Honore Balzac: 591 books

In this work Balzac elucidates the nature and attitudes of the French. Delving deep into his characters he comes up with a tightly knitted plot and implicitly communicates his perceptions. Captivating!

Balzac's La Comedie Humaine was a story cycle comprising more than 100 novels and stories. Although most of these works are set in nineteenth-century France, several hearken back to earlier periods. Catherine de' Medici centers on the life of the woman born into an aristocratic family in medieval Italy who went on to become Queen consort and, later, regent of France.

An engrossing tale by Balzac it is remarkable for its masterful blend of realism and romance. Mesmerizing!

This is a painfully drawn portrayal of private life, but its wider subject-matter also makes it a fictional document of post-revolutionary France. Many people (among them Henry James) have considered Balzac to be the greatest of all novelists. Eugenie Grandet, his spare, classical story of...

Set against the backdrop of the Peninsular War, Balzac's novella "Juana" focuses on a storied family of French courtesans who have achieved legendary status. For many generations, the women have lived outside of the bounds of polite society, eschewing the familial involvement of men and maintaining a matrilineal tradition. But with the birth of a little girl named Juana, everything changes.

Dans une auberge au bord du Rhin sont réunis par le hasard deux jeunes Français et un riche négociant allemand qui passent une agréable soirée avant d'aller se coucher. Au petit matin, on retrouve le négociant décapité... Dans les brumes de l'Allemagne romantique, l'inspecteur Balzac mène l'enquête !

Un honnête parfumeur, à la tête d'une entreprise familiale, entreprend sur le conseil d'un notaire véreux de développer son commerce: désireux de couler l'huile de Macassar, qui lui fait concurrence, il invente l'Eau carminative et la Double Pâte des Sultanes, découvre la publicité et accède...

This collection of Balzac’s stories contains The Marriage Contract, a tragicomedy about money and marriage; Gobseck, in which Anastasie de Restaud enters into an unfortunate marriage—an aristocratic yet boring partnership without love or passion; and La Grenadiere.

Five of Balzac’s finest short stories are collected in this volume. “The Unknown Masterpiece” introduces three artists and their obsessive quest to create beautiful paintings which will enthrall the viewer—and the madness that ensues. “The Maranas” follows two French soldiers stationed in...

Le Père Goriot is widely considered Balzac's most important novel. This is the story of the relationship between a doting father and his two adult daughters. Blinded by his love for his children, Père Goriot can not see their flaws and gives them everything they ask for even though the giving destroys him. A cautionary tale about the dangers of placing society and money before all else.

This is one of Balzac's best stories, about a man who keeps two households. The story begins with a chaste and lovely needlewoman called Caroline who spends her days by the window of a run-down house in a seedy part of Paris. A gloomy young man passes by each day and inevitably he notices her and...

Part of Balzac's masterpiece, the multi-volume story cycle The Human Comedy, the short story "Study of a Woman" focuses on Madame de Listomere, an uptight model of propriety, who finds herself being flirted with by the rapscallion Eugene de Rastignac, who has taken up the courtship as a lark.

Focussing on the last of the Venetian aristocracy this is a brilliant work by Balzac. He propounds the theme of unrequited love and misplaced affections. Depicting the attitudes of characters through their backgrounds this is a highly engrossing work.

Perhaps the most famous of Balzac's novels, "Lost Illusions" paints a faithful picture of the spectacular but superficial world of contemporary society, and the indissoluble relationship between the bourgeois and aristocratic classes. Set in nineteenth century France, David Séchard is an innovative,...