Balzac, Honoré de 1799-1850

Eugenie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
1,495 editions published between 1833 and 2013 in 21 languages and held by 11,282 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
The author's best known work, the pathetic story of a girl sacrificed to her father's inhuman avarice and to the brutal indifference of lover and husband. For other editions, see Author Catalog

Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
863 editions published between 1834 and 2013 in 10 languages and held by 8,796 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot. Once a well-heeled merchant, Goriot was--at first--afforded special treatment from the Madame. But now something is clearly amiss in his financial affairs, and his increasingly tawdry appearance makes him a subject of ridicule in the household. Some think he lost in the markets, others see him as a lecherous patron of prostitutes, but one thing is clear: his selflessness and complete devotion to his two daughters

Cousin Pons by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
372 editions published between 1847 and 2011 in 8 languages and held by 3,821 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
In this 1847 novel, often seen as a companion piece to Balzac's Cousin Bette , Sylvain Pons is a musician who despite modest means has amassed a valuable collection of art. Only after a wealthy cousin banishes him as her guest does she learn of the collection and becomes one of many who would like to get their thieving hands on it

Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
68 editions published between 1846 and 2011 in 4 languages and held by 3,422 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
"...Cousin Bette is the story of a Vosges peasant who rebels against her scornful upper-class relatives, skillfully turning their selfish obsessions against them. The novel exemplifies what Henry James described as Balzac's 'huge, all-compassing, all-desiring, all-devouring love of reality'"--Cover, p. 4

The chouans by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
247 editions published between 1829 and 2011 in 6 languages and held by 3,245 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
Appearing in 1829, Les Chouans was the first of Balzac's books to be published under his own name. It is a tale of love gone wrong amid the anti-government Chouan uprising in Brittany in 1799. This is the book that established Balzac's literary reputation, and was, as one critic wrote, the author's passage into the Promised Land."

Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
116 editions published between 1835 and 2011 in 3 languages and held by 3,136 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
Great cycle of novels in which Balzac analysed the motives underlying human action

Colonel chabert by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
258 editions published between 1832 and 2013 in 5 languages and held by 2,845 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
A left-for-dead soldier tries to regain his fiercely disputed identity after a decade-long disappearance

Beatrix by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
161 editions published between 1836 and 2012 in 5 languages and held by 2,591 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
A novel

Lost illusions by Honoré de Balzac ( Book )
60 editions published between 1893 and 2012 in English and Polish and held by 2,291 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
Lucien Chardon, an aspiring young author, leaves his small provincial hometown and attempts to succeed in Parisian literary circles of the early nineteenth century

The girl with the golden eyes by Honoré de Balzac ( )
54 editions published between 1833 and 2012 in English and held by 2,247 WorldCat member libraries worldwide
On the darker side of Parisian society, Henry de Marsay believes only in himself and in his cultural Paris world, until he sees the girl called Paquita Valdes and elaborately plots her seduction. In his fervor, it is only too late that he realizes he has a rival to the inaccessible Paquita ... a woman revealed to be his half-sister, the Marquise de San-Real