French novelist whose cycle of about 90 novels and stories, 人间喜剧 (The Human Comedy), portrays French society after Napoleon. Chinese students read 欧也妮·葛朗台 (Eugénie Grandet) and 高老头 (Père Goriot).
Bā'ěrzhākè shì shíjiǔ shìjì Fǎguó xiànshízhǔyì wénxué de dàibiǎo.
Balzac is a leading figure of 19th-century French realist literature.
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culture
Old Grandet, the father in 欧也妮·葛朗台, is counted in China among the 四大吝啬鬼, the 'four great misers' of world literature, with Shylock, Molière's Harpagon and Gogol's Plyushkin.
memory
Four characters: 巴 gives Ba, 尔 the l, 扎 za and 克 the final c. 尔 is the usual character for an l or r with no vowel after it, as in 比尔 (Bill) and 尼尔 (Neil).