The text is accompanied by an introduction, textual annotations by the editor, and a map of Paris. "Responses: Contemporaries and Other Novelists" illustrates Balzac's immense influence on other writers, among them Charles Baudelaire, Hippolyte Taine, Emile Zola, and Marcel Proust. "Twentieth-Centur[...]

Five of the author's most highly regarded stories, newly translated, appear in this choice collection: the title story, an examination of the conflict between an artist's commitment to his work and his obligations to others; "An Episode During the Terror," a contrast of material poverty and spiritua[...]

One of Honore de Balzac’s most celebrated tales, “The Unknown Masterpiece” is the story of a painter who, depending on one’s perspective, is either an abject failure or a transcendental genius — or both. The story, which has served as an inspiration to artists as various as [...]