Narration: The Frame Tale

"La Grande Bretèche" is a frame tale, a story in which one narrative frames at least one additional narrative. Further complicating matters for the reader is Balzac's penchant for interlocking stories and recurrent characters in the many volumes of work that came to be known as La Comedia Humaine. The outer frame of "La Grande Bretèche," part of the structure of the group of stories in Another View of Woman, is the scene of a dinner party in which a series of narrators are asked to entertain the group. Dr. Bianchon, who is known to the group as an exceptional storyteller, presents his tale of the secrets of la Grande Bretèche.

Bianchon, though a character in his tale, has no direct access to the story itself. He must rely on three more narrators to reveal the secrets that he...