Chaulieu. (Letters of Two Brides, The Lily of the Valley, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GOBAIN (Madame Marie), formerly cook to a bishop; lived during the Restoration in Paris on rue Saint-Maur, Popinot quarter, under very peculiar circumstances. She was in the service of Octave de Bauvan. Was the maid and housekeeper of Comtesse Honorine when the latter left home and became a maker of artificial flowers. Mme. Gobain had been secretly engaged by M. de Bauvan, who through her was enabled to keep watch over his wife. Gobain displayed the greatest loyalty. At one time the comtesse took the servant's name. (Honorine)
GOBENHEIM, brother-in-law of Francois and Adolphe Keller, whose name he added to his own. About 1819 in Paris he was at first made receiver in the Cesar Birotteau bankruptcy, but was later replaced by Camusot. (Cesar Birotteau) Under Louis Philippe, Gobenheim, as broker for the Paris prosecuting office, invested the very considerable savings of Mme. Fabien du Ronceret. (Beatrix)
GOBENHEIM, nephew of Gobenheim-Keller of Paris; young banker of Havre in 1829; visited the Mignons, but not as a suitor for the heiress' hand. (Modeste Mignon)
GOBET (Madame), in 1829 at Havre made shoes for Mme. and Mlle. Mignon. Was scolded by the latter for lack of style. (Modeste Mignon)
GOBSECK (Jean-Esther Van), usurer, born in 1740 at Antwerp of a Jewess and a Dutchman. Began as a cabin-boy. Was only ten years of age when his mother sent him off to the Dutch possessions in India. There and in America he met distinguished people, also several corsairs; traveled all over the world and tried many trades. The passion for money took entire hold of him. Finally he came to Paris which became the centre of his operations, and established himself on rue des Gres. There Gobseck, like a spider in his web, crushed the pride of Maxime de Trailles and brought tears to the eyes of Mme. de Restaud and Jean-Joachim Goriot—1819. About this same time Ferdinand du Tillet sought out the money-lender to make some deals with him, and spoke of him as "Gobseck the Great, master of Palma, Gigonnet, Werbrust, Keller and Nucingen." Gobseck went every evening to the Themis cafe to play dominoes with his friend Bidault-Gigonnet. In December, 1824, he was found there by Elisabeth Baudoyer, whom he promised to aid; indeed, supported by Mitral, he was able to influence Lupeaulx to put in Isidore Baudoyer as chief of division succeeding La Billardiere. In 1830, Gobseck, then an octogenarian, died in his wretched hole on rue des Gres though he was enormously wealthy. Derville received his last wishes. He had obtained a wife for the lawyer and entrusted him with several confidences. Fifteen years after the Dutchman's death, he was spoken of on the boulevard as the "Last of the Romans"—among the old-fashioned money-lenders like Gigonnet, Chaboisseau, and Samanon, against whom Lora and Bixiou set the modern Vauvinet. (Gobseck, Father Goriot, Cesar Birotteau, The Government Clerks, The Unconscious Humorists)
GOBSECK (Sarah Van), called "La Belle Hollandaise." A peculiarity of this family—as well as the Maranas—that the female side always kept the family name. Thus Sarah Van Gobseck was the grand-niece of Jean-Esther Van Gobseck. This prostitute, mother of Esther, who was also a courtesan, was a typical daughter of Paris. She caused the bankruptcy of Roguin, Birotteau's attorney, and was herself ruined by Maxime de Trailles whom she adored and maintained when he was a page to Napoleon. She died in a house on Palais-Royal, the victim of a love-mad captain, December, 1818. The affair created a stir. Juan and Francis Diard had something to say about it. Esther's name lived after her. The Paris of the boulevards from 1824 to 1839 often mentioned her prodigal and stormy career. (Gobseck, Cesar Birotteau, The Maranas, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, The Member for Arcis)
GOBSECK (Esther Van), born in 1805 of Jewish origin; daughter of the preceding and great-grand-niece of Jean. For a long time in Paris she followed her mother's calling, and having begun it early in life she knew its varied phases. Was nick-named "La Torpille." Was for some time one of the "rats" of the Royal Academy of Music, and numbered among her protectors, Lupeaulx. In 1823 her reduced circumstances almost forced her to leave Paris for Issoudun, where, for a machiavellian purpose, Philippe Bridau would have made her the mistress of Jean-Jacques Rouget. The affair did not materialize. She went to Mme. Meynardie's house where she remained till about the end of 1823. One evening, while passing the Porte-Saint-Martin theatre, she chanced to meet Lucien de Rubempre, and they loved each other at first sight. Their passion led into many vicissitudes. The poet and the ex-prostitute were rash enough to attend an Opera ball together in the winter of 1824. Unmasked and insulted Esther fled to rue de Langlade, where she lived in dire poverty. The dangerous, powerful and mysterious protector of Rubempre, Jacques Collin, followed her there, lectured her and shaped her future life, making her a Catholic, educating her carefully and finally installing her with Lucien on rue Taitbout, under the surveillance of Jacqueline Collin, Paccard and Prudence Servien. She could go out only at night. Nevertheless, the Baron de Nucingen discovered her and fell madly in love with her. Jacques Collin profited by the episode; Esther received the banker's attentions, to the enrichment of Lucien. In 1830 she owned a house on rue Saint-Georges which had belonged previously to several celebrated courtesans; there she received Mme. du Val-Noble, Tullia and Florentine—two dancers, Fanny Beaupre and Florine—two actresses. Her new position resulted in police intervention on the part of Louchard, Contenson, Peyrade and Corentin. On May 13, 1830, unable longer to endure Nucingen, La Torpille swallowed a Javanese poison. She died without knowing that she had fallen heir to seven millions left by her great-grand-uncle. (Gobseck, The Firm of Nucingen, A Bachelor's Establishment, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GODAIN, born in 1796, in Burgundy, near Soulanges, Blangy and Ville-aux-Fayes; nephew of one of the masons who built Mme. Soudry's house. A shiftless farm laborer, exempt from military duty on account of smallness of stature; was at first the lover, then the husband, of Catherine Tonsard, whom he married about 1823. (The Peasantry)
GODAIN (Madame Catherine), the eldest of the legitimate daughters of Tonsard, landlord of the Grand-I-Vert, situated between Conches and Ville-aux-Fayes in Burgundy. Of coarse beauty and by nature depraved; a hanger-on at the Tivoli-Socquard, and a devoted sister to Nicolas Tonsard for whom she tried to obtain Genevieve Niseron. Courted by Charles, valet at Aigues. Feared by Amaury Lupin. Married Godain one of her lovers, giving a dowry of a thousand francs cunningly obtained from Mme. Montcornet. (The Peasantry)
GODARD (Joseph), born in 1798, probably at Paris; related slightly to the Baudoyers through Mitral. Stunted and puny; fifer in the National Guard; "crank" collector of curios; a virtuous bachelor living with his sister, a florist on rue Richelieu. Between 1824 and 1825 a possible assistant in the Department of Finance in the bureau managed by Isidore Baudoyer, whose son-in-law he dreamed of becoming. An easy mark for Bixiou's practical jokes. With Dutocq he was an unwavering adherent of the Baudoyers and their relatives the Saillards. (The Government Clerks, The Middle Classes)
GODARD (Mademoiselle), sister of the foregoing, and lived on rue Richelieu, Pais, where in 1824 she ran a florist's shop. Mlle. Godard employed Zelie Lorain who became later the wife of Minard. She received him and Dutocq. (The Government Clerks)
GODARD (Manon), serving-woman of Mme. de la Chanterie; arrested in 1809, between Alencon and Mortagne, implicated in the Chauffeurs trial which ended in the capital punishment of Mme. des Tours-Minieres, daughter of Mme. de la Chanterie. Manon Godard was sentenced by default to twenty-two years imprisonment, and gave herself up in order not to abandon her mistress. A long time after the baroness was set free, time of Louis Philippe, Manon was still living with her, on rue Chanoinesse, in the house which sheltered Alain, Montauran and Godefroid. (The Seamy Side of History)
GODDET, retired surgeon-major of the Third regiment of the line; the leading physician of Issoudun in 1823. His son was one of the "Knights of Idlesse." Goddet junior pretended to pay court to Mme. Fichet, in order to reach her daughter who had the best dowry in Issoudun. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
GODEFROID, known by his given name; born about 1806, probably at Paris; son of a wealthy merchant; educated at the Liautard Institution; naturally feeble, morally and physically; tried his hand at and made a failure of: law, governmental work, letters, pleasure, journalism, politics and marriage. At the close of 1836 he found himself poor and forsaken; thereupon he tried to pay his debts and live economically. He left Chaussee-d'Antin and took up his abode on rue Chanoinesse, where he became one of Mme. de la Chanteries' boarders, known as the "Brotherhood of the Consolation." The recommendation of the Monegods, bankers, led to his admission. Abbe de Veze, Montauran, Tresnes, Alain, and above all the baroness initiated him, coached him, and entrusted to him various charitable missions. Among others, about the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe, he took charge of and relieved the frightful poverty of the Bourlacs and the Mergis, the head of which as an imperial judge in 1809 had sentenced Mme. de la Chanterie and her daughter. After he succeeded with this generous undertaking, Godefroid was admitted to the Brotherhood. (The Seamy Side of History)
