The Country Doctor

The Country Doctor is one of the Scenes from Country Life in Balzac's La Comédie Humaine, written in 1833. The story is set in an isolated valley in the Dauphiné region of France in 1829: Commandant Genestas, a man past fifty who claims to be a retired soldier, arrives under an assumed name in a once poor and run-down village and meets Dr. Benassis, who practices medicine there. More than a decade earlier, Benassis had come to this barren place and found it impoverished, riddled with disease, and depopulated; treating the sick alone could not change conditions. He began with agriculture, promoting new farming methods, building a road to Grenoble, attracting craftsmen and traders to settle, and improving housing and sanitation, gradually turning the closed-off village into a thriving town with a doubled population—and he himself was elected mayor. Genestas accompanies the doctor on his rounds, observes how he deals with peasants, priests, and local gentry, and hears him describe his plans and practices for governing the mountain district. Both men carry hidden pasts: Benassis bears the guilt of his youthful selfishness and a failed love, and seeks to atone through selfless public service; Genestas is looking for a place with a good climate and honest people where he can settle his frail adopted son Adrien. The latter part of the novel also records the war reminiscences of a Napoleonic veteran, told during an evening in a barn. In the end the boy recovers his health, but Benassis, worn out by years of labor, dies suddenly, and the whole valley mourns him. The plot is quiet and dominated by discussion and dialogue, concentrating Balzac's reflections on political power, religion, and social organization.