Vautrin

Excerpt

It is difficult for the playwright to put himself, five days after the first presentation of his piece, in the situation in which he felt himself on the morning after the event; but it is still more difficult to write a preface to Vautrin, to which every one has written his own.  The single utterance of the author will infallibly prove inferior to so vast a number of divergent expressions.  The report of a cannon is never so effective as a display of fireworks.