Honore de Balzac - best books
Discover the best books by Honoré de Balzac, from the gripping drama of *Cousin Bette* to the classic *Old Goriot*. Explore curated Balzac novels, including *A Harlot High and Low* and *Maitre Cornelius*, perfect for fans of French literature and timeless fiction.
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Maitre Cornelius
by Honore de Balzac
Balzac's famous medieval love story, in which he turns King Louis XI of France into a detective.
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A Harlot High and Low
by Honore de Balzac
Finance, fashionable society, and the intrigues of the underworld and the police system form the heart of this powerful novel, which introduces the satanic genius Vautrin, one of the greatest villains in world literature. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Cousin Bette
by Honoré de Balzac
Cousin Bette (1846) is considered to be Balzac's last great novel, and a key work in his Human Comedy. Set in the Paris of the 1830s and 1840s, it is a complex tale of the devastating effect of violent jealousy and sexual passion. Against a meticulously detailed backdrop of a post-Napoleonic France struggling with massive industrial and economic change, Balzac's characters span many classes of society, from impoverished workers and wealthy courtesans to successful businessmen and official dignitaries. The tragic outcome of the novel is relieved by occasional flashes of ironic comedy and the emergence of a younger generation which has come to terms with the new political and econimic climate. This new translation by Sylvia Raphael has an Introduction by David Bellos which sets the novel in its social, historical, and literary context. - ;This new translation has an Introduction which sets the novel in its social, historical, and literary context. -