GODENARS (Abbe de), born about 1795; one of the vicars-general of the archbishop of Besancon between 1830 and 1840. From 1835 on he tried to get a bishopric. One evening he was present at the aristocratic salon of the Wattevilles, at the time of the sudden flight of Albert Savarus, caused by their young daughter. (Albert Savarus)
GODESCHAL (Francois-Claude-Marie), born about 1804. In 1818, at Paris, he was third clerk in the law office of Derville, rue Vivienne, when the unfortunate Chabert appeared upon the scene. (Colonel Chabert) In 1820, then an orphan and poor, he and his sister, the dancer Mariette, to whom he was devoted, lived on an eighth floor on rue Vielle-du-Temple. He had already given evidence of a practical temperament, independent and self-seeking, but upright and capable of generous outbursts. (A Bachelor's Establishment) In 1822, having risen to second clerk, he left Maitre Derville to become head-clerk in Desroches' office, who was greatly pleased with him. Godeschal even undertook to reform Oscar Husson. (A Start in Life) Six years later, while still Desroches' head-clerk, he drew up a petition wherein Mme. d'Espard prayed a guardian for her husband. (The Commission in Lunacy) Under Louis Philippe he became one of the advocates of Paris and paid half his fees—1840—proposing to pay the other half with the dowry of Celeste Colleville, whose hand was refused him, despite the recommendation of Cardot the notary. Was engaged for Peyrade, in the purchase of a house near the Madeleine. (The Middle Classes) About 1845 Godeschal was still practicing, and numbered among his clients the Camusots de Marville. (Cousin Pons)
GODESCHAL (Marie), born about 1804. She maintained, almost all her life, the nearest and most tender relations with her brother Godeschal the notary. Without relatives or means, she kept house with him in 1820, on the eighth floor of a house on rue Vielle-du-Temple, Paris. Ambition and love for her brother caused her to become a dancer. She had studied her profession from her tenth year. The famous Vestris instructed her and predicted great things for her. Under the name of Mariette, she was engaged at the Porte-Saint-Martin and the Royal Academy of Music. Her success displeased the famous Begrand. In January, 1821, her angelic beauty, maintained despite her profession, opened to her the doors of the Opera. Then she had lovers. The aristocratic and elegant Maufrigneuse protected her for several years. Mariette also favored Philippe Bridau and was the innocent cause of a theft committed by him in order to enable him to contend with Maufrigneuse. Four months later she went to London, where she won the rich members of the House of Lords, and returned as premiere to the Academy of Music. She was intimate with Florentine Cabirolle, who often received in the Marais. There it was that Mariette kept Oscar Husson out of serious trouble. Mariette attended many festivities. And at the close of the reign of Louis Philippe, she was still a leading figure in the Opera. (A Bachelor's Establishment, A Start in Life, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Cousin Pons)
GODIN, under Louis Philippe, a Parisian bourgeois engaged in a lively dispute with a friend of La Palferine's. (A Prince of Bohemia)
GODIN (La), peasant woman of Conches, Burgundy, about 1823, whose cow Vermichel threatened to seize for the Comte de Montcornet. (The Peasantry)
GODIVET, recorder of registry of Arcis-sur-Aube in 1839. Through the scheming of Pigoult he was chosen as one of two agents for an electoral meeting called by Simon Giguet, one of the candidates, and presided over by Phileas Beauvisage. (The Member for Arcis)
GODOLLO (Comtesse Torna de), probably a Hungarian; police spy reporting to Corentin. Was ordered to prevent the marriage of Theodose de la Peyrade and Celeste Colleville. To accomplish this she went to live in the Thuilliers' house, Paris, in 1840, cultivated them and finally ruled them. She sometimes assumed the name of Mme. Komorn. Her wit and beauty exercised a passing effect upon Peyrade. (The Middle Classes)
GOGUELAT, infantryman of the first Empire, entered the Guard in 1812; was decorated by Napoleon on the battlefield of Valontina; returned during the Restoration to the village of Isere, of which Benassis was mayor, and became postman. (The Country Doctor)
GOHIER, goldsmith to the King of France in 1824; supplied Elisabeth Baudoyer with the monstrance with which she decorated the church of Saint Paul, in order to bring about Isidore Baudoyer's promotion in office. (The Government Clerks)
GOMEZ, captain of the "Saint Ferdinand," a Spanish brig which in 1833 conveyed the newly-enriched Marquis d'Aiglemont from America to France. Gomez was boarded by a Columbian corsair whose captain, the Parisian, ordered him cast overboard. (A Woman of Thirty)
GONDRAND (Abbe), confessor, under the Restoration, at Paris, of the Duchesse Antoinette de Langeais, whose excellent dinners and petty sins he dealt with at his ease in her salon where Montriveau often found him. (The Thirteen)
GONDREVILLE (Malin, his real name; more frequently known as the Comte de), born in 1763, probably at Arcis-sur-Aube. Short and stout; grandson of a mason employed by Marquis de Simeuse in the building of the Gondreville chateau; only son of the owner of a house at Arcis where dwelt his friend Grevin in 1839. On the recommendation of Danton, he entered the office of the attorney at the chatelet, Paris, in 1787. Head clerk for Maitre Bordin in the same city, the same year. Returned to the country two years later to become a lawyer at Troyes. Became an obscure and cowardly member of the Convention. Acquired the friendship of Talleyrand and Fouche, in June, 1800, under singular and opportune circumstances. Successively and rapidly became tribune, councillor of state, count of the Empire—created Comte de Gondreville—and finally senator. As councillor of state, Gondreville devoted his attention to the preparation of the code. He cut a dash at Paris. He had purchased one of the finest mansions in Faubourg Saint-Germain and married the only daughter of Sibuelle, a wealthy contractor of "shady" character whom Gondreville made co-receiver of Aube, with Marion. The marriage was celebrated during the Directory or the Consulate. Three children were the result of this union: Charles de Gondreville, Marechale de Carigliano, Mme. Francois Keller. In his own interest, Malin attached himself to Bonaparte. Later, in the presence of the Emperor and of Dubois, the prefect of police, Gondreville selfishly simulated a false generosity and asked that the Hauteserres and Simeuses be striken from the list of the proscribed. Afterwards they were falsely accused of kidnapping him. As senator in 1809, Malin gave a grand ball at Paris, when he vainly awaited the Emperor's appearance, and when Mme. de Lansac reconciled the Soulanges family. Louis XVIII. made him a peer of France. His wide experience and ownership of many secrets aided Gondreville, whose counsels hindered Decazes and helped Villele. Charles X. disliked him because he remained too intimate with Talleyrand. Under Louis Philippe this bond was relaxed. The July monarchy heaped honors upon him by making him peer once more. One evening in 1833 he met at the home of the Princesse de Cadignan, Henri de Marsay, the prime minister, who had an inexhaustible fund of political stories, new to all the company save Gondreville. He was much engrossed with the elections of 1839, and gave his influence to his grandson, Charles Keller, for Arcis. He concerned himself little with the candidates, who were finally elected; Dorlange-Sallenauve, Phileas Beauvisage, Trailles and Giguet. (The Gondreville Mystery, A Start in Life, Domestic Peace, The Member for Arcis)
GONDREVILLE (Comtesse Malin de), born Sibuelle; wife of foregoing; person whose complete insignificance was manifest at the great ball given in Paris by the count in 1809. (Domestic Peace)
GONDREVILLE (Charles de), son of the preceding, and sub-lieutenant of dragoons in 1818. Young and wealthy, he died in the Spanish campaign of 1823. His death caused great sorrow to his mistress, Mme. Colleville. (The Middle Classes)
GONDRIN, born in 1774, in the department of Isere. Conscripted in 1792 and put in the artillery. Was in the Italian and Egyptian campaigns under Bonaparte, as a private, and returned east after the Peace of Amiens. Enrolled, during the Empire, in the pontoon corps of the Guard, he marched through Germany and Russia; was in the battle at Beresina aiding to build the bridge by which the remnant of the army escaped; with forty-one comrades, received the praise of General Eble who singled him out particularly. Returned to Wilna, as the only survivor of the corps after the death of Eble and in the beginning of the Restoration. Unable to read or write, deaf and decrepit, Gondrin forlornly left Paris which had treated him inhospitably, and returned to the village in Dauphine, where the mayor, Dr. Benassis, gave him work as a ditcher and continued to aid him in 1829. (The Country Doctor)
GONDRIN (Abbe), young Parisian priest about the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe. Exquisite and eloquent. Knew the Thuilliers. (The Middle Classes)
GONDUREAU, assumed name of Bibi-Lupin.
