Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His great work was a series of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comedie Humaine, which gives a picture of swathes of French society in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Balzac had plenty of experiences to draw upon, he had been an apprentice in a law office, a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician and failed at all of these pursuits. The novels reveal his difficulties with all these careers. Many of these books have been adapted for the screen and to this day they are a source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics. This volume includes ten works in La Comedie Humaine, in their recommended reading order: The Duchesse Of Langeais, Madame Firmiani, Sons Of The Soil, Scenes From A Courtesan's Life, Modeste Mignon, The Purse, The Ball At Sceaux, The Marriage Contract, Gobseck, The Deserted Woman

Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His great work was a series of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comedie Humaine, which gives a picture of swathes of French society in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Balzac had plenty of experiences to draw upon, he had been an apprentice in a law office, a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician and failed at all of these pursuits. The novels reveal his difficulties with all these careers. Many of these books have been adapted for the screen and to this day they are a source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics. This volume includes twelve works in La Comedie Humaine, in their recommended reading order: A Woman Of Thirty, The Thirteen, The Girl With The Golden Eyes, The Two Brothers, The Elixir Of Life, Catherine De' Medici, Eugenie Grandet, Rise And Fall Of Cesar Birotteau, The Hidden Masterpiece, Sarrasine, The Hated Son, Farewell

Honor de Balzac (1799-1850) was one of the premiere French novelists. This is a collection of his stories.

In Balzac's classic study of obsession, a chance meeting changes Balthazar Claes' life as it introduces him to alchemy and initiates his quest of the absolute. Throughout, our sympathy is equally divided between Balthazar's single-minded determination to push back the frontiers of knowledge, and the ruin of his family. "The Quest Of The Absolute" Was first published in France in 1834 and appears in a new edition from Dedalus, translated by Ellen Marriage and with an afterword and chronology by Christopher Smith.

The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter Henri Murger. Translated by Ellen Marriage and John Selwyn. Introduction by Maurice Samuels "Today, as of old, every man who enters on an artistic career, without any other means of livelihood than his art itself, will be forced to walk in the paths of Bohemia."--from the Preface Based largely upon Henri Murger's own experiences and those of his fellow artists, "The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter" was originally produced as a play in 1849 and first appeared in book form in 1851. It was an immediate sensation. The novel consists of a series of interrelated episodes in the lives of a group of poor friends--a musician, a poet, a philosopher, a sculptor, and a painter--who attempt to maintain their artistic ideals while struggling for food, shelter, and sex. Set in the ancient Latin Quarter, a vibrant and cosmopolitan area near the University of Paris, the novel is a masterful portrait of nineteenth-century Parisian artistic life. "Bohemian" soon became synonymous with "artist," and it is from Murger's novel that the word and concept entered the English language. Drawn from real-life characters and events, the themes of love, sacrifice, and "selling out" are immediately recognizable to the modern reader. Capturing the heart, spirit, and bittersweet humor of the world of struggling artists, "The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter" is the universal story of one's attempt to leave a mark on the world. Henri Murger (1822-1861) wrote for magazines and newspapers and authored several books of fiction but is remembered today only for this novel of artistic life in nineteenth-century Paris. 2004 432 pages 4 1/4 x 6 3/4 ISBN 978-0-8122-1884-8 Paper $29.95s 19.50 ISBN 978-0-8122-0095-9 Ebook $29.95s 19.50 World Rights Fiction, Literature, Cultural Studies Short copy: Known chiefly as the basis for Puccini's great opera "La Boheme," and resurrected more recently as the musical "Rent," "The Bohemians of the Latin Quarter" is one of the most culturally influential French novels of the nineteenth century.