The Sarrazin is an iconic text. Ignored at first, squeezed between the bulky novels of the Human Comedy, it was rediscovered in the second half of the 20th century, starting a new journey in the consciousness of readers and critics. From this perspective, the choice to introduce the new series with this novella, which managed to live a second life, also gives the mark of the publishing project.

The novella Sarrazin, one of Balzac's most dense in images and meanings fictional texts, is a distinct moment in his work and marks the transition from his early to his most mature period. Underestimated by critics for more than a century - since it was not a "typical" Balzacian narrative and its central story, the tragic love of a talented sculptor for a castrato in 18th century Italy, rather caused embarrassment - it emerged as one of the most commented texts of the author in the second half of the previous century. Today, critics agree that it is among his most modern works, both in structure and in the richness of the themes it develops, and it continues to provoke new interpretations, coming from the fields of literary theory, gender studies, art analysis, etc.

(from the foreword and the afterword by Kostas Katsoularis)