GONORE (La), widow of Moses the Jew, chief of the southern rouleurs, in May, 1830; mistress of Dannepont the thief and assassin; ran a house of ill-repute on rue Sainte-Barbe for Mme. Nourrisson. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GORDES (Mademoiselle de), at the head of an aristocratic salon of Alencon, about 1816, while her father, the aged Marquis de Gordes, was still living with her. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
GORENFLOT, mason of Vendome, who walled up the closet concealing Mme. de Merret's lover, the Spaniard Bagos de Feredia. (La Grande Breteche)
GORENFLOT, probably posed for Quasimodo of Hugo's "Notre-Dame." Decrepit, misshapen, deaf, diminutive, he lived in Paris about 1839, and was organ-blower and bell-ringer in the church of Saint-Louis en l'Ile. He also acted as messenger in the confidential financial correspondence between Bricheteau and Dorlange-Sallenauve. (The Member for Arcis)
GORIOT,[1] (Jean-Joachim), born about 1750; started as a porter in the grain market. During the first Revolution, although he had received no education, but having a trader's instinct, he began the manufacture of vermicelli and made a fortune out of it. Thrift and fortune favored him under the Terror. He passed for a bold citizen and fierce patriot. Prosperity enabled him to marry from choice the only daughter of a wealthy farmer of Brie, who died young and adored. Upon their two children, Anastasie and Delphine, he lavished all the tenderness of which their mother had been the recipient, spoiling them with fine things. Goriot's griefs date from the day he set each up in housekeeping in magnificent fashion on Chaussee-d'Antin. Far from being grateful for his pecuniary sacrifices, his sons-in-law, Restaud and Nucingen, and his daughters themselves, were ashamed of his bourgeois exterior. In 1813 he had retired saddened and impoverished to the Vauquer boarding-house on rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve. The quarrels of his daughters and the greedy demands for money increased and in 1819 followed him thither. Almost all the guests of the house and especially Mme. Vauquer herself—whose ambitious designs upon him had come to naught—united in persecuting Goriot, now well-nigh poverty-stricken. He found an agreeable respite when he acted as a go-between for the illicit love affair of Mme. de Nucingen and Rastignac, his fellow-lodger. The financial distress of Mme. de Restaud, Trailles' victim, gave Goriot the finishing blow. He was compelled to give up the final and most precious bit of his silver plate, and beg the assistance of Gobseck the usurer. He was crushed. A serious attack of apoplexy carried him off. He died on rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve. Rastignac watched over him, and Bianchon, then an interne, attended him. Only two men, Christophe, Mme. Vauquer's servant, and Rastignac, followed the remains to Saint-Etienne du Mont and to Pere-Lachaise. The empty carriages of his daughters followed as far as the cemetery. (Father Goriot)
GORITZA (Princesse), a charming Hungarian, celebrated for her beauty, towards the end of Louis XV.'s reign, and to whom the youthful Chevalier de Valois became so attached that he came near fighting on her account with M. de Lauzun; nor could he ever speak of her without emotion. From 1816 to 1830, the Alencon aristocracy were given glimpses of the princess's portrait, which adorned the chevalier's gold snuff-box. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
GORJU (Madame), wife of the mayor of Sancerre, in 1836, and mother of a daughter "whose figure threatened to change with her first child," and who sometimes came with her to the receptions of Mme. de la Baudraye, the "Muse of the Department." One evening, in the fall of 1836, she heard Lousteau reading ironically fragments of "Olympia." (The Muse of the Department)
GOTHARD, born in 1788; lived about 1803 in Arcis-sur-Aube, where his courage and address obtained for him the place of groom to Laurence de Cinq-Cygne. Devoted servant of the countess; he was one of the principals acquitted in the trial which ended with the execution of Michu. (The Gondreville Mystery) Gothard never left the service of the Cinq-Cygne family. Thirty-six years later he was their steward. With his brother-in-law, Poupard, the Arcis tavern-keeper, he electioneered for his masters. (The Member for Arcis)
GOUJET (Abbe), cure of Cinq-Cygne, Aube, about 1792, discovered for the son of Beauvisage the farmer, who were still good Catholics, the Greek name of Phileas, one of the few saints not abolished by the new regime. (The Member for Arcis) Former abbe of the Minimes, and a friend of Hauteserre. Was the tutor of Adrien and Robert Hauteserre; enjoyed a game of boston with their parents—1803. His political prudence sometimes led him to censure the audacity of their kinswoman, Mlle. de Cinq-Cygne. Nevertheless, he held his own with the persecutor of the house, Corentin the police-agent; and attended Michu when that victim of a remarkable trial, known as "the abduction of Gondreville," went to the scaffold. During the Restoration he became Bishop of Troyes. (The Gondreville Mystery)
GOUJET (Mademoiselle), sister of the foregoing; good-natured old maid, ugly and parsimonious, who lived with her brother. Almost every evening she played boston at the Hauteserres and was terrified by Corentin's visits. (The Gondreville Mystery)
GOULARD, mayor of Cinq-Cygne, Aube, in 1803. Tall, stout and miserly; married a wealthy tradeswoman of Troyes, whose property, augmented by all the lands of the rich abbey of Valdes-Preux, adjoined Cinq-Cygne. Goulard lived in the old abbey, which was very near the chateau of Cinq-Cygne. Despite his revolutionary proclivities, he closed his eyes to the actions of the Hauteserres and Simeuses who were Royalist plotters. (The Gondreville Mystery)
GOULARD (Antonin), native of Arcis, like Simon Giguet. Born about 1807; son of the former huntsman of the Simeuse family, enriched by the purchase of public lands. (See preceding biography.) Early left motherless, he came to Arcis to live with his father, who abandoned the abbey of Valpreux. Went to the Imperial lyceum, where he had Simon Giguet for school-mate, whom he afterwards met again on the benches of the Law school at Paris. Obtained, through Gondreville, the Cross of the Legion of Honor. The royal government of 1830 opened up for him a career in the public service. In 1839 he became sub-prefect for Arcis-sur-Aube, during the electoral period. The delegate, Trailles, satisfied Antonin's rancor against Giguet: his official recommendations caused the latter's defeat. Both the would-be prefect and the sub-prefect vainly sought the hand of Cecile Beauvisage. Goulard cultivated the society of officialdom: Marest, Vinet, Martener, Michu. (The Member for Arcis)
GOUNOD, nephew of Vatel, keeper of the Montcornet estate at Aigues, Burgundy. About 1823 he probably became assistant to the head-keeper, Michaud. (The Peasantry)
GOUPIL (Jean-Sebastien-Marie), born in 1802; a sort of humpless hunchback; son of a well-to-do farmer. After running through with his inheritance, in Paris, he became head-clerk of the notary Cremiere-Dionis, of Nemours—1829. On account of Francois Minoret-Levrault, he annoyed in many ways, even anonymously, Ursule Mirouet, after the death of Dr. Minoret. Afterwards he repented his actions, repaid their instigator, and succeeded the notary, Cremiere-Dionis. Thanks to his wit, he became honorable, straightforward and completely transformed. Once established, Goupil married Mlle. Massin, eldest daughter of Massin-Levrault junior, clerk to the justice of the peace at Nemours. She was homely, had a dowry of 80,000 francs, and gave him rickety, dropsical children. Goupil took part in the "three glorious days" and had obtained a July decoration. He was very proud of the ribbon. (Ursule Mirouet)
