In 1834, Honore de Balzac, while still keeping his apartment in the Rue
Cassini, transferred his residence to Chaillot, No. 13, Rue des
Bastailles (now the Avenue d'Iena), in a house situated on the site of
the hotel of Prince Roland Bonaparte. This was his bachelor quarters,
where he received his letters, under the name of Madame the Widow
Durand. He had by no means abandoned his projects of luxurious
surroundings, and in The Girl with the Golden Eyes he has given a
description of his own parlour, which shows that he had in a measure
already realised his desires:
"One-half of the boudoir," he wrote, "described an easy and graceful
semicircle, while the opposite side was perfectly square, and in the
centre glistened a mantelpiece of white marble and gold. The entrance
was through a side door, hidden by a rich portiere of tapestry, and
facing a window. Within the horseshoe curve was a genuine Turkish
divan, that is to say, a mattress resting directly upon the floor, a
mattress as large as a bed, a divan fifty feet in circumference and
covered with white cashmere, relieved by tufts of black and poppy-red
silk arranged in a diamond pattern.
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