History Creator / HonoreDeBalzac

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) is one of the greatest writers in [[FrenchLiterature French letters]]. His obscurity in the Anglophone Media is inverse to his omnipresence in France and his influence on writers and artists in variety of media. Creator/HenryJames called Balzac one of his favorite authors and wrote of him extensively as a critic. Sculptor Auguste Rodin would sculpt a masterpiece with his monument and the film-makers of the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave cited him as a Patron Saint.

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* SocialClimber: Eugène de Rastignac from ''La Comédie Humaine'' is such a climber that his name has become synonymous with the trope in the French language. He's not especially dishonourable compared to others around him, though, and he makes mistakes and has setbacks. By the end of the series, he makes it to Minister.

4* MagicRealism: ''The Wild Ass' Skin'' is a precursor. It is psychologically realistic story of a ByronicHero but has the animal skin as a magical talisman used as part of the plot.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: ''La Comédie Humaine'' has a combined cast of 2472 characters, at least 40 of which appeared in more than one novel.
* MagicRealism: ''The Wild Ass' Skin'' is a precursor. It is psychologically realistic story of a ByronicHero but has the animal skin as a magical talisman used as part of the plot.

--> [''"I am a slave to pen and ink"'']

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) is one of the greatest writers in French letters. His obscurity in the Anglophone Media is inverse to his omnipresence in France and his influence on writers and artists in variety of media. Creator/HenryJames called Balzac one of his favorite authors and wrote of him extensively as a critic. Sculptor Auguste Rodin would sculpt a masterpiece with his monument and the film-makers of the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave cited him as a Patron Saint.

* AbusiveParents: Father Grandet in ''Eugénie Grandet'' is stingy and despotic toward his kind-hearted wife, daughter and housekeeper and has absolutely no tolerance for any defiance on their part. When Eugénie gives away the collection of gold coins that he had gradually gifted her to her impoverished cousin Charles and refuses to reveal the secret of who she gave it to, he takes both the loss of the gold, which in his mind is still ''his'' property, and Eugénie's refusal to confide in him, personally, furiously berates her, declaring at one point that Eugénie [[IHaveNoSon "has no father"]], and forces her to stay in her room as long as she insists on hiding from him who she gave the coins to. [[spoiler: He only ends the punishment when he thinks he can have a financial advantage from being in his daughter's good books, and his persistence in ostracizing her until then causes his wife's death.]]
* BeliefMakesYouStupid: in ''Eugénie Grandet'', the very religious Eugénie and her mother are implied to be bearing father Grandet's despotism out of respect for the father's supposedly God-ordained status as head of the household. When the father forces Eugénie to remain in her room until she tells him who she gave her gold to, Notary Cruchot and Monsieur de Bonfons suggest suing him for wrongful cruelty; Eugénie remonstrates that "My father is master in his own house. As long as I live under his roof I am bound to obey him. His conduct is not subject to the approbation or the disapprobation of the world; he is accountable to God only." Her mother agrees. [[spoiler: Eugénie is finally released when Cruchot suggests to her father that by reconciling with her, he will increase the chances of her accepting to renounce her mother's inheritance in his favor. This Eugénie does - to Cruchot's horror without any resistance whatsoever - in exchange for a small allowance.]]

* MyWayOrTheHighway: In ''Eugénie Grandet'', miserly father Grandet gets furious at his daughter Eugénie for giving away her gold coins; and pulls this card after essentially losing the debate to her well-argued defense of her actions: "Eugénie, you are here, in my house,--in your father's house. If you wish to stay here, you must submit yourself to me." - [[GroundedForever and promptly banishes her to her room until further notice]].

His style of writing is unique for its versatility, its exhaustive descriptions of French urban life and its social classes in quasi-ethnological detail and the distinctive tone of irony, cynicism and dark humour with which he chronicles post-Revolution France at the time when the aristocrats were losing out to the rising Middle Classes. Despite his own royalist leanings, his rich descriptions of working-class life and the nascent rise of middle-class capitalism meant that he was a favorite of ideological opposites Creator/KarlMarx (whose ''Capital'' makes repeated references to his works) and Friedrich Engels who once stated that Balzac taught him more about economics than any amount of financial reports.