GOURAUD (General, Baron), born in 1782, probably at Provins. Under the Empire he commanded the Second regiment of hussars, which gave him his rank. The Restoration caused his impoverished years at Provins. He mixed in politics and the opposition there, sought the hand and above all the dowry of Sylvie Rogron, persecuted the apparent heiress of the old maid, Mlle. Pierrette Lorrain—1827—and, seconded by Vinet the attorney, reaped in July, 1830, the fruits of his cunning liberalism. Thanks to Vinet, the ambitious parvenu, Gouraud married, in spite of his gray hair and stout frame, a girl of twenty-five, Mlle. Matifat, of the well-known drug-firm of rue des Lombards, who brought with her fifty thousand crowns. Titles, offices and emoluments now flowed in rapidly. He resumed the service, became general, commanded a division near the capital and obtained a peerage. His conduct during the ministry of Casimir Perier was thus rewarded. Futhermore he received the grand ribbon of the Legion of Honor, after having stormed the barricades of Saint-Merri, and was "delighted to thrash the bourgeois who had been an eye-sore to him" for fifteen years. (Pierrette) About 1845 he had stock in Gaudissart's theatre. (Cousin Pons)
GOURDON, the elder, husband of the only daugher of the old head-keeper of streams and forests, Gendrin-Wattebled; was in 1823 physician at Soulanges and attended Michaud. Nevertheless he went among the best people of Soulanges, headed by Mme. Soudry, who regarded him in the light of an unknown and neglected savant, when he was but a parrot of Buffon and Cuvier, a simple collector and taxidermist. (The Peasantry)
GOURDON, the younger, brother of the preceding; wrote the poem of "La Bilboqueide" published by Bournier. Married the niece and only heiress of Abbe Tupin, cure of Soulanges, where he himself had been in 1823 clerk for Sarcus. He was wealthier than the justice. Mme. Soudry and her set gave admiring welcome to the poet, preferring him to Lamartine, with whose works they slowly became acquainted. (The Peasantry)
GOUSSARD (Laurent) was a member of the revolutionary municipality of Arcis-sur-Aube. Particular friend of Danton, he made use of the tribune's influence to save the head of the ex-superior of the Ursulines at Arcis, Mother Marie des Anges, whose gratitude for his generous and skillful action caused substantial enrichment to this purchaser of the grounds of the convent, which was sold as "public land." Thus it was that forty years afterwards this adroit Liberal owned several mills on the river Aube, and was still at the head of the advanced Left in that district. The various candidates for deputy in the spring of 1839, Keller, Giguet, Beauvisage, Dorlange-Sallenauve, and the government agent, Trailles, treated Goussard with the consideration he deserved. (The Member for Arcis)
GRADOS had in his hands the notes of Vergniaud the herder. By means of funds from Derville the lawyer, Grados was paid in 1818 by Colonel Chabert. (Colonel Chabert)
GRAFF (Johann), brother of a tailor established in Paris under Louis Philippe. Came himself to Paris after having been head-waiter in the hotel of Gedeon Brunner at Frankfort; and ran the Hotel du Rhin in rue du Mail where Frederic Brunner and Wilhelm Schwab alighted penniless in 1835. The landlord obtained small positions for the two young men; for the former with Keller; for the latter with his brother the tailor. (Cousin Pons)
GRAFF (Wolfgang), brother of the foregoing, and rich tailor of Paris, at whose shop in 1838 Lisbeth Fischer fitted out Wenceslas Steinbock. On his brother's recommendation, he employed Wilhelm Schwab, and, six years later, took him into the family by giving him Emilie Graff in marriage. (Cousin Betty, Cousin Pons)
GRANCEY (Abbe de), born in 1764. Took orders because of a disapointment in love; became priest in 1786, and cure in 1788. A distinguished prelate who refused three bishoprics in order not to leave Besancon. In 1834 he became vicar-general of that diocese. The abbe had a handsome head. He gave free vent to cutting speeches. Was acquainted with Albert Savarus whom he liked and aided. A frequenter of the Watteville salon he found out and rebuked Rosalie, the singular and determined enemy of the advocate. He also intervened between Madame and Mademoiselle de Watteville. He died at the end of the winter of 1836-37. (Albert Savarus)
GRANCOUR (Abbe de), one of the vicars-general of the bishopric of Limoges, about the end of the Restoration; and the physical antithesis of the other vicar, the attenuated and moody Abbe Dutheil whose lofty and independent liberal doctrines he, with cowardly caution, secretly shared. Grancour frequented the Graslin salon and doubtless knew of the Tascheron tragedy. (The Country Parson)
GRANDEMAIN was in 1822 at Paris clerk for Desroches. (A Start in Life)
GRANDET (Felix), of Saumur, born between 1745 and 1749. Well-to-do master-cooper, passably educated. In the first years of the Republic he married the daughter of a rich lumber merchant, by whom he had in 1796 one child, Eugenie. With their united capital, he bought at a bargain the best vineyards about Saumur, in addition to an old abbey and several farms. Under the Consulate he became successively member of the district government and mayor of Saumur. But the Empire, which supposed him to be a Jacobin, retired him from the latter office, although he was the town's largest tax-payer. Under the Restoration the despotism of his extraordinary avarice disturbed the peace of his family. His younger brother, Guillaume, failed and killed himself, leaving in Felix's hands the settlement of his affairs, and sending to him his son Charles, who had hastened to Saumur, not knowing his father's ruin. Eugenie loved her cousin and combated her father's niggardliness, which looked after his own interests to the neglect of his brother. The struggle between Eugenie and her father broke Mme. Grandet's heart. The phases of the terrible duel were violent and numerous. Felix Grandet's passion resorted to stratagem and stubborn force. Death alone could settle with this domestic tyrant. In 1827, an octogenarian and worth seventeen millions, he was carried off by a stroke of paralysis. (Eugenie Grandet)
GRANDET (Madame Felix), wife of the preceding; born about 1770; daughter of a rich lumber merchant, M. de la Gaudiniere; married in the beginning of the Republic, and gave birth to one child, Eugenie, in 1796. In 1806 she added considerably to the combined wealth of the family through two large inheritances—from her mother and M. de la Bertelliere, her maternal grandfather. A devout, shrinking, insignificant creature, bowed beneath the domestic yoke, Mme. Grandet never left Saumur, where she died in October, 1822, of lung trouble, aggravated by grief at her daughter's rebellion and her husband's severity. (Eugenie Grandet)
GRANDET (Victor-Ange-Guillaume), younger brother of Felix Grandet; became rich at Paris in wine-dealing. In 1815 before the battle of Waterloo, Frederic de Nucingen bought of him one hundred and fifty thousand bottles of champagne at thirty sous, and sold them at six francs; the allies drank them during the invasion—1817-19. (The Firm of Nucingen) The beginning of the Restoration favored Guillaume. He was the husband of a charming woman, the natural daughter of a great lord, who died young after giving him a child. Was colonel of the National Guard, judge of the Court of Commerce, governor of one of the arrondissements of Paris and deputy. Saumur accused him of aspiring still higher and wishing to become the father-in-law of a petty duchess of the imperial court. The bankruptcy of Maitre Roguin was the partial cause of the ruin of Guillaume, who blew out his brains to avoid disgrace, in November, 1819. In his last requests, Guillaume implored his elder brother to care for Charles whom the suicide had rendered doubly an orphan. (Eugenie Grandet)
GRANDET, (Charles), only lawful child of the foregoing; nephew of Felix Grandet; born in 1797. He led at first the gay life of a young gallant, and maintained relations with a certain Annette, a married woman of good society. The tragic death of his father in November, 1819, astounded him and led him to Saumur. He thought himself in love with his cousin Eugenie to whom he swore fidelity. Shortly thereafter he left for India, where he took the name of Carl Sepherd to escape the consequences of treasonable actions. He returned to France in 1827 enormously wealthy, debarked at Bordeaux in June of that year, accompanying the Aubrions whose daughter Mathilde he married, and allowed Eugenie Grandet to complete the settlement with the creditors of his father. (Eugenie Grandet) By his marriage he became Comte d'Aubrion. (The Firm of Nucingen)
GRANDET (Eugenie).[2] (See Bonfons, Eugenie Cruchot de.)
