Balzac, Honore de 1799-1850. French novelist.
His first success was Les Chouans/The Chouans
and La Physiologie du mariage/The Physiology
of Marriage 1829, inspired by Scott. This was
the beginning of the long series of novels La
Comedie humaine/The Human Comedy. He also
wrote the Rabelaisian Contes
drolatiques/Ribald Tales 1833. Born in Tours,
Balzac studied law and worked as a notary's
clerk in Paris before turning to literature.
His first attempts included tragedies such as
Cromwell and novels published pseudonymously
with no great success. A venture in printing
and publishing 1825-28 involved him in a
lifelong web of debt. His patroness, Madame
de Berny, figures in Le Lys dans la
vallee/The Lily in the Valley 1836. Balzac
intended his major work La Comedie
humaine/The Human Comedy to comprise 143
volumes, depicting every aspect of society in
19th-century France, but he only managed to
complete 80. The series includes Eugenie
Grandet 1833, Le Pere Goriot 1834, and
Cousine Bette 1846. Balzac corresponded
constantly with the Polish countess Evelina
Hanska after meeting her in 1833, but they
married only four months before his death in
Paris. He was buried in Pere Lachaise
cemetery.