* MyWayOrTheHighway: In ''Eugénie Grandet'', miserly father Grandet gets furious at his daughter Eugénie for giving away her gold coins; and pulls this card after essentially losing the debate to her well-argued defense of her actions: "Eugénie, you are here, in my house,--in your father's house. If you wish to stay here, you must submit yourself to me." - [[GroundedForLife and promptly banishes her to her room until further notice]].

* AbusiveParents: Father Grandet in ''Eugénie Grandet'' is stingy and despotic toward his kind-hearted wife, daughter and housekeeper and has absolutely no tolerance for any defiance on their part. When Eugénie gives away the collection of gold coins that he had gradually gifted her to her impoverished cousin Charles and refuses to reveal the secret of who she gave it to, he takes both the loss of the gold, which in his mind is still ''his'' property, and Eugénie's refusal to confide in him, personally, furiously berates her, declaring at one point that Eugénie [[IHaveNoSon "has no father"]], and forces her to stay in her room until she reveals who she gave the coins to. [[spoiler: He only ends the punishment when he thinks he can have a financial advantage from being in his daughter's good books, and his persistence in ostracizing her until then causes his wife's death.]]

* MyWayOrTheHighway: In ''Eugénie Grandet'', miserly father Grandet gets furious at his daughter Eugénie for giving away her gold coins; and pulls this card after essentially losing the debate to her well-argued defense of her actions: "Eugénie, you are here, in my house,--in your father's house. If you wish to stay here, you must submit yourself to me. The priests tell you to obey me." (though it's implied that he is not particularly religious himself) - [[GroundedForLife and promptly banishes her to her room until further notice]].

* AbusiveParents: Father Grandet in ''Eugénie Grandet'' is stingy and despotic toward his kind-hearted wife, daughter and housekeeper and has absolutely no tolerance for any defiance on their part. When Eugénie gives away the collection of gold coins that he had gradually gifted her to her impoverished cousin Charles and refuses to reveal the secret of who she gave it to, he takes both the loss of the gold, which in his mind is still ''his'' property, and Eugénie's refusal to confide in him personally, furiously berates her, declaring at one point that Eugénie [[IHaveNoSon "has no father"]], and forces her to stay in her room until she reveals who she gave the coins to. [[spoiler: He only ends the punishment when he thinks he can have a financial advantage from being in his daughter's good books, and his persistence in ostracizing her until then causes his wife's death.]]

* AbusiveParents: Father Grandet in ''Eugénie Grandet'' is stingy and despotic toward his kind-hearted wife, daughter and housekeeper and has absolutely no tolerance for any defiance on their part. When Eugénie gives away the collection of gold coins that he had gradually gifted her to her impoverished cousin Charles and refuses to violate the secret of who she gave it to to him, he takes both the loss of the gold, which in his mind is still ''his'' property, and Eugénie's refusal to confide in him personally, furiously berates her, declaring at one point that Eugénie [[IHaveNoSon "has no father"]], and forces her to stay in her room until she reveals who she gave the coins to. [[spoiler: He only ends the punishment when he thinks he can have a financial advantage from being in his daughter's good books, and his persistence in ostracizing her until then causes his wife's death.]]

* SocialClimber: Eugène de Rastignac from ''La Comédie Humaine'' is such a climber that his name has become synonymous with the trope in the French language. He's not especially dishonourable compared to others around him, though, and he makes mistakes and has setbacks. By the end of the series, he makes it to Minister.
* TheWoobie: Eugénie and her mother in ''Eugénie Grandet'', who live under the yoke of a very wealthy but extremely miserly and despotic father and husband and are too kind-hearted and religious to take any kind of stand against it. [[spoiler: Eugénie ends up falling in love with her cousin Charles and giving him her gold coin collection, but he never comes back to marry her; she only succeeds in getting her father angry enough to banish her indefinitely to her room; her mother falls ill from the shock of his reaction and dies shortly after he finally ends Eugénie's punishment. Eugénie ends up having inherited her father's, and later her husband's wealth, but alone in the world.]]