GRANDLIEU (Comtesse de), related to the Herouvilles; lived in the first part of the seventeenth century; probably ancestress of the Grandlieus, well known in France two centuries later. (The Hated Son)
GRANDLIEU (Mademoiselle), under the first Empire married an imperial chamberlain, perhaps also the prefect of Orne, and was received, alone, in Alencon among the exclusive and aristocratic set lorded over by the Esgrignons. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
GRANDLIEU (Duc Ferdinand de), born about 1773; may have descended from the Comtesse de Grandlieu who lived early in the seventeenth century, and consequently connected with the old and worthy nobility of the Duchy of Brittany whose device was "Caveo non timeo." At the end of the eighteenth and the first half of the nineteenth centuries, Ferdinand de Grandlieu was the head of the elder branch, wealthy and ducal, of the house of Grandlieu. Under the Consulate and the Empire his high and assured rank enabled him to intercede with Talleyrand in behalf of M. d'Hauteserre and M. de Simeuse, compromised in the fictitious abduction of Malin de Gondreville. Grandlieu by his marriage with an Ajuda of the elder branch, connected with the Barganzas and of Portuguese descent, had several daughters, the eldest of whom assumed the veil in 1822. His other daughters were Clotilde-Frederique, born in 1802; Josephine the third; Sabine born in 1809; Marie-Athenais, born about 1820. An uncle by marriage of Mme. de Langeais, he had at Paris, in Faubourg Saint-Germain, a hotel where, during the reign of Louis XVIII., the Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, the Vidame de Pamiers and the Duc de Navarreins assembled to consider a startling escapade of Antoinette de Langeais. At least ten years later Grandlieu availed himself of his intimate friend Henri de Chaulieu and also of Corentin—Saint-Denis—in order to stay the suit against Lucien de Rubempre which was about to compromise his daughter Clotilde-Frederique. (The Gondreville Mystery, The Thirteen, A Bachelor's Establishment, Modeste Mignon, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GRANDLIEU (Duchesse Ferdinand de), of Portuguese descent, born Ajuda and of the elder branch of that house connected with the Braganzas. Wife of Ferdinand de Grandlieu, and mother of several daughters. Of sedentary habits, proud, pious, good-hearted and beautiful, she wielded in Paris during the Restoration a sort of supremacy over the Faubourg Saint-Germain. The second and the next to the youngest of her children gave her much anxiety. Combating the hostility of those about her she welcomed Rubempre, the suitor of her daughter Clotilde-Frederique—1829-30. The unfortunate results of the marriage of her other daughter Sabine, Baronne Calyste du Guenic, occupied Mme. de Grandlieu's attention in 1837, and she succeeded in reconciling the young couple, with the assistance of Abbe Brossette, Maxime de Trailles, and La Palferine. Her religious scruples had made her halt a moment; but they fell like her political fidelity, and, with Mmes. d'Espard, de Listomere and des Touches, she tacitly recognized the bourgeois royalty, a few years after a new reign began, and re-opened the doors of her salon. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Beatrix, A Daughter of Eve)
GRANDLIEU (Mademoiselle de), eldest daughter of the Duc and Duchesse de Grandlieu, took the veil in 1822. (A Bachelor's Establishment, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GRANDLIEU (Clotilde-Frederique de), born in 1802; second daughter of the Duc and Duchesse de Grandlieu; a long, flat creature, the caricature of her mother. She had no consent save that of her mother when she fell in love with and wished to marry the ambitious Lucien de Rubempre in the spring of 1830. She saw him for the last time on the road to Italy in the forest of Fontainbleu near Bouron and under very painful circumstances the young man was arrested before her very eyes. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GRANDLIEU (Josephine de). (See Ajuda-Pinto, Marquise Miguel d'.)
GRANDLIEU (Sabine de). (See Guenic, Baronne Calyste du.)
GRANDLIEU (Marie-Athenais de). (See Grandlieu, Vicomtesse Juste de.)
GRANDLIEU (Vicomtesse de), sister of Comte de Born; descended more directly than the duke from the countess of the seventeenth century. From 1813, the time of her husband's death, the head of the younger Grandlieu house whose device was "Grands faits, grand lieu." Mother of Camille and of Juste de Grandlieu, and the mother-in-law of Ernest de Restaud. Returned to France with Louis XVIII. At first she lived on royal bounty, but afterwards regained a considerable portion of her property through the efforts of Maitre Derville, about the beginning of the Restoration. She was very grateful to the lawyer, who also took her part against the Legion of Honor, was admitted to her confidential circle and told her the secrets of the Restaud household, one evening in the winter of 1830 when Ernest de Restaud, son of the Comtesse Anastasie, was paying court to Camille whom he finally married. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Colonel Chabert, Gobseck)
GRANDLIEU (Camille de). (See Restaud, Comtesse Ernest de.)
GRANDLIEU (Vicomte Juste de), son of Vicomtesse de Grandlieu; brother of Comtesse Ernest de Restaud; cousin and afterwards husband of Marie-Athenais de Grandlieu, combining by this marriage the fortunes of the two houses of Grandlieu and obtaining the title of duke. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Gobseck)
GRANDLIEU (Vicomtesse Juste de), born about 1820, Marie-Athenais de Grandlieu; last daughter of Duc and Duchesse de Grandlieu; married to her cousin, the Vicomte Juste de Grandlieu. She received at Paris in the first days of the July government, a young married woman like herself, Mme. Felix de Vandenesse, then in the midst of a flirtation with Raoul Nathan. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Gobseck, A Daughter of Eve)
GRANET, deputy-mayor of the second arrondissement of Paris, in 1818, under La Billardiere. With his homely wife he was invited to the Birotteau ball. (Cesar Birotteau)
GRANET, one of the leading men of Besancon, under Louis Philippe. In gratitude for a favor done him by Albert Savarus he nominated the latter for deputy. (Albert Savarus)
GRANSON (Madame), poor widow of a lieutenant-colonel of artillery killed at Jena, by whom she had a son, Athanase. From 1816 she lived at No. 8 rue du Bercail in Alencon, where the benevolence of a distant relative, Mme. du Bousquier, put in her charge the treasury of a maternal society against infanticide, and brought her into contact, under peculiar circumstances, with the woman who afterwards became Mme. Theodore Gaillard. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
GRANSON (Athanase), son of the preceding; born in 1793; subordinate in the mayor's office at Alencon in charge of registry. A sort of poet, liberal in politics and filled with ambition; weary of poverty and overflowing with grandiose sentiments. In 1816 he loved, with a passion that his commonsense combated, Mme. du Bousquier, then Mlle. Cormon, his senior by more than seventeen years. In 1816 the marriage dreaded by him took place. He could not brook the blow and drowned himself in the Sarthe. He was mourned only by his mother and Suzanne du Val-Noble. (Jealousies of a Country Town) Nevertheless, eight years after it was said of him: "The Athanase Gransons must die, withered up, like the grains which fall on barren rock." (The Government Clerks)
GRANVILLE (Comte de), had a defective civil status, the orthography of the name varying frequently through the insertion of the letter "d" between the "n" and "v." In 1805 at an advanced age he lived at Bayeux, where he was probably born. His father was a president of the Norman Parliament. At Bayeux the Comte married his son to the wealthy Angelique Bontems. (A Second Home)
GRANVILLE (Vicomte de), son of Comte de Granville, and comte upon his father's death; born about 1779; a magistrate through family tradition. Under the guidance of Cambaceres he passed through all the administrative and judicial grades. He studied with Maitre Bordin, defended Michu in the trial resulting from the "Gondreville Mystery," and learned officially and officiously of one of its results a short time after his marriage with a young girl of Bayeux, a rich heiress and the acquirer of extensive public lands. Paris was generally the theatre for the brilliant career of Maitre Granville who, during the Empire, left the Augustin quai where he had lived to take up his abode with his wife on the ground-floor of a mansion in the Marais, between rue Vielle-du-Temple and rue Nueve-Saint-Francois. He became successively advocate-general at the court of the Seine, and president of one of its chambers. At this time a domestic drama was being enacted in his life. Hampered in his open and broad-minded nature by the bigotry of Mme. de Granville, he sought domestic happiness outside his home, though he already had a family of four children. He had met Caroline Crochard on rue du Tourniquet-Saint-Jean. He installed her on rue Taitbout and found in this relation, though it was of brief duration, the happiness vainly sought in his proper home. Granville screened this fleeting joy under the name of Roger. A daughter Eugenie, and a son Charles, were born of this adulterous union which was ended by the desertion of Mlle. Crochard and the misconduct of Charles. Until the death of Mme. Crochard, the mother of Caroline, Granville was able to keep up appearances before his wife. Thus it happened that he accompanied her to the country, Seine-et-Oise, when he assisted M. d'Albon and M. de Sucy. The remainder of Granville's life, after his wife and his mistress left him, was passed in comparative solitude in the society of intimate friends like Octave de Bauvan and Serizy. Hard work and honors partially consoled him. His request as attorney-general caused the reinstatement of Cesar Birotteau, one of the tenants at No. 397 rue Saint-Honore. He and his wife had been invited to the famous ball given by Birotteau more than three years previously. As attorney-general of the Court of Cassation, Granville secretly protected Rubempre during the poet's famous trial, thus drawing upon himself the powerful affection of Jacques Collin, counterbalanced by the enmity of Amelie Camusot. The Revolution of July upheld Granville's high rank. He was peer of France under the new regime, owning and occupying a small mansion on rue Saint-Lazare, or traveling in Italy. At this time he was one of Dr. Bianchon's patients. (The Gondreville Mystery, A Second Home, Farewell, Cesar Birotteau, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, A Daughter of Eve, Cousin Pons)
GRANVILLE (Comtesse Angelique de), wife of preceding, and daughter of Bontems, a farmer and sort of Jacobin whom the Revolution enriched through the purchase of evacuated property at low prices. She was born at Bayeux in 1787, and received from her mother a very bigoted education. At the beginning of the Empire she married the son of one of the neighbors of the family, then Vicomte and later Comte de Granville; and, under the influence of Abbe Fontanon, she maintained at Paris the manners and customs of an extreme devotee. She thus evoked the infidelity of her husband who had begun by simply neglecting her. Of her four children she retained charge of the education of her two daughters. She broke off entirely from her husband when she discovered the existence of her rival, Mlle. de Bellefeuille—Caroline Crochard—and returned to Bayeux to end her days, remaining to the last the austere, stingy sanctified creature who had formerly been scandalized by the openness of the affair of Montriveau and Mme. de Langeais. She died in 1822. (A Second Home, The Thirteen, A Daughter of Eve)
GRANVILLE (Vicomte de), elder son of the preceding. Was reared by his father. In 1828 he was deputy-attorney at Limoges, where he afterwards became advocate-general. He fell in love with Veronique Graslin, but incurred her secret disfavor by his proceedings against the assassin Tascheron. The vicomte had a career almost identical with that of his father. In 1833 he was made first president at Orleans, and in 1844 attorney-general. Later near Limoges he came suddenly upon a scene which moved him deeply: the public confession of Veronique Graslin. The vicomte had unknowingly been the executioner of the chatelaine of Montegnac. (A Second Home, A Daughter of Eve, The Country Parson)
GRANVILLE (Baron Eugene de), younger brother of the foregoing. King's attorney at Paris from May, 1830. Three years later he still held this office, when he informed his father of the arrest of a thief named Charles Crochard, who was the count's natural son. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, A Second Home)
GRANVILLE (Marie-Angelique de). (See Vandenesse, Comtesse Felix de.)
