Le Curé de village (The Village Priest) is a novel by Honoré de Balzac. It first appeared in La Presse in 1839. Frequently revised, the edited text was published as a separate volume in 1841. It covers themes that Balzac had already developed in le Médecin de campagne - improvements to living conditions in rural areas and redemption through self-sacrifice. It was first conceived as a detective novel and includes a mysterious death, with the attitude of its main character Véronique Graslin remaining mysterious until the end of the book. * v * t * e * v * t * e