Excerpt from The Ironmaster: Or, Love and Pride At the present date the receipts from Le Maitre de Forges at the Gymnasehave exceeded one million francs, while no fewer than copies of the work in its form as a novel have already been sold in France, so that, even making due allowance for M. Emile Zola's literary triumphs, this success is altogether the most remarkable that has been achieved of recent years in the domain of fiction across the Channel. The Ironmaster is a story of admirably sustained interest, skil fully told in graceful yet forcible language. The strongly marked characters develop themselves naturally, both in their language and their actions. The book, moreover, unlike the general run of French novels, conveys a sound moral. It chastises the malice which is born of envy, and establishes the folly of that selfish pride which blinds its possessor to all consideration for the commoner clay of humanity. It shows anew how needful it is that husbands and wives alike should study each other's characters before marriage, and it enforces in convincing language the oft-repeated lesson that a woman should never trifle with the affection of the man to whom she is mated for life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.