GRANVILLE (Marie-Eugenie de). (See Tillet, Madame Ferdinand du.)
GRASLIN (Pierre), born in 1775. An Auvergnat, compatriot and friend of Sauviat, whose daughter Veronique he married in 1822. He began as a bank-clerk with Grosstete & Perret, a first-class firm of the town. A man of business and a hard worker he became successor to his employers. His fortune, increased by lucky speculations with Brezac, enabled him to buy one of the finest places in the chief city of Haute-Vienne. But he was not able to win his wife's heart. His physical unattractiveness, added to by his carelessness and grinding avarice, were complicated by a domestic tyranny which soon showed itself. Thus it was that he was only the legal father of a son named Francis, but he was ignorant of this fact, for, in the capacity of juror in the Court of Assizes dealing with the fate of Tascheron, the real father of the child, he urged but in vain the acquittal of the prisoner. Two years after the boy's birth and the execution of the mother's lover, in April, 1831, Pierre Graslin died of weakness and grief. The July Revolution suddenly breaking forth had shaken his financial standing, which was regained only with an effort. It was at the time when he had brought Montegnac from the Navarreins. (The Country Parson)
GRASLIN (Madame Pierre), wife of preceding; born Veronique Sauviat, at Limoges in May, 1802; beautiful in spite of traces of small-pox; had had the spoiled though simple childhood of an only daughter. When twenty she married Pierre Graslin. Soon after marriage her ingenuous nature, romantic and refined, suffered in secret from the harsh tyranny of the man whose name she bore. Veronique, however, held aloof from the gallants who frequented her salon, especially the Vicomte de Granville. She had become the secret mistress of J.-F. Tascheron, a porcelain worker. She was on the point of eloping with him when a crime committed by him was discovered. Mme. Graslin suffered the most poignant anguish, giving birth to the child of the condemned man at the very moment when the father was led to execution. She inflicted upon herself the bitterest flagellations. She could devote herself more freely to penance after her husband' s death, which occurred two years later. She left Limoges for Montegnac, where she made herself truly famous by charitable works on a huge scale. The sudden return of the sister of her lover dealt her the final blow. Still she had energy enough to bring about the union of Denise Tascheron and Gregoire Gerard, gave her son into their keeping, left important bequests destined to keep alive her memory, and died during the summer of 1844 after confessing in public in the presence of Bianchon, Dutheil, Granville, Mme. Sauviat and Bonnet who were all seized with admiration and tenderness for her. (The Country Parson)
GRASLIN (Francis), born at Limoges in August, 1829. Only child of Veronique Graslin, legal son of Pierre Graslin, but natural son of J.-F. Tascheron. He lost his legal father two years after his birth, and his mother thirteen years later. His tutor M. Ruffin, his maternal grandmother Mme. Sauviat, and above all the Gregoire Gerards watched over his boyhood at Montegnac. (The Country Parson)
GRASSET, bailiff and successor of Louchard. On the demand of Lisbeth Fischer and by Rivet's advice, in 1838, he arrested W. Steinbock in Paris and took him to Clichy prison. (Cousin Betty)
GRASSINS (Des), ex-quartermaster of the Guard, seriously wounded at Austerlitz, pensioned and decorated. Time of Louis XVIII. he became the richest banker in Saumur, which he left for Paris where he located with the purpose of settling the unfortunate affairs of the suicide, Guillaume Grandet and where he was later made a deputy. Although the father of a family he conceived a passion for Florine, a pretty actress of the Theatre du Madame,[3] to the havoc of his fortune. (Eugenie Grandet)
GRASSINS (Madame des), born about 1780; wife of foregoing, giving him two children; spent most of her life at Saumur. Her husband's position and sundry physical charms which she was able to preserve till nearly her fortieth year enabled her to shine somewhat in society. With the Cruchots she often visited the Grandets, and, like the family of the President de Bonfons, she dreamed of mating Eugenie with her son Adolphe. The dissipated life of her husband at Paris and the combination of the Cruchots upset her plans. Nor was she able to do much for her daughter. However, deprived of much of her property and making the best of things, Mme. des Grassins continued unaided the management of the bank at Saumur. (Eugenie Grandet)
GRASSINS (Adolphe des), born in 1797, son of M. and Mme. des Grassins; studied law at Paris where he lived in a lavish way. A caller at the Nucingens where he met Charles Grandet. Returned to Saumur in 1819 and vainly courted Eugenie Grandet. Finally he returned to Paris and rejoined his father whose wild life he imitated. (Eugenie Grandet)
GRASSOU (Pierre), born at Fougeres, Brittany, in 1795. Son of a Vendean peasant and militant Royalist. Removing at an early age to Paris he began as clerk to a paint-dealer who was from Mayenne and a distant relative of the Orgemonts. A mistaken idea led him toward art. His Breton stubbornness led him successively to the studios of Servin, Schinner and Sommervieux. He afterwards studied, but fruitlessly, the works of Granet and Drolling; then he completed his art studies with Duval-Lecamus. Grassou profited nothing by his work with these masters, nor did his acquaintance with Lora or Joseph Bridau assist him. Though he could understand and admire he lacked the creative faculty and the skill in execution. For this reason Grassou, usually called Fougeres by his comrades, obtained their warm support and succeeded in getting admission into the Salon of 1829, for his "Toilet of a Condemned Chouan," a very mediocre painting palpably along the lines of Gerard Dow. The work obtained for him from Charles X. the cross of the Legion of Honor. At last his canvasses found purchasers. Elie Magus gave him an order for pictures after the Flemish school, which he sold to Vervelle as works of Dow or Teniers. At that time Grassou lived at No. 2 rue de Navarin. He became the son-in-law of Vervelle, in 1832, marrying Virginie Vervelle, the heiress of the family, who brought him a dowry of one hundred thousand francs, as well as country and city property. His determined mediocrity opened the doors of the Academy to him and made him an officer in the Legion of Honor in 1830, and major of a battalion in the National Guard after the riots of May 12. He was adored by the middle classes, becoming their accredited artist. Painted portraits of all the members of the Crevel and Thuillier families, and also of the director of the theatre who preceded Gaudissart. Left many frightful and ridiculous daubs, one of which found its way into Topinard's humble home. (Pierre Grassou, A Bachelor's Establishment, Cousin Betty, The Middle Classes, Cousin Pons)
GRASSOU (Madame Pierre), born Virginie Vervelle; red-haired and homely; sole heiress of wealthy dealers in cork, on rue Boucherat. Wife of the preceding whom she married in Paris in 1832. There is a portrait of her painted in this same year before her marriage, which at first was a colorless study by Grassou, but was dexterously retouched by Joseph Bridau. (Pierre Grassou)
GRAVELOT brothers, lumber-merchants of Paris, who purchased in 1823 the forests of Aigues, the Burgundy estate of General de Montcornet. (The Peasantry)
GRAVIER, paymaster-general of the army during the first Empire, and interested at that time in large Spanish affairs with certain commanding officers. Upon the return of the Bourbons he purchased at twenty thousand francs of La Baudraye the office of tax-receiver for Sancerres, which office he still held about 1836. With the Abbe Duret and others he frequented the home of Mme. Dinah de la Baudraye. He was little, fat and common. His court made little way with the baroness, despite his talent and his worldly-wise ways of a bachelor. He sang ballads, told stories, and displayed pseudo-rare autographs. (The Muse of the Department)
GRAVIER, of Grenoble; head of a family; father-in-law of a notary; chief of division of the prefecture of Isere in 1829. Knew Genestas and recommended to him Dr. Benassis, the mayor of the village of which he himself was one of the benefactors, as the one to attend Adrien Genestas-Renard. (The Country Doctor)
GRENIER, known as Fleur-de-Genet; deserter from the Sixty-ninth demi-brigade; chauffeur executed in 1809. (The Seamy Side of History)
GRENOUVILLE, proprietor of a large and splendid notion store in Boulevard des Italiens, Paris, about 1840; a customer of the Bijous, embroiderers also in business at Paris. At this time an ardent admirer of Mlle. Olympe Bijou, former mistress of Baron Hulot and Idamore Chardin. He married her and gave an income to her parents. (Cousin Betty)
GRENOUVILLE (Madame), wife of the preceding; born Olympe Bijou, about 1824. In the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe she lived in Paris near La Courtille, in rue Saint-Maur-du-Temple. Was a pretty but poor embroiderer surrounded by a numerous and poverty-stricken family when Josepha Mirah obtained for her old Baron Hulot and a shop. Having abandoned Hulot for Idamore Chardin, who left her, Olympe married Grenouville and became a well-known tradeswoman. (Cousin Betty)
GRENVILLE (Arthur-Ormond, Lord), wealthy Englishman; was being treated at Montpellier for lung trouble when the rupture of the treaty of peace of Amiens confined him to Tours. About 1814 he fell in love with the Marquise Victor d'Aiglemont, whom he afterwards met elsewhere. Posing as a physician he attended her in an illness and succeeded in curing her. He visited her also in Paris, finally dying to save her honor, after suffering his fingers to be crushed in a door—1823. (A Woman of Thirty)
