I know Balzac by name of course, i heard he did for Paris what Dickens did for the london of his time. Any story you have read that fit the bill ?
I know about his magnus opus La Comédie humaine. I was wondering about an easier start.
I really never wondered about him but cause of Dumas i now ask myself which other classic french author might be a good read to me.
Well... I've not read that much of Balzac myself at this point (though I hope to get through the Comedie within the next couple of years or so) but, from what I understand from secondary reading, it's the overall achievement of that set that builds the image of a living Paris of the time; no single piece, from what I've gathered, can be said to do so; it's cumulative in nature.
However, I'd suggest finding a good translation of one of the more famous pieces from the set, such as
le père Goriot,
Les Chouans,
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket, etc., and beginning there. Though I quite like
The Wild Ass's Skin, by modern standards, it would have to be considered a failure as a novel (though not as a book), because of the peculiar structure and the lack of thoroughly integrating the dramatic action (what there is of it) with the allegory intended; not to mention the very lengthy passages of mystical or pseudo-mystical meandering issued from the mouth of one or another character -- the same sort of fault people castigate Heinlein for in his later books, only here almost entirely on a
particular topic rather than a variety of them.
Alternatively, try something such as "La Grande Bretèche", which is quite a good tale on its own; or the
Contes Drôlatiques, which are set in a different era (the sixteenth century), and are indeed droll tales -- though at times with a faint touch of the macabre or supernatural about them as well.....
I would not, however, suggest his
études philosophiques as a place to begin, as they are often quite abstract and dense, difficult to get into as a first encounter with the man's writing....
One thing I am noting, however, is a certain resemblance here and there (in both structure and, it would seem, intent) between Balzac's magnum opus and Cabell's Biography of the Life of Manuel; which, given Cabell's wide (not to mention perceptive) variety of reading, makes for some interesting intertextual oddities....
