HONORE DE BALZAC

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850)– Born in Tours , France , Balzac would become one of the creators of Realism in literature. He worked as both a journalist and writer, and wrote several plays and novels early in his career under different pseudonyms without success. In 1833 he decided to link his older novels together so they would comprehend the whole of society in a series of books, a plan that eventually led to 90 novels and novellas that included more than 2,000 characters. This huge production of work is collected under the name La Comédie Humanie, which originated from Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Among his more widely recognized works are Cousine Bette (1846), Le Père Goriot (1834/35), Eugènie Grandet (1833), and Les Illusions Perdues (1837-43). In debt throughout most of his life, Balzac died in Paris in 1850.  

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