Before You Begin

Before you begin.

A small ferry pushes off from Cadzand for the Flemish coast, crowded with travellers of every rank — a knight, a bishop, a fine lady, a merchant, a scholar in the seats of honour; and, huddled in the stern, the poor: a young mother and her child, an old soldier, a beggar woman, and a quiet Stranger with a strange light about him. Then the sky darkens, the sea rises, and the little boat must choose, soul by soul, between faith and fear.

Honoré de Balzac placed this short, luminous legend among the "Philosophical Studies" of his vast Comédie humaine. Retelling an old Flemish tale of a miraculous crossing, he turns it into a parable about what truly saves us when rank, riches, and cleverness are stripped away by the storm — and closes with a strange, brooding vision, in an ancient church, of faith and the Church itself.

It is one of Balzac's most unusual pieces: not a novel of society but a mystical fable, spare and haunting, in which the humblest passengers walk upon the waves and the mighty are lost.

This illustrated edition gathers the legend into six visual movements — recap plates you unlock as you read, each drawing together the company, the crossing, and the turns of the tale so far, with never a glimpse of what lies ahead. Turn the page and step aboard the ferry at Cadzand, bound across the grey sea toward faith and wonder.