BALZAC, Honoré
- Era: 1799 – 1850
- Location: France
- Categories: LITERATURE
Honoré de Balzac was a prolific author of short stories and novels amounting to 90+ and including the major collection on the 'Human Condition' in all its social ambiguity. Informed by an early background in legal training which required the discipline of report writing and attention to detail, familiarity with the working of French law and exposure to people across a wide range of backgrounds. Balzac subsequently became a passionate interpreter of people, human behaviour and motivation in his imaginative writings. Self-centredness is everywhere apparent; will power is central in this for good and ill. His own working routine involved punishingly long hours; he’s been described as a romantic realist. Enormously influential on contemporary European and N American
writers – as on film-makers since.
Life
Victor Hugo's eulogy for Balzac
'Prometheus: the life of Balzac' by Andre Maurois
Writings