GREVIN of Arcis, Aube, began life in the same way as his compatriot and intimate friend Malin de Gondreville. In 1787, he was second clerk to Maitre Bordin, attorney of the Chatelet, Paris. Returned to Champagne at the outbreak of the Revolution. There he received the successive protection of Danton, Bonaparte and Gondreville. By virtue of them he became an oracle to the Liberals, was enabled to marry Mlle. Varlet, the only daughter of the best physician of the city, to purchase a notary's practice, and to become wealthy. A level-headed man, Grevin often advised Gondreville, and he directed the mysterious and fictitious abduction—1803 and the years following. Of his union with Mlle. Varlet, who died rather young, one daughter was born, Severine, who became Mme. Phileas Beauvisage. In his old age he devoted a great deal of attention to his children and their brilliant future, especially during the election of May, 1839. (A Start in Life, The Gondreville Mystery, The Member for Arcis)
GREVIN (Madame), wife of foregoing; born Varlet; daughter of the best doctor of Arcis-sur-Aube; sister of another Varlet, a doctor in the same town; mother of Mme. Severine Phileas Beauvisage. With Mme. Marion she was more or less implicated in the Gondreville mystery. She died rather young. (The Gondreville Mystery)
GREVIN, corsair, who served under Admiral de Simeuse in the Indies. In 1816, paralyzed and deaf, he lived with his granddaughter, Mme. Lardot, a laundress of Alencon, who employed Cesarine and Suzanne and was patronized by the Chevalier de Valois. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
GRIBEAUCOURT (Mademoiselle de), old maid of Saumur and friend of the Cruchots during the Restoration. (Eugenie Grandet)
GRIFFITH (Miss), born in 1787; Scotch woman, daughter of a minister in straitened circumstances; under the Restoration she was governess of Louise de Chaulieu, whose love she won by reason of her kindliness and penetration. (Letters of Two Brides)
GRIGNAULT (Sophie). (See Nathan, Mme. Raoul.)
GRIMBERT, held, in 1819, at Ruffec, Charente, the office of the Royal Couriers. At that time he received from Mlles. Laure and Agathe de Rastignac, a considerable sum of money addressed to their brother Eugene, at the Pension Vauquer, Paris. (Father Goriot)
GRIMONT, born about 1786; a priest of some capability; cure of Guerande, Brittany. In 1836, a constant visitor at the Guenics, he exerted a tardily acquired influence over Felicite des Touches, whose disappointments in love he fathomed and whom he determined to turn towards a religious life. Her conversion gave Grimont the vicar-generalship of the diocese of Nantes. (Beatrix)
GRIMPEL, physician at Paris in the Pantheon quarter, time of Louis XVIII. Among his patients was Mme. Vauquer, who sent for him to attend Vautrin when the latter was overcome by a narcotic treacherously administered by Mlle. Michonneau. (Father Goriot)
GRINDOT, French architect in the first half of the nineteenth century; won the Roman prize in 1814. His talent, which met the approval of the Academy, was heartily recognized by the masses of Paris. About the end of 1818 Cesar Birotteau gave him carte-blanche in the remodeling of his apartments on rue Saint-Honore, and invited him to his ball. Matifat, between the years 1821 and 1822, commissioned him to ornament the suite of Mme. Raoul Nathan on rue de Bondy. The Comte de Serizy employed him likewise in 1822 in the restoration of his chateau of Presles near Beaumont-sur-Oise. About 1829 Grindot embellished a little house on rue Saint-Georges where successively dwelt Suzanne Gaillard and Esther van Gobseck. Time of Louis Philippe, Arthur de Rochefide, and M. and Mme. Fabien du Ronceret gave him contracts. His decline and that of the monarchy coincided. He was no longer in vogue during the July government. On motion of Chaffaroux he received twenty-five thousand francs for the decoration of four rooms of Thuillier's. Lastly Crevel, an imitator and grinder, utilized Grindot on rue des Saussaies, rue du Dauphin and rue Barbet-de-Jouy for his official and secret habitations. (Cesar Birotteau, Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, A Start in Life, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Beatrix, The Middle Classes, Cousin Betty)
GROISON, non-commissioned officer of cavalry in the Imperial Guard; later, during the Restoraton, estate-keeper of Blangy, where he succeeded Vaudoyer at a salary of three hundred francs. Montcornet, mayor of that commune arranged a marriage between the old soldier and the orphan daughter of one of his farmers who brought him three acres of vineyards. (The Peasantry)
GROS (Antoine-Jean), celebrated painter born in Paris in 1771, drowned himself June, 1835. Was the teacher of Joseph Bridau and, despite his parsimonious habits, supplied materials—about 1818—to the future painter of "The Venetian Senator and the Courtesan" enabling him to obtain five thousand francs from a double government position. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
GROSLIER, police commissioner of Arcis-sur-Aube at the beginning of the electoral campaign of 1839. (The Member for Arcis)
GROSMORT, small boy of Alencon in 1816. Left the town in that year and went to Prebaudet, an estate of Mme. du Bousquier, to tell her of Troisville's arrival. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
GROSS-NARP (Comte de), son-in-law, no doubt fictitious, of a very great lady, invented and represented by Jacqueline Collin to serve the menaced interests of Jacques Collin in Paris about the end of the Restoration. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
GROSSTETE (F.), director, with Perret, of a Limoges banking-house, during the Empire and Restoration. His clerk and successor was Pierre Graslin. Retired from business, a married man, wealthy, devoted to horticulture, he spent much of his time in the fields in the outskirts of Limoges. Endowed with a superior intellect, he seemed to understand Veronique Graslin, whose society he sought and whose secrets he tried to fathom. He introduced his godson, Gregoire Gerard, to her. (The Country Parson)
GROSSTETE (Madame F.), wife of preceding; a person of some importance in Limoges, time of the Restoration. (The Country Parson)
GROSSTETE, younger brother of F. Grosstete. Receiver-general at Bourges during the Restoration. He had a large fortune which enabled his daughter Anna to wed a Fontaine about 1823. (The Country Parson, The Muse of the Department)
GROZIER (Abbe) was chosen, in the early part of the Restoration, to arbitrate the dispute of two proof-readers—one of whom was Saint-Simon—over Chinese paper. He proved that the Chinese make their paper from bamboo. (Lost Illusions) He was librarian of the Arsenal at Paris. Was tutor of the Marquis d'Espard. Was learned in the history and manners of China. Taught this knowledge to his pupil. (The Commission in Lunacy)[4]
GRUGET (Madame Etienne), born in the latter part of the eighteenth century. About 1820, lace-maker at No. 12 rue des Enfants-Rouges, Paris, where she concealed and cared for Gratien Bourignard, the lover of her daughter Ida, who drowned herself. Bourignard was the father of Mme. Jules Desmarets. (The Thirteen) Becoming a nurse about the end of 1824, Mme. Gruget attended the division-chief, La Billiardiere, in his final sickness. (The Government Clerks) In 1828 she followed the same profession for ten sous a day, including board. At that time she attended the last illness of Comtesse Flore Philippe de Brambourg, on rue Chaussee-d'Antin, before the invalid was removed to the Dubois hospital. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
GRUGET (Ida), daughter of the preceding. About 1820 was a corset-fitter at No. 14 rue de la Corderie-du-Temple, Paris; employed by Mme. Meynardie. She was also the mistress of Gatien Bourignard. Passionately jealous, she rashly made a scene in the home of Jules Desmarets, her lover's son-in-law. Then she drowned herself, in a fit of despair, and was buried in a little cemetery of a village of Seine-et-Oise. (The Thirteen)
GUA SAINT-CYR (Madame du), in spite of the improbability aroused on account of her age, passed for a time, in 1799, as the mother of Alphonse de Montauran. She had been married and was then a widow; Gua was not her true name. She was the last mistress of Charette and, being still young, took his place with the youthful Alphonse de Montauran. She displayed a savage jealousy for Mlle. de Verneuil. One of the first Vendean sallies of 1799, planned by Mme. du Gua, was unsuccessful and absurd. The old "mare of Charette" caused the coach between Mayenne and Fougeres to be waylaid; but the money stolen was that which was being sent her by her mother. (The Chouans)
GUA SAINT-CYR (Du), name assumed in Brittany, in 1799, by Alphonse de Montauran, the Chouan leader. (The Chouans)
GUA SAINT-CYR (Monsieur and Madame du), son and mother; rightful bearers of the name were murdered, with the courier, in November by the Chouans. (The Chouans)
GUDIN (Abbe), born about 1759; was one of the Chouan leaders in 1799. He was a formidable fellow, one of the Jesuits stubborn enough, perhaps devoted enough, to oppose upon French soil the proscriptive edict of 1793. This firebrand of Western conflict fell, slain by the Blues, almost under the eyes of his patriot nephew, the sub-lieutenant, Gudin. (The Chouans)
GUDIN, nephew of the preceding, and nevertheless a patriot conscript from Fougeres, Brittany, during the campaign of 1799; successively corporal and sub-lieutenant. The former grade was obtained through Hulot. Was the superior of Beau-Pied. Gudin was killed near Fougeres by Marie de Verneuil, who had assumed the attire of her husband, Alphonse de Montauran. (The Chouans)
GUENEE (Madame). (See Galardon, Madame.)
