Starting from Balzac’s birth in Tours in 1799, Saltus sketches the vagaries of his genius: the childhood reading, the debts and get-rich-quick schemes, the plays and the vast design of The Human Comedy. A playful chapter even lets Rastignac gossip about his creator’s characters in a theatre box, and a bibliography closes the book.
An 1884 appreciation in Saltus’s florid style, for readers who want a lively introduction to Balzac. Download the free EPUB.