Honoré De Balzac
1) Cousin Bette
7) Père Goriot
10) Adieu
11) A Start in Life
Another Study of Woman is a narrative hovering between a short story and a novella in terms of length, extracted from Honore de Balzac's multi-volume masterpiece The Human Comedy. At a private dinner party, guests warmed by the flush of fine food and drink begin to banter about the qualities and attributes that characterize the ideal woman. Gradually, the guests begin to reminisce about their own experiences and encounters with perfect
...In this novel, one of the last vestiges of a genteel family, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, tries to navigate the new social and cultural landscape that has emerged in France's post-revolutionary period. Even though he is surrounded by some of the signs of his family's former affluence, the Marquis is virtually penniless, and he finds it difficult to come to terms with his reduced station in life.
16) Two Poets
The novel Two Poets is part of the Lost Illusions trilogy, which is in turn part of the Scenes from Provincial Life section of Honore de Balzac's massive masterpiece The Human Comedy. Critics have singled out this tale of social climbing, greed, lust, and good intentions gone awry as one of the best parts of Balzac's story cycle.
French playwright and novelist Honore de Balzac is at his best when he is describing the chaotic tumult of big city life in nineteenth-century Europe. In The Brotherhood of Consolation, he focuses on a secret society of people bent on bringing some small measure of goodness into the lives of others by carrying out anonymous acts of charity, philanthropy and assistance.
One of the unifying themes that wends its way through Honore de Balzac's immense body of work is the corrupting danger of greed—and the often-absurd lengths to which people will go to secure material wealth. In the wonderful novel Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau, the title character starts out as a successful perfume-maker who is gradually lured to the dark side by the promise of ill-gotten gains.
20) Ursula
This novel is one of the pillars of the Scenes of Provincial Life section of Honore de Balzac's story cycle The Human Comedy. Through a series of tragedies and coincidences, a kind and pious teenager named Ursula has been taken in by an octogenarian doctor, Denis Minoret. Inspired by Ursula's goodness, Minoret decides to make her his chief heir. This incites the ire of his other relatives, and a ruthless war for Minoret's estate breaks
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