Balzac: A Biography by Stefan ZweigHonoré de Balzac May 20, 1799 August 18, born, was a nineteenth-century French novelist and playwright. His work, much of which is a sequence (or Roman-fleuve) of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, is a broad, often satirical panorama of French society, particularly the petite bourgeoisie, in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815—namely the period of the Restoration 1815 –1830) and the July Monarchy (1830–1848).
Along with Gustave Flaubert (whose work he influenced), Balzac is generally regarded as a founding father of realism in European literature. Balzac's novels, most of which are farcical comedies, feature a large cast of well-defined characters, and descriptions in exquisite detail of the scene of action. He also presented particular characters in different novels repeatedly, sometimes as main protagonists and sometimes in the background, in order to create the effect of a consistent 'real' world across his novelistic output. He is the pioneer of this style. Stefan Zweig was a German biographer, essayist, short story writer, and cosmopolitan, who
advocated the idea of a united Europe under one government. Zweig achieved fame with his biographies of historical characters in which he used psychoanalytical theories. Among Zweig's best-known works is
BAUMEISTER DER WELT (1936, translated as Master Builders), a
collection of his biographical studies. Zweig was a prolific writer, whose vivid character portraits, whether fictional or factual, were emphatically probing and believable. In the 1930s Zweig was one of the
most widely translated authors in the world. His extensive travels led him to India, Africa, North and Central America, and Russia. Among his friends were Maksim Gorky, Rainer Maria Rilke, Auguste Rodin, and Arturo Toscanini.
CONDITION: Hard Cover, Viking Press, 1946, may be a first edition, blue cloth boards with decorative covers. 404 pages, used with light to moderate wear.
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