author
Honoré de Balzac
1799–1850
Best known for the vast world of La Comédie humaine, this French novelist turned ordinary ambitions, debts, scandals, and desires into stories that still feel startlingly alive. His books helped shape literary realism by showing society in all its energy, vanity, and struggle.
158 Audiobooks
Seraphita
by Honoré de Balzac
An Old Maid
by Honoré de Balzac
Lost Illusions
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 11. Scènes de la vie parisienne - Tome 03
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 15. Études philosophiques
by Honoré de Balzac
Droll Stories — Volume 2
by Honoré de Balzac
Ferragus eli Salaliittolaisten päällikkö
by Honoré de Balzac
Father Goriot
by Honoré de Balzac
The Magic Skin
by Honoré de Balzac
Contes bruns
by Honoré de Balzac, Philarète Chasles, Charles Rabou
Droll Stories — Complete Collected from the Abbeys of Touraine
by Honoré de Balzac
Petty Troubles of Married Life, First Part
by Honoré de Balzac
The Human Comedy: Introductions and Appendix
by Honoré de Balzac
The Commission in Lunacy
by Honoré de Balzac
Cousin Betty
by Honoré de Balzac
Cousin Pons
by Honoré de Balzac
The Unknown Masterpiece 1845
by Honoré de Balzac
A Passion in the Desert
by Honoré de Balzac
Sarrasine
by Honoré de Balzac
The Village Rector
by Honoré de Balzac
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau
by Honoré de Balzac
The Napoleon of the People
by Honoré de Balzac
Letters of Two Brides
by Honoré de Balzac
A Street of Paris and Its Inhabitant
by Honoré de Balzac
The Atheist's Mass
by Honoré de Balzac
El Verdugo
by Honoré de Balzac
The Lily of the Valley
by Honoré de Balzac
Mercadet: A Comedy in Three Acts
by Honoré de Balzac
Folk-Tales of Napoleon Napoleonder from the Russian; The Napoleon of the People from the French of Honoré De Balzac
by Aleksandr Amfiteatrov, Honoré de Balzac
The Resources of Quinola: A Comedy in a Prologue and Five Acts
by Honoré de Balzac
A Woman of Thirty
by Honoré de Balzac
An Episode under the Terror
by Honoré de Balzac
Droll Stories — Volume 3
by Honoré de Balzac
Ferragus, Chief of the Dévorants
by Honoré de Balzac
The Country Doctor
by Honoré de Balzac
Petty Troubles of Married Life, Complete
by Honoré de Balzac
Gaudissart II
by Honoré de Balzac
Petty Troubles of Married Life, Second Part
by Honoré de Balzac
Analytical Studies
by Honoré de Balzac
The Duchesse of Langeais
by Honoré de Balzac
Gambara
by Honoré de Balzac
The Elixir of Life
by Honoré de Balzac
Ursula
by Honoré de Balzac
Pierrette
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 13. Scènes de la vie militaire et Scènes de la vie de campagne
by Honoré de Balzac
Eugénie Grandet
by Honoré de Balzac
Eugenie Grandet
by Honoré de Balzac
La Grenadiere
by Honoré de Balzac
The Girl with the Golden Eyes
by Honoré de Balzac
The Chouans
by Honoré de Balzac
Colonel Chabert
by Honoré de Balzac
The Deserted Woman
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 04
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 14. Études philosophiques
by Honoré de Balzac
Laakson lilja: Maaseutuelämän kuvaus
by Honoré de Balzac
The Marriage Contract
by Honoré de Balzac
Parisians in the Country
by Honoré de Balzac
An Historical Mystery (The Gondreville Mystery)
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 12. Scènes de la vie parisienne et scènes de la vie politique
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 09. Scènes de la vie parisienne - Tome 01
by Honoré de Balzac
A Man of Business
by Honoré de Balzac
Letters to Madame Hanska, born Countess Rzewuska, afterwards Madame Honoré de Balzac, 1833-1846
by Honoré de Balzac
The Thirteen
by Honoré de Balzac
Beatrix
by Honoré de Balzac
Study of a Woman
by Honoré de Balzac
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life
by Honoré de Balzac
Catherine De Medici
by Honoré de Balzac
The Firm of Nucingen
by Honoré de Balzac
Adieu
by Honoré de Balzac
Facino Cane
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 10. Scènes de la vie parisienne - Tome 02
by Honoré de Balzac
Louis Lambert
by Honoré de Balzac
Albert Savarus
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 07. Scènes de la vie de Province - Tome 03
by Honoré de Balzac
The Celibates
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 06. Scènes de la vie de Province - Tome 02
by Honoré de Balzac
Farewell
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 02
by Honoré de Balzac
The Lesser Bourgeoisie
by Honoré de Balzac
Sons of the Soil
by Honoré de Balzac
Another Study of Woman
by Honoré de Balzac
The Ball at Sceaux
by Honoré de Balzac
Keski-ikäinen nainen
by Honoré de Balzac
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket
by Honoré de Balzac
The Hidden Masterpiece
by Honoré de Balzac
Vautrin: A Drama in Five Acts
by Honoré de Balzac
La Comédie humaine - Volume 03
by Honoré de Balzac
Eversti Chabert
by Honoré de Balzac
Perijätär
by Honoré de Balzac
A Distinguished Provincial at Paris
by Honoré de Balzac
Modeste Mignon
by Honoré de Balzac
Poor Relations
by Honoré de Balzac
The Red Inn
by Honoré de Balzac
The Physiology of Marriage, Part 2
by Honoré de Balzac
Love in a Mask; Or, Imprudence and Happiness
by Honoré de Balzac
Große und kleine Welt
by Honoré de Balzac
La firmao de la kato kiu pilkludas
by Honoré de Balzac
Kahden nuoren aviovaimon muistelmat
by Honoré de Balzac
Gobseck
by Honoré de Balzac
Bureaucracy
by Honoré de Balzac
About the author
Born in Tours on May 20, 1799, Honoré de Balzac became one of the great chroniclers of 19th-century France. After early attempts at law and several unsuccessful business ventures, he committed himself to writing and produced an extraordinary body of fiction and drama before his death in Paris on August 18, 1850.
His best-known achievement is La Comédie humaine, a large sequence of interconnected novels and stories that paints a sweeping picture of French life after Napoleon. Across works such as Old Goriot, Eugénie Grandet, and Cousin Bette, he wrote about money, status, family, ambition, and the hidden motives that drive people, giving many characters lives that continue from one book to another.
Balzac is often seen as a founding figure of literary realism because of his sharp eye for social detail and his ability to make whole communities feel real. His influence reached far beyond France, shaping later novelists who admired the scale of his imagination and the force of his observation.