Honoré De Balzac

Lost Illusions, by Honore de Balzac, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

Cousin Pons (1847) is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. One of the final works in Balzac's La Comédie humaine sequence, Cousin Pons originally began as a novella before being extended to the length of a novel. It serves as both a beautiful meditation on the nature of Platonic male friendship and a vitriolic condemnation of the vanity and greed of the French bourgeoisie. In typical fashion, however, Balzac also turns a critical eye to the...

La Cousine Bette (Cousin Bette) is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th-century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and torment a series of men. One of these is Baron Hector Hulot, husband to Bette's cousin Adeline. He sacrifices his family's fortune and good name to please...

One of the fathers of Realism was the famed 19th century French writer Honore de Balzac. His works are best known for their shrewd, yet honest, interpretation of real life problems within the social classes of French society. He believed that explaining a character would not inform the reader about the character's personality; however, describing their home, possessions, and other details would tell the reader about the character's true nature. With...

"La Peau de chagrin" de Honoré de Balzac est un roman fantastique énigmatique qui explore les thèmes de la passion, de l'argent et de la mort. L'histoire suit le jeune Raphaël de Valentin, un homme désespéré qui se voit offrir une peau de chagrin magique qui peut exaucer tous ses souhaits. Mais chaque désir réalisé entraîne une réduction de la peau, rapprochant ainsi Raphaël de sa mort inévitable. Au fil du récit, Balzac crée un univers...

La Femme abandonnée est une nouvelle d'Honoré de Balzac parue en 1832 dans La Revue de Paris et publiée en volume en 1833 dans le tome II des Scènes de la vie de province des Études de mœurs aux éditions de Madame Béchet. Elle est rééditée en 1839 aux éditions Charpentier, puis en 1842 dans l'édition Furne avec une dédicace à la duchesse d'Abrantès. Elle figure alors dans les Scènes de la vie privée de La Comédie humaine. Au printemps...

The longish short story "Adieu" is an excerpt from Honore de Balzac's sweeping masterpiece The Human Comedy. A ghost story of sorts, this tragic tale recounts the blossoming romance of two lovers whose relationship is torn asunder by the vagaries of war. When they reunite by chance years later, there is nothing left to be salvaged. As part of our mission to publish great works of literary fiction and nonfiction, Sheba Blake Publishing Corp. is extremely...

The Physiology of Marriage (1829) is a book length essay by French writer Honoré de Balzac. Written from the point of view of an author who has overheard scandalous conversations between two women, The Physiology of Marriage is both a critique of the institution of marriage and a satirical attempt to scientifically explain the cause and frequency of marital infidelity. The essay was an early success for Balzac, gaining him a reputation as a talented...

A Daughter of Eve is a short novel wriiten by Honore de Balzac. This short novel, part of the Scenes of Private Life section of Honore de Balzac's vast masterpiece The Human Comedy, includes the first appearances of key characters who return later in the series. A Daughter of Eve is a tale in which seemingly innocent peccadilloes soon spiral into an inescapable web of intrigue, fraud, and lust. Honore de Balzac (20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was...

From the great French novelist comes this long-unavailable collection of tales in the tradition of Boccaccio's Decameron. Balzac's Contes Drolatiques, or Droll Stories, were originally published in three volumes in the 1830s. Set in medieval Europe, these stories were Balzac's attempt to write in the great tradition of Rabelais and Boccaccio, to render the Middle Ages with a touch of raunchy humor, and to provide a delightful portrait of medieval...