Le Député d'Arcis is a novel Balzac left unfinished and that was meant to constitute a vast study of electoral and parliamentary manners under the July Monarchy. The action is set at Arcis-sur-Aube, on the occasion of a legislative election, and proposes to dissect the hidden springs of provincial political life and the maneuvers that preside over the choice of a deputy. Balzac deploys the gallery of actors in the electoral comedy: ambitious candidates, local notables, schemers, electoral agents, journalists, and voters, each driven by his interests and calculations. At the center is the candidacy and the maneuvering around the young, enigmatic Charles Keller, then the irruption of a mysterious character, Maxime de Trailles, sent to steer the ballot to the advantage of the government. The novel intended to show how elections, far from expressing an enlightened popular will, are the product of subterranean combinations, corruptions, and bargaining, and how individual ambition disguises itself there as public devotion. Through the depiction of a small town in electoral ferment, Balzac wished to reveal the backstage of national representation and the mediocrity of the interests that clash there. The work, remaining fragmentary, was partly completed after the author's death. Despite its incompleteness, it constitutes a precious document on Balzac's conception of politics, seen as a theater of intrigue where the public good serves as pretext for private appetites. The project belonged to the general critique, conducted by the author in the Scenes of Political Life, of the institutions and public manners of his time. Le Député d'Arcis illustrates Balzac's disenchanted lucidity about the real functioning of parliamentary and electoral life, and his skepticism toward the July regime. ---