'The Ball at Sceaux' is one of the oldest books in Balzac's 'The Human Comedy' series. It tells the story of Émilie de Fontaine, a pretentious and spoiled young lady who refuses...

In 'Ferragus, Chief of the Devorants' Balzac skillfully traces a dazzling panorama of 19th century Parisian streets and vividly invokes a sparkling menagerie of characters in...

For a very long time Monsieur de Merret has been suspecting his wife of infidelity. One night he comes home earlier than usual and knocks on the door of his wife’s chamber....

Lucien Chardon, the son of a lower middle-class father and an impoverished mother of remote aristocratic descent, is the pivotal figure of the entire work. Living at Angouleme, he...

Set in early 19th-century Paris, it tells the story of a young man who finds a magic piece of shagreen that fulfills his every desire. For each wish granted, however, the skin...

Le Père Goriot (Old Goriot or Father Goriot) is an 1835 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), included in the Scènes de...

“The Vendetta” is a novel by the French writer Honoré de Balzac. It is the eighth of the Scènes de la vie privée (Scenes of Private Life) in La...

'Eugenie Grandet' is one of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's 'The Human Comedy' cycle. The dreary Grandet household, inundated by the overwhelming greed and...

The novella unfolds around a blind old man, Facino Cane who claims to be a descendant of the 14th century condottiere of the same name. The narrator meets Facino Cane at a...

A short story ushering the reader into the violent and horrifying events that took place during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution. The tale follows an old...