Honoré de Balzac Audiobooks

Honoré de Balzac

1799–1850

A giant of French fiction, this restless, ambitious storyteller built a whole literary world in La Comédie humaine, capturing the dreams, vanities, and struggles of 19th-century society. His novels still feel lively because they care so much about money, power, love, and the ways people reinvent themselves.

About the author

Born in Tours, France, on May 20, 1799, Honoré de Balzac became one of the most influential novelists of the 19th century. After trying law and a series of business ventures, he turned seriously to writing and produced an enormous body of fiction and essays. He died in Paris on August 18, 1850.

Balzac is best known for La Comédie humaine, the vast sequence of novels and stories through which he tried to portray French life after the fall of Napoleon. Instead of treating each book as a separate world, he brought characters back across different works, creating a rich social panorama of aristocrats, bankers, artists, journalists, strivers, and schemers. That ambitious design helped shape the modern realist novel.

His life was almost as dramatic as his fiction. He wrote with astonishing energy, was often burdened by debt, and became famous for his punishing work habits. Readers still return to him for the scale of his vision and for unforgettable books such as Père Goriot, Eugénie Grandet, and Lost Illusions.

Honoré de Balzac

158 Audiobooks

Seraphita

An Old Maid

Lost Illusions

La Comédie humaine - Volume 11. Scènes de la vie parisienne - Tome 03

La Comédie humaine - Volume 15. Études philosophiques

Droll Stories — Volume 2

Ferragus eli Salaliittolaisten päällikkö

The Magic Skin

Droll Stories — Complete Collected from the Abbeys of Touraine

Father Goriot

Petty Troubles of Married Life, First Part

Contes bruns

Cousin Pons

Cousin Betty

The Commission in Lunacy

The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix

Sarrasine

A Passion in the Desert

The Village Rector

The Unknown Masterpiece 1845

Letters of Two Brides

The Atheist's Mass

The Napoleon of the People

The Resources of Quinola: A Comedy in a Prologue and Five Acts

El Verdugo

A Street of Paris and Its Inhabitant

Gaudissart II

Droll Stories — Volume 3

Folk-Tales of Napoleon Napoleonder from the Russian; The Napoleon of the People from the French of Honoré De Balzac

Mercadet: A Comedy in Three Acts

Ferragus, Chief of the Dévorants

A Woman of Thirty

Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete

Analytical Studies

Petty Troubles of Married Life, Second Part

Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau

The Lily of the Valley

The Duchesse of Langeais

An Episode under the Terror

Ursula

The Deserted Woman

The Country Doctor

Eugénie Grandet

The Elixir of Life

The Girl with the Golden Eyes

La Comédie humaine - Volume 13. Scènes de la vie militaire et Scènes de la vie de campagne

La Grenadiere

The Thirteen

La Comédie humaine - Volume 12. Scènes de la vie parisienne et scènes de la vie politique

La Comédie humaine - Volume 04

Letters to Madame Hanska, born Countess Rzewuska, afterwards Madame Honoré de Balzac, 1833-1846

Parisians in the Country

Colonel Chabert

Gambara

Pierrette

Adieu

La Comédie humaine - Volume 14. Études philosophiques

Scenes from a Courtesan's Life

Catherine De Medici

The Chouans

Eugenie Grandet

Beatrix

La Comédie humaine - Volume 09. Scènes de la vie parisienne - Tome 01

Another Study of Woman

The Marriage Contract

An Historical Mystery (The Gondreville Mystery)

The Celibates

Farewell

Louis Lambert

Laakson lilja: Maaseutuelämän kuvaus

The Hidden Masterpiece

Facino Cane

La Comédie humaine - Volume 06. Scènes de la vie de Province - Tome 02

The Lesser Bourgeoisie

A Distinguished Provincial at Paris

Gobseck

The Firm of Nucingen

A Man of Business