Balzac Honore de
Balzac Honore de (1799-1850). French novelist, who achieved his first success with Les Chouans (1829). His major novels fit into an overall scheme, The Human Comedy, which Balzac planned to contain 143 novels about 19th-century life. The 90 novels completed analyse various aspects of human nature, such as miserliness in Eugenie Grandet (1833), doting parent-hood in Father Goriot (1834-35), and jealousy in Cousin Bette (1846). A poor businessman, Balzac lived extravagantly and was often in debt. He married a Polish countess shortly before his death.
