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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: whose death is a recent loss to the world of letters, Beyle
(Stendhal), was the first to delineate them to perfection.
Lousteau could produce in Dinah the acute agitation which may be
compared to magnetism, that upsets every power of the mind and body,
and overcomes every instinct of resistance in a woman. A look from
him, or his hand laid on hers, reduced her to implicit obedience. A
kind word or a smile wreathed the poor woman's soul with flowers; a
fond look elated, a cold look depressed her. When she walked, taking
his arm and keeping step with him in the street or on the boulevard,
she was so entirely absorbed in him that she lost all sense of
herself. Fascinated by this fellow's wit, magnetized by his airs, his
The Muse of the Department |