* SocialClimber: Eugène de Rastignac from ''La Comédie Humaine'' is such a climber that his name has become synonymous with the trope in the French language. He's not especially dishonourable compared to others around him, though, and he makes mistakes and has setbacks. By the end of the series, he makes it to Minister.

'''Honoré de Balzac''' (1799-1850) is one of the greatest writers in French letters. His obscurity in the Anglophone Media is inverse to his omnipresence in France and his influence on writers and artists in variety of media. Creator/HenryJames called Balzac one of his favorite authors and wrote of him extensively as a critic. Sculptor Auguste Rodin would sculpt a masterpiece with his monument and the film-makers of the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave cited him as a Patron Saint.

* ''Literature/LePereGoriot''

* ''Literature/LePereGoriot'' - Regarded as the real starting point of ''La Comédie Humaine'' and features Rastignac and Vautrin.
* ''Ursule Mirouët'' - Regarded by Balzac as one of [[MagnumOpusDissonance his favorites]]
* ''Literature/CousinBette''

* ''Histoire de Treize/History of the Thirteen'' - Which collects ''Ferragus'', ''The Duchess of Langeis'' and ''The Girl with the Golden Eyes''.

Balzac's supreme achievement was ''La Comédie Humaine'' which is an UnbuiltTrope of a SharedUniverse. He intended the series to cover France social life in all its facets, institutions and classes, indeed on coming up with the idea, he announced to his sister, "[[LargeHam I am about to become a genius"]]. He would sub-divide and arrange his novels under sociological labels - ''"Scenes from provincial life", "Scenes from Private Life"'' - and it often featured walk-ons and ContinuityNod of characters from other books who appear and pass by as HeroOfAnotherStory in a cameo appearance. These books could be read separately on its own as a self-contained story but it gained further detail by association with each other.

'''Honoré de Balzac''' (1799-1850) is one of the greatest writers in French letters. His obscurity in the Anglophone Media is inverse to his omnipresence in France and his influence on writers and artists in variety of media. Creator/HenryJames called Balzac one of his favorite authors and wrote of him extensively as a critic. Sculptor Auguste Rodin would sculpt a masterpiece with his monument and the film-makers of the FrenchNewWave cited him as a Patron Saint.

* ''Histoire de Treize/History of the Thirteen'' - Which collects ''Ferragus'', ''The Duchess of Langeis'' and ''The Girl with the Golden Eyes''.

Balzac's supreme achievement was ''La Comédie Humaine'' which is an UnbuiltTrope of a SharedUniverse. He intended the series to cover France social life in all its facets, institutions and classes, indeed on coming up with the idea, he announced to his sister, "[[LargeHam I am about to become a genius"]]. He would sub-divide and arrange his novels under sociological labels - ''"Scenes from provincial life", "Scenes from Private Life" - and it often featured walk-ons and ContinuityNod of characters from other books who appear and pass by as HeroOfAnotherStory in a cameo appearance. These books could be read separately on its own as a self-contained story but it gained further detail by association with each other.

The cast of characters were equally rich, the social-climber Rastignac, the criminal mastermind Vautrin, the Duchesse de Langeis and the secret society of the Thirteen, a quasi-Masonic organization that exists on the margins of Parisian Life. In addition, he also wrote fantastic stories like Sarassine and ''The Wild Ass's Skin''.

--> [''"I am a slave to pen and ink"'']]

'''Honoré de Balzac''' (1799-1850) is one of the greatest writers in French letters. His obscurity in the Anglophone Media is inverse to his omnipresence in France and his influence on writers and artists in variety of media. Creator/HenryJames called Balzac one of his favorite authors and wrote of him extensively as a critic.

Balzac's supreme achievement was ''La Comédie Humaine'' which is an UnbuiltTrope of a SharedUniverse. He intended the series to cover France social life in all its facets, institutions and classes, indeed on coming up with the idea, he announced to his sister, "[[LargeHam I am about to become a genius"]]. He would sub-divide and arrange his novels under sociological labels - ''"Scenes from provincial life", "Scenes from Private Life" - and it often featured walk-ons and ContinuityNod of characters from other books who appear and pass by as HeroFromAnotherStory in a cameo appearance. These books could be read separately on its own as a self-contained story but it gained further detail by association with each other.

* ''Literature/LePereGoriot''.