One of the founders of literary realism and the serial novel, Honor de Balzac (1799-1850) was a prolific writer who produced more than a hundred novels, plays and short stories during his career. With its dramatic plots and memorable characters, Balzac's fiction has enthralled generations of readers. 'La Com die humaine', the vast collection of works in which he strove to document every aspect of nineteenth-century French society, has influenced...