Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright He is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature Balzacs first project was a libretto for a comic opera called Le Corsaire based on Lord Byrons The Corsair In 1820 he completed the fiveact verse tragedy Cromwell After writing several novels in 1832 Balzac conceived the idea for an enormous series of books that would paint a panoramic portrait of all aspects of society Illusions perduesLost Illusions is a serial novel written between 1837 and 1843