
CONTES BRUNS. - Par - Honoré de Balzac, Philarète Chasles et Charles Rabou - MDCCCXXXII.
Step into a late‑winter Parisian drawing‑room where the air hums with the clash of ideas rather than the clink of glasses. Artists, poets, scholars, and curious gentlemen fill the space, each eager to trade sharp wit for thoughtful observation. The narrator sketches the scene as a living tableau, where laughter, brushstrokes, and spontaneous anecdotes swirl together like a bright firework of conversation.
The evening unfolds between eleven and midnight, a cascade of lively exchanges that feel both polished and impromptu. Voices rise and fall, revealing hidden passions, gentle teasing, and a generosity of thought that seems rare in the public sphere. As the night deepens, the narrator strives to preserve the fleeting brilliance of that gathering, offering listeners a glimpse of the intellectual camaraderie that defined a bygone Parisian salon.
Language
fr
Duration
~6 hours (358K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Tonya Allen, Renald Levesque and PG Distributed Proofreaders
Release date
Apr 1, 2004
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1799–1850
A towering figure of 19th-century French literature, he transformed the novel into a vivid portrait of society, ambition, money, and desire. His interconnected fiction, later gathered as La Comédie humaine, remains one of the great literary panoramas of modern life.
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1798–1873
A restless, wide-ranging critic, he helped bring English and German literature into French literary conversation. His life moved through politics, exile, journalism, teaching, and an enormous body of essays and books.
View all books1803–1870
A Paris-born novelist and journalist of the 19th century, he moved from law into literary life and became closely linked with Honoré de Balzac. He is still remembered both for his own fiction—especially tales with a fantastic edge—and for finishing several of Balzac’s unfinished works after Balzac’s death.
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