At the Sign of the Cat and Racket is a novella by Honor de Balzac, first published in 1830. It is the first work in the Sc nes de la vie priv e, a selection of writings which make up the first volume of Balzac's La Com die humaine. It tells the story of the relationship between the lofty artist Th odore de Sommervieux and Augustine Guillaume, the down-to-earth daughter of a cloth merchant.