Book One : Youth and early efforts -- Childhood tragedy -- Premature questioning of destiny -- The novel manufactory of Horace de Saint Aubin & Co. -- Madame de Berny -- Business interlude -- Balzac and Napleon -- Book Two : Balzac at work -- The man of thirty -- Black coffee -- The Duchess de Castries -- Balzac discovers his secret -- Book Three : The novel of Balzac's life -- The unknown -- Geneva -- Farewell in Vienna -- Book Four : Splendor and misery of Balzac the novelist -- A year of disasters -- The Contessa Guidoboni-Visconti -- The second Italian journey -- The Sardinian silver mines -- Speculations in the theater -- Book Five : The author of La comédie humaine -- The wooing of Madame de Hanska -- La comédie humaine -- Warning signs -- Balzac the collector -- Book Six : Fulfillment and finale -- Last novels -- Balzac in the Ukraine -- Marriage and Homecoming -- Finale -- Appendix : Balzac's life and work -- Bibliography -- Postscript by Richard Friedenthal, editor.
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