Publishing Balzac’s preparatory documents Elements for review and future prospects

This study aims to reassess the issues associated with the publication of Balzac’s preparatory documents (notes, manuscripts, corrected proofs), which are likely to be enlightening on different levels regarding the genesis of his work, but which, without it, would not be especially accessible. Our aim is essentially to undertake a historical examination of the most successful editorial interventions on the material, in order to reconstruct the state of the available documents and to outline the work to be executed.