author
Charles Rabou
1803–1870
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.
1 Audiobook
Contes bruns
by Honoré de Balzac, Philarète Chasles, Charles Rabou
About the author
Born in Paris in 1803, Charles Félix Henri Rabou studied at the collège Henri IV and the Faculty of Dijon before leaving the legal profession for literature. He worked as a journalist for several newspapers and went on to help found the Revue de Paris, becoming one of the active figures in French literary journalism of his time.
Rabou developed a close friendship with Honoré de Balzac and published Balzac’s work in the pages of his review. That relationship became a lasting part of his reputation: after Balzac’s death, Rabou was entrusted with completing several unfinished novels, including Le Député d’Arcis, Le Comte de Sallenauve, La Famille Beauvisage, and Les Petits Bourgeois.
He also built a writing career of his own, publishing novels and stories across the 1830s to 1860s. His work included collaborations such as Contes bruns and later fiction often described as fantastical or gothic in tone, which has led some readers to see him as a writer worth rediscovering beyond his connection to Balzac.