Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau

by Honore de Balzac

Overview

Honora de Balzac is considered the founder of social realism. Balzac was the first writer to write about all social levels of the social scene in France. His vast collection of works encompasses the Restoration period and the July Monarchy. La Comedie Humaine was written between 1799 and 1850. This collection contains 95 novels, stories, and essays. Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau can be found in the Scenes from Parisian life (Scènes de la vie parisienne) in La Comedie Humaine. César Birotteau, the doomed capitalist is the main character in this work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783734084652
Publisher:	Outlook Verlag
Publication date:	09/25/2019
Pages:	266
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

Honoré de Balzac (1799 - 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus. Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Jack Kerouac, and Henry James, filmmakers Akira Kurosawa and Eric Rohmer as well as important philosophers such as Friedrich Engels. Many of Balzac's works have been made into films and they continue to inspire other writers.

Katherine Prescott Wormeley (1830 - 1908) was an American nurse in the Civil War, author, editor and translator of French language literary works. She was one of the best known translators of her time, having translated from the French language the complete works of Honoré de Balzac (40 vols., 1883-97) for American readers. She also translated the Narrative of Marie-Thérèse Charlotte de France, the memoirs of Madame de Motteville on Anne of Austria, as well as works by Molière (6 vols., 1892); Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon; Alphonse Daudet; and Alexandre Dumas, among others.

What People are Saying About This

Marcel Prouft

In reading Balzac, we can still feel and almost gratify those cravings which great literature ought to allay in us.
—(Marcel Prouft)

Andre Maurois

The novel is a study in morals, the picture of a world which Balzac knew from top to bottom because he came from it.
—(Andre Maurois)