Ten Droll Tales, Being the Story of the Fair Imperia, the Venial Sin, the Merrie Diversions of His Most Christian Majesty King Louis the Eleventh, ... Certain Other Quaint and Piquant Histories

Honoré de Balzac (/ˈbɔːlzæk, ˈbæl-/; French: [ɔ.nɔ.ʁe d(ə) bal.zak], born Honoré Balzac, 20 May 1799 – 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie Humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.