Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His great work was a series of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comedie humaine, which gives a picture of swathes of French society in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Balzac had plenty of experiences to draw upon, he had been an apprentice in a law office, a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician and failed at all of these pursuits. The novels reveal his difficulties with all these careers. Many of these books have been adapted for the screen and to this day they are a source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics. This volume includes the first twenty-one works in La Comedie humaine, in their recommended reading order: 1. Father Goriot 2. The Chouans 3. An Episode Under The Terror 4. Vendetta 5. The Recruit 6. The Red Inn 7. Thought And Act 8. A Double Retribution 9. Juana 10. A Passion In The Desert 11. The Exiles 12. Almae Sorori 13. Christ In Flanders 14. Maitre Cornelius 15. A Second Home 16. An Historical Mystery 17. At The Sign Of The Cat And Racket 18. The Executioner 19. Domestic Peace 20. Louis Lambert 21. The Alkahest