巴尔扎克的一则轶事

20072007

An Anecdote of Balzac
by A Jian

Balzac, the famous French writer, was a man of great talent. But he himself was proud of his ability to tell a person's character by his or her handwriting. He often told his friends that he could tell anybody's character exactly by his handwriting.

One day a woman friend brought him a young boy's exercise book. She said that she wanted to know what Balzac thought of the boy's character.

Balzac studied the handwriting carefully for a few minutes. The woman, however, told him that the boy was not her son and that he might tell her the truth.
\"All right, \"said Balzac. \"I shall tell you the truth. \"And he said that the boy was a bad, lazy fellow.

\"It is very strange, \"said the woman smiling. \"This is a page from your own exercise book, which you used when you were a boy.\"
(From Shanghai Students' Post, October 6, 1987)