The Cambridge Companion to Balzac by Owen Heathcote, Andrew Watts ISBN 9781107588929, 1107588928 instant download

The Cambridge Companion to Balzac by Owen Heathcote, Andrew Watts ISBN 9781107588929, 1107588928 instant download

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.