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...

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...

"Bette is a wronged soul; and when her passion does break, it is, as Balzac says, sublime and terrifying," wrote V. S. Pritchett. A late masterpiece in Balzac's La Comedie Humaine, Cousin Bette is the story of a Vosges peasant who rebels against her scornful upper-class relatives, skillfully turning their selfish obsessions against them. The novel exemplifies what Henry James described as Balzac's "huge, all-compassing, all-desiring, all-devouring love of reality."

Considered a founder of the realistic school of fiction, prolific French novelist Honore de Balzac (1799 1850) wrote in meticulous detail, depicting ordinary and undistinguished lives in tales that nevertheless abounded in melodramatic plots and violent passions.
This convenient dual-language volume includes six of Balzac's most highly regarded short stories: "An Episode During the Terror," a deftly told tale contrasting material poverty with spiritual riches; "A Passion in the Desert," inspired by Balzac's interest in the Near East and his fascination with Napoleon; "The Revolutionary...

This up-to-date account of the novel's composition, structure, and achievement provides readers with the literary and historical knowledge needed to make sense of the text. Professor Bellos explains how Balzac challenged prevailing nineteenth-century expectations of what novels should be like.