The Cambridge Companion to Balzac

One of the founders of literary realism and the serial novel, Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a prolific writer who produced more than a hundred novels, plays and short stories during his career. With its dramatic plots and memorable characters, Balzac's fiction has enthralled generations of readers. 'La Comédie humaine', the vast collection of works in which he strove to document every aspect of nineteenth-century French society, has influenced writers from Flaubert, Zola and Proust to Dostoevsky and Oscar Wilde. This Companion provides a critical reappraisal of Balzac, combining studies of his major novels with guidance on the key narrative and thematic features of his writing. Twelve chapters by world-leading specialists encompass a wide spectrum of topics such as the representation of history, philosophy and religion, the plight of the struggling artist, gender and sexuality, and Balzac's depiction of the creative process itself.

Balzac's work: an overview of 'La Comédie humaine'; Introduction Andrew Watts; 1. Balzac: a portrait of the novelist as social historian and scientist Elisabeth Gerwin; 2. Balzac's early works Michael Tilby; 3. Balzac's correspondence Ewa Szypula; 4. Fantasy and reality in La Peau de chagrin David F. Bell; 5. Balzac, money and the pursuit of power Allan H. Pasco; 6. Le Père Goriot: arrivisme and the Parisian morality tale Armine Kotin Mortimer; 7. Illusions perdues: writers, artists and the reflexive novel Sotirios Paraschas; 8. Balzac, gender and sexuality: La Cousine Bette Dorothy Kelly; 9. Space, religion and politics in the Scènes de la vie de campagne Owen Heathcote; 10. Balzac's shorter fiction Tim Farrant; 11. Adapting Balzac Andrew Watts; 12. Balzac's legacy Scott Lee; Epilogues: Dual Balzac Chantal Chawaf; Living Balzac Éric Jourdan; Guide to further reading.

Owen Heathcote is Honorary Senior Research Fellow in Modern French Studies at the University of Bradford. He researches the relation between violence, gender, sexuality and representation in French literature from the nineteenth century to the present. His many publications include Balzac and Violence: Representing History, Space, Sexuality and Death in 'La Comédie humaine' (2009) and From Bad Boys to New Men? Masculinity, Sexuality and Violence in the Work of Éric Jourdan (2014).
Andrew Watts is Senior Lecturer in French Studies at the University of Birmingham. His research focuses on the representation of provincial life in 'La Comédie humaine' and, more recently, on the adaptation of nineteenth-century French novels in different artistic media. He is the author of Preserving the Provinces: Small Town and Countryside in the Work of Honoré de Balzac (2007) and the co-author (with Kate Griffiths) of Adapting Nineteenth-Century France: Literature in Film, Theatre, Television, Radio and Print (2013). He has also co-edited (with Michelle Cheyne) a critical edition of Balzac's Le Nègre (2014).