BALZAC, HONORÉ de. — French writer, b. in 1799, d. in Paris on 18 Aug. 1850. He studied law and attempted the legal profession, but, driven by a passion for literature, he soon left the province and settled in Paris in 1819, dedicating himself to the novel. To increase his meagre earnings, he embarked on more than one commercial speculation, but all failed: he was thus forced to struggle constantly with debt, even when literary fame should have allowed him a comfortable and tranquil life.
In 1829 he achieved his first success with *Les Chouans*, followed by a series of novels published over two decades, culminating in masterpieces such as *Le Père Goriot*, *Eugénie Grandet*, *La Cousine Bette*, etc. Starting from the imitation of W. Scott, B. soon abandoned the historical novel to focus on the study of contemporary society, creating a vast fresco of French life in the first half of the 19th century.
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(On the influence of Balzac on Italian literature V. ITALIA, VI, p. 543).