This unabridged edition of these famous tales, marvelous for their graceful impudence and sly artistry, has been re-edited and revised by Ernest Boyd so as to bring it as close as possible to the original. In his preface, wrote Professor George Saintsbury, Balzac acknowledged his indebtedness to his master Rabelais; and, to be sure, the points of likeness between those two great Frenchmen are striking. They both put on a mask of comedy and rakishness in order to write with more freedom about manners, customs, politics and religion.