La Maison Nucingen (The Firm of Nucingen) is a 1837 novel belonging to the Scenes from Parisian Life (Scènes de la vie Parisienne) subseries of La Comédie Humaine. The title originally planned by Balzac was la Haute Banque, a term used at the time for a handful of bankers who had acquired an absolute dominance in the financial markets of which Nucingen was one.
Baron Nucingen appeared for the first time in the Father Goriot, and in Melmoth Réconcilié. Balzac had not finished writing Melmoth Réconcilié when he undertook La Maison Nucingen. In both novels, the author is inspired by the same subject: the stock market speculation, speculation raging at a time of unprecedented industrialization, where risky investments to the point of madness can lead to triumph or ruin.
While The Firm of Nucingen is realistic, Melmoth, with its association with the myth of Faust along with a theme of soul selling, has been classified under the Philosophical Studies subseries of La Comédie Humaine.
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