Honoré de Balzac

At the beginning of the story the heroine lives an unfulfilled life in rural France, her nature crushed by a domineering and miserly father....

Dans une petite boutique du vieux Paris, là où les traditions bourgeoises s’accrochent comme la poussière aux rideaux, vit Augustine Guillaume… Jeune fille douce, discrète, promise à un avenir tout tracé dans le commerce familial : La Maison du Chat-qui-pelote.

"La femme de trente ans" évoque la condition féminine au travers du récit d'un mariage qui échoue. Julie de Chastillon est une jeune femme...

Obra maestra de Balzac, Las ilusiones perdidas cuenta la historia de un joven de provincias con ambiciones artísticas que sueña con triunfar en París....

Hailed as the father of the naturalist novel, French author and playwright Honoré de Balzac left a legacy of treasured literary works that include Père Goriot and Cousin Bette....

At the shabby boarding house in the rue Neuve-Sainte-Geneviève, petty Madame Vauquer and her tenants wonder at the plight of the aging resident Goriot....

Impoverished young aristocrat Eugene de Rastignac is determined to climb the social ladder and impress himself on Parisian high society. He encounters Jean-Joachim Goriot, a retired vermicelli maker....

Voici donc l'histoire de ce père Goriot, vermicellien ayant fait fortune et qui, tel l'Albatros de Baudelaire, se déchirera les entrailles pour élever ses enfants...

Dans "La Peau de chagrin", un de ses premiers romans à coloration fantastique, Balzac nous dévoile le mythe sans doute le plus central dans "La Comédie Humaine"...

This is a heart-wrenching story of a man driven to poverty by the selfless acts and the overwhelming love and devotion that he has for his two daughters....

Brothers Philippe and Joseph Bridau are completely unalike: Philippe, braggart and soldier, formerly aide-de-camp to Napoleon, is their mother Agathe's favorite; Joseph, a poor and aspiring artist, is raised in his brother's shadow....

The French Classics Collection brings together 18 of the greatest works of fiction ever written in French - here collected into one audiobook and all translated into English.

The Bette referred to in this magnificent novel's title is Lisbeth Fischer, an excruciatingly cunning poor relation who both depends upon and nurses a terrible grudge....

Life has the capacity of great moments and attainment, of lives well lived, fulfilling for ourselves and for those we touch. But for others life is arduous. There is no spark to ignite the curiosity, to explore and achieve a stability and a growth to their lives....

Inspiré à Balzac par son expérience dans l'imprimerie, Illusions perdues raconte l'échec de Lucien de Rubempré, jeune provincial épris de gloire littéraire...

Una bellísima cortesana, casi adolescente y enamorada, un poeta-vividor, también enamorado, y un ex convicto serán los personajes centrales de esta novela que, aunque escrita con estilo irregular....

One of the greatest of French novelists, Balzac, trained as a lawyer, was a great judge of human nature....

Lisbeth Fischer has lived in the shadow of her beautiful cousin Adeline for much of her life. Pampered while Lisbeth works in the fields, Adeline makes an enviable leap in status when Baron Hulot offers her his hand in marriage....

"The possession of power, no matter how enormous, does not bring the knowledge how to use it"...

Honore de Balzac's classic book of revenge and passion in which the title character Bette plots the destruction of various men including her cousin-in-law, Baron Hector Hulot....