This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works or all the significant works - the Œuvre - of this famous and brilliant writer in one ebook - 36.100 pages easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate: - Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories
- Father Goriot
- Chef d'oeuvre inconnu. English
- The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix
- The Magic Skin
- Eugenie Grandet
- The Works Of Balzac
- Sarrasine
- Colonel Chabert
- A Passion in the Desert
- The Girl with the Golden Eyes
- Droll Stories
- Illusions Perdues. English
- Lords of the Housetops: Thirteen Cat Tales
- The Physiology of Marriage, Complete
- Beatrix
- La cousine Bette. English
- The Lily of the Valley
- La femme de trente ans. English
- Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
- At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
- The Chouans
- Catherine De Medici
- Honorine
- Seraphita
- The Atheist's Mass
- Cousin Pons
- Another Study of Woman
- The Works of
- Modeste Mignon
- Gobseck
- Adieu
- The Marriage Contract
- An Episode under the Terror
- Louis Lambert
- The Two Brothers
- Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau
- Bureaucracy
- Letters of Two Brides
- The Duchesse of Langeais
- The Country Doctor
- Ferragus, Chief of the Dévorants
- Chef d'oeuvre inconnu. English
- La Grande Breteche
- The Thirteen
- A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
- The Deputy of Arcis
- Vendetta
- The Red Inn
- Le curé de village. English
- A Daughter of Eve
- Une rue de Paris et son habitant. English
- Facino Cane
- A Man of Business
- Study of a Woman
- Eve and David
- The Message
- The Deserted Woman
- The Brotherhood of Consolation
- The Elixir of Life
- Droll Stories
- The Celibates
- Madame Firmiani
- Christ in Flanders
- The Firm of Nucingen
- The Napoleon of the People
- Maitre Cornelius
- Sarrasine
- Adieu. English
- Letters of Two Brides
- Paz (La Fausse Maitresse)
- El Verdugo
- The Alkahest
- Poor Relations
- The Exiles
- Ursula
- An Historical Mystery (The Gondreville Mystery)
- The Collection of Antiquities
- Albert Savarus
- The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan
- Gambara
- Droll Stories—Volume
- Melmoth Reconciled
- The Ball at Sceaux
- Domestic Peace
- The Recruit
- The Commission in Lunacy
- Two Poets
- A Prince of Bohemia
- A Drama on the Seashore
- Massimilla Doni
- Folk-Tales of Napoleon and Aleksandr Amfiteatrov
- Pierre Grassou
- The Vicar of Tours
- The Purse
- Sons of the Soil
- The Lesser Bourgeoisie
- The Jealousies of a Country Town
- A Second Home
- An Old Maid
- The Hated Son
- A Start in Life
- Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete
- The Muse of the Department
- BalzacFrederick Lawton
- Unconscious Comedians
- Analytical Studies
- Vautrin: A Drama in Five Acts
- Pierrette
- La Grenadiere
- Gaudissart II
- Juana
- The Illustrious Gaudissart
- Z.
Author
Honoré de Balzac was a nineteenth-century French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815. Due to his keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James and Jack Kerouac, as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels. Many of Balzac's works have been made into films, and they continue to inspire other writers. An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac had trouble adapting himself to the teaching style of his grammar school. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life, and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. When he finished school, Balzac was apprenticed as a legal clerk, but he turned his back on law after wearying of its inhumanity and banal routine. Before and during his career as a writer, he attempted to be a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician. He failed in all of these efforts. La Comédie Humaine reflects his real-life difficulties, and includes scenes from his own experience. Balzac suffered from health problems throughout his life, possibly due to his intense writing schedule. His relationship with his family was often strained by financial and personal drama, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; he passed away five months later.
