Note: SFE3 reports seven English-language titles thus: "In this vast sequence [that is, La comédie humaine ("The Human Comedy")] his Proto-SF story, "La recherche de l'absolu" (in Études de moeurs au XIXe siècle, coll 1834; trans as The Philosopher's Stone 1844; vt Balthazar, or Science & Love 1859; vt The Alchemist 1861; vt The Alkahest 1887; vt The Quest of the Absolute 1895; vt The Tragedy of a Genius 1912; new trans Ellen Marriage as The Quest of the Absolute 1989) fits somewhat dissonantly. The protagonist, Balthazar Claes, invests everything into his search for a kind of universal element that lies at the base of all other elements, but fails. [JC]" (That is distinct titles, and it implies that John Clute knows only two distinct translations.)