By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine), consists of 95 finished works (stories, novels and essays) and 48 unfinished works. His stories are an attempt to comprehend and depict the realities of life in contemporary bourgeois France. They are placed in a variety of settings, with characters reappearing in multiple stories.

Reproduction of the original.

CHAPTER I. A BEDROOM OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY On a winter's night, about two in the morning, the Comtesse Jeanne d'Herouville felt such violent pains that in spite of her inexperience, she was conscious of an approaching confinement; and the instinct which makes us hope for ease in a change of posture induced her to sit up in her bed, either to study the nature of these new sufferings, or to reflect on her situation. She was a prey to cruel fears,—caused less by the dread of a first lying-in, which terrifies most women, than by certain dangers which awaited her child. In order not to awaken her husband who was sleeping beside her, the poor woman moved with precautions which her intense terror made as minute as those of a prisoner endeavoring to escape. Though the pains became more and more severe, she ceased to feel them, so completely did she concentrate her own strength on the painful effort of resting her two moist hands on the pillow and so turning her suffering body from a posture in which she could find no ease. At the slightest rustling of the huge green silk coverlet, under which she had slept but little since her marriage, she stopped as though she had rung a bell. Forced to watch the count, she divided her attention between the folds of the rustling stuff and a large swarthy face, the moustache of which was brushing her shoulder. When some noisier breath than usual left her husband's lips, she was filled with a sudden terror that revived the color driven from her cheeks by her double anguish. The prisoner reached the prison door in the dead of night and trying to noiselessly turn the key in a pitiless lock, was never more timidly bold.

Reproduction of the original: The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac

This comprehensive eBook presents the complete Human Comedy of Honoré de Balzac in English, with beautiful illustrations, concise introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (28MB Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Balzac's life and works * Concise introductions to the novels and other works * The COMPLETE 'La ComÈdie humaine' in English translation * The whole series is precisely organised into Balzac's plan * Includes Balzac's introduction AVANT-PROPOS * Images of how the books were first printed, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Famous works such as FATHER GORIOT, COUSIN BETTY, THE MAGIC SKIN and many more are illustrated with their original artwork * Balzac's five plays * Criticism section, with seven essays by writers such as Henry James and Leslie Stephen, evaluating Balzac's contribution to literature * Features five biographies - discover in depth Balzac's literary life! * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres * Special CHARACTERS resource, with information on all members of the cast 'La Comédie humaine', with references to the novels and stories they appear in Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse our range of exciting titles. CONTENTS: THE HUMAN COMEDY THE HISTORY OF 'LA COM…DIE HUMAINE' AVANT-PROPOS (PREFACE) THE COMPLETE HUMAN COMEDY - OVER 110 NOVELS AND STORIES (too many to list) The Short Stories DROLL STORIES THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE The Plays INTRODUCTION TO BALZAC'S DRAMAS by J. Walker McSpadden VAUTRIN THE RESOURCES OF QUINOLA PAMELA GIRAUD THE STEPMOTHER MERCADET RESOURCES The Criticism HONOR… DE BALZAC by Henry James A LETTER, 1883 by Robert Louis Stevenson BALZAC by John Cowper Powys BALZAC'S NOVELS by Leslie Stephen BALZAC by William Ernest Henley BALZAC AS A DRAMATIST by Epiphanius Wilson THE NOVEL by D. H. Lawrence The Biographies HONOR… DE BALZAC by Albert Keim and Louis Lumet HONOR… DE BALZAC, HIS LIFE AND WRITINGS by Mary F. Sandars BALZAC AND MADAME HANSKA by Elbert Hubbard BALZAC by Frederick Lawton WOMEN IN THE LIFE OF BALZAC by Juanita Helm Floyd Glossary of Characters in 'La ComÈdie humaine' Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to view the full list