GUENIC (Gaudebert-Calyste-Charles, Baron du), born in 1763. Head of a Breton house of very ancient founding, he justified throughout his long life the device upon his coat-of-arms, which read: "Fac!" Without hope of reward he constantly defended, in Vendee and Brittany, his God and his king by service as private soldier and captain, with Charette, Chatelineau, La Rochejacquelein, Elbee, Bonchamp and the Prince of Loudon. Was one of the commanders of the campaign of 1799 when he bore the name of "L'Intime," and was, with Bauvan, a witness to the marriage in extremis of Alphonse de Montauran and Marie de Verneuil. Three years later he went to Ireland, where he married Miss Fanny O'Brien, of a noble family of that country. Events of 1814 permitted his return to Guerande, Loire-Inferieure, where his house, though impoverished, wielded great influence. In recognition of his unfaltering devotion to the Royalist cause, M. du Guenic received only the Cross of Saint-Louis. Incapable of protesting, he intrepidly defended his town against the battalions of General Travot in the following year. The final Chouan insurrection, that of 1832, called him to arms once again. Accompanied by Calyste, his only son, and a servant, Gasselin, he returned to Guerande, lived there for some years, despite his numerous wounds, and died suddenly, at the age of seventy-four, in 1837. (The Chouans, Beatrix)
GUENIC (Baronne du), wife of the preceding; native of Ireland; born Fanny O'Brien, about 1793, of aristocratic lineage. Poor and surrounded by wealthy relatives, beautiful and distinguished, she married, in 1813, Baron du Guenic, following him the succeeding year to Guerande and devoting her life and youth to him. She bore one son, Calyste, to whom she was more like an elder sister. She watched closely the two mistresses of the young man, and finally understood Felicite des Touches; but she always was in a tremor on account of Beatrix de Rochefide, even after the marriage of Calyste, which took place in the year of the baron's death. (Beatrix)
GUENIC (Gaudebert-Calyste-Louis du), probably born in 1815, at Guerande, Loire-Inferieure; only son of the foregoing, by whom he was adored, and to whose dual influence he was subject. He was the physical and moral replica of his mother. His father wished to make him a gentleman of the old school. In 1832 he fought for the heir of the Bourbons. He had other aspirations which he was able to satisfy at the home of an illustrious chatelaine of the vicinity, Mlle. Felicite des Touches. The chevalier was much enamored of the celebrated authoress, who had great influence over him, did not accept him and turned him over to Mme. de Rochefide. Beatrix played with the heir of the house of Guenic the same ill-starred comedy carried through by Antoinette de Langeais with regard to Montriveau. Calyste married Mlle. Sabine de Grandlieu, and took the title of baron after his father's death. He lived in Paris on Faubourg Saint-Germain, and between 1838 and 1840 was acquainted with Georges de Maufrigneuse, Savinien de Portenduere, the Rhetores, the Lenoncourt-Chaulieus and Mme. de Rochefide—whose lover he finally became. The intervention of the Duchesse de Grandlieu put an end to this love affair. (Beatrix)
GUENIC (Madame Calyste du), born Sabine de Grandlieu; wife of the preceding, whom she married about 1837. Nearly three years later she was in danger of dying upon hearing, at her confinement, that she had a fortunate rival in the person of Beatrix de Rochefide. (Beatrix)
GUENIC (Zephirine du) born in 1756 at Guerande; lived almost all her life with her younger brother, the Baron du Guenic, whose ideas, principles and opinions she shared. She dreamed of a rehabilitation of her improverished house, and pushed her economy to the point of refusng to undergo an operation for cataract. For a long time she wished that Mlle. Charlotte de Kergarouet might become her niece by marriage. (Beatrix)
GUEPIN, of Provins, located in Paris. He had at the "Trois Quenouilles" one of the largest draper's shops on rue Saint-Denis. His head-clerk was his compatriot, Jerome-Denis Rogron. In 1815, he turned over his business to his grandson and returned to Provins, where his family formed a clan. Later Rogron retired also and rejoined him there. (Pierrette)
GUERBET, wealthy farmer in the country near Ville-aux-Fayes; married, in the last of the eighteenth or first of the nineteenth century, the only daughter of Mouchon junior, then postmaster of Conches, Burgundy. After the death of his father-in-law, about 1817, he succeeded to the office. (The Peasantry)
GUERBET, brother of the foregoing, and related to the Gaubertins and Gendrins. Rich tax-collector of Soulanges, Burgundy. Stout, dumpy fellow with a butter face, wig, earrings, and immense collars; given to pomology; was the wit of the village and one of the lions of Mme. Soudry's salon. (The Peasantry)
GUERBET, circuit judge of Ville-aux-Fayes, Burgundy, in 1823. Like his uncle, the postmaster, and his father, the tax-collector, he was entirely devoted to Gaubertin. (The Peasantry)
GUILLAUME, in the course of, or at the end of the eighteenth century, began as clerk to Chevrel, draper, on rue Saint-Denis, Paris, "at the Sign of the Cat and Racket"; afterwards became his son-in-law, succeeded him, became wealthy and retired, during the first Empire, after marrying off his two daughters, Virginie and Augustine, in the same day. He became member of the Consultation Committee for the uniforming of the troops, changed his home, living in a house of his own on rue du Colombier, was intimate with the Ragons and the Birotteaus, being invited with his wife to the ball given by the latter. (At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, Cesar Birotteau)
GUILLAUME (Madame), wife of the preceding; born Chevrel; cousin of Mme. Roguin; a stiff-necked, middle-class woman, who was scandalized by the marriage of her second daughter, Augustine, with Theodore de Sommervieux. (At the Sign of the Cat and Racket)
GUILLAUME, servant of Marquis d'Aiglemont in 1823. (A Woman of Thirty)
GUINARD (Abbe), priest of Sancerre in 1836. (The Muse of the Department)
GYAS (Marquise de), lived at Bordeaux during the Restoration; gave much thought to marrying off her daughter, and, being intimate with Mme. Evangelista, felt hurt when Natalie Evangelista married Paul de Manerville in 1822. However, the Marquis de Gyas was one of the witnesses at the wedding. (A Marriage Settlement)
- ↑ Two Parisian theatres and five authors have depicted Goriot's life on the stage; March 6, 1835, at the Vaudeville, Ancelot and Paul Dupont; the same year, the month following, at the Varietes, Theaulon, Alexis de Comberousse and Jaime Pere. Also the Boeuf Gras of a carnival in a succeeding year bore the name of Goriot.
- ↑ The incidents of her life have been dramatized by Bayard for the Gymnase-Dramatique, under the title of "The Miser's Daughter."
- ↑ The name of this theatre was changed, in 1830, to Gymnase-Dramatique.
- ↑ Abbe Grozier, or Crozier (Jean Baptiste-Gabriel-Alexandre), born March 1, 1743, at Saint-Omer, died December 8, 1823, at Paris; collaborator of the "Literary Year" with Freron and Geoffroy, and author of a "General History of China"—Paris 1777-1784, 12 vols.