Author

Books by Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a French novelist, playwright, and journalist who produced one of the most ambitious projects in literary history: La Comédie humaine, a series of over ninety interconnected novels and stories depicting French society across all classes and regions. He worked at legendary speed under perpetual financial pressure, surviving on enormous quantities of coffee. Père Goriot (1835) introduced the recurring character Rastignac, who appears in numerous subsequent novels. His other major works include Cousin Bette, Eugénie Grandet, and Lost Illusions. He died at fifty-one, having reportedly worked himself to death.