Balzac
La Comedie humaine
The social historian of France in novel form. The Human Comedy — 91 interconnected novels and stories — is the most ambitious fictional project before Proust: a panorama of post-Napoleonic society in all its strata, from bankers to courtesans to country priests.
Key works
- La Comedie humaine1829–1850— 91 works — all of French society
- Pere Goriot1835— The Lear of the bourgeoisie