Ce recit en forme de pamphlet drolatique force un peu le trait sur un personnage cense representer l'homme de la monarchie de Juillet. Felix Gaudissart est suractif, il seduit, il est efficace, comme cette societe moderne sur laquelle Balzac ironise souvent, dont il deplore le materialisme frenetique, et qui produit pour produire sans connaitre le but de son agitation. Gaudissart sait tout, est alle partout, connait tout, mais il ne comprend pas tout. Il n'a de talent que pour le commerce et la vente, comme on le voit a ses brillants debuts lorsqu'il sauve du desastre Cesar Birotteau. Balzac...

Dinah de La Baudraye (nee Dinah Piedefer), epouse de Jean-Anastase-Polydore Milaud de La Baudraye dans la Muse du departement et poetesse locale consideree comme bas-bleu, qui signe ses ecrits du nom de Jean Diaz, vient de soumettre au poete Raoul Nathan une nouvelle: Le Prince de la boheme. Les protagonistes du texte sont l'ex-danseuse Tullia, (Claudine Chaffaroux), un de ces rats qui se vendent pour survivre a divers protecteurs. C'est son histoire et ses amours qui sont retracees dans la nouvelle de Dinah, au milieu d'un raout comparable a celui qui a lieu dans Autre etude de femme chez...

Francois Birotteau, vicaire de la cathedrale Saint-Gatien de Tours, est victime de la haine secrete de l'abbe Troubert et de sa logeuse, mademoiselle Gamard. Candide et franc, il ne comprendra jamais les intrigues qui l'ont prive d'une vie confortable et de relations amicales et respectueuses dans la ville, ni les raisons de la haine de sa logeuse. La mise en place du cadre de vie de l'abbe, par la description minutieuse de la maison Gamard, temoigne du gout de Balzac pour l'ameublement et les objets decoratifs."

Eugene de Rastignac etait devenu l'amant de Delphine de Nucingen, femme du grand banquier Nucingen en 1819 dans Le Pere Goriot. En 1833, date a laquelle commence la Maison il rompt avec Delphine, mais il continue a travailler avec son mari dans des affaires frauduleuses, ou il gagne beaucoup d'argent au point qu'il se trouve bientot en position de pretendre au titre de pair de France. Dans le salon particulier d'un celebre restaurant parisien, un homme surprend la conversation de quatre journalistes echauffes par un bon repas, Andoche Finot, Emile Blondet, Couture et Jean-Jacques Bixiou....

Mild, harmless and ugly to behold, the impoverished Pons is an ageing musician whose brief fame has fallen to nothing. Living a placid Parisian life as a bachelor in a shared apartment with his friend Schmucke, he maintains only two passions: a devotion to fine dining in the company of wealthy but disdainful relatives, and a dedication to the collection of antiques. When these relatives become aware of the true value of his art collection, however, their sneering contempt for the parasitic Pons rapidly falls away as they struggle to obtain a piece of the weakening man's inheritance. Taking...

His elegantly-crafted tale of sibling rivalry, Honore de Balzac's The Black Sheep is translated from the French with an introduction by Donald Adamson in Penguin Classics. Philippe and Joseph Bridau are two extremely different brothers. The elder, Philippe, is a superficially heroic soldier and adored by their mother Agathe. He is nonetheless a bitter figure, secretly gambling away her savings after a brief but glorious career as Napoleon's aide-de-camp at the battle of Montereau. His younger brother Joseph, meanwhile, is fundamentally virtuous - but their mother is blinded to his...

Passionate and perceptive, the three short novels that make up Balzac's History of the Thirteen are concerned in part with the activities of a rich, powerful, sinister and unscrupulous secret society in nineteenth-century France. While the deeds of 'The Thirteen' remain frequently in the background, however, the individual novels are concerned with exploring various forms of desire. A tragic love story, Ferragus depicts a marriage destroyed by suspicion, revelation and misunderstanding. The Duchess de Langeais explores the anguish that results when a society coquette tries to seduce a heroic...

One of the greatest French novelists, Balzac was also an accomplished writer of shorter fiction. This volume includes twelve of his finest short stories - many of which feature characters from his epic series of novels the Comedie Humaine. Compelling tales of acute social and psychological insight, they fully demonstrate the mastery of suspense and revelation that were the hallmarks of Balzac's genius. In -The Atheist's Mass, - we learn the true reason for a distinguished atheist surgeon's attendance at religious services; -La Grande Breteche- describes the horrific truth behind the...

Balzac is concerned with the choice between ruthless self-gratification and asceticism, dissipation and restraint, in a novel that is powerful in its symbolism and realistic depiction of decadence.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and...

"Balzac was] the master unequalled in the art of painting humanity as it exists in modern society," wrote George Sand. "He searched and dared everything."

Written between 1837 and 1843, Lost Illusions reveals, perhaps better than any other of Balzac's ninety-two novels, the nature and scope of his genius. The story of Lucien Chardon, a young poet from Angouleme who tries desperately to make a name for himself in Paris, is a brilliantly realistic and boldly satirical portrait of provincial manners and aristocratic life. Handsome and ambitious but naive, Lucien is patronized by the...