The Human Comedy: Being the Best Novels from the 'Comedie Humaine' of Honore de Balzac, in Three Volumes: Vol. I: The Purse; Cousin Pons; Why the Atheist Prayed; The Mystery of La Grande Breteche; Albert Savarus; The House of the Tennis-Playing Cat; A Tr…

Complete in three volumes. 464; 381; 368 pp. Dark olive cloth with gilt titles and decorations and blind-stamped design on front boards, sixteen wood engraved illustrations reproduced from an authoritative French edition. The Comedie humaine consists of 91 finished works (stories, novels or analytical essays) and 46 unfinished works (some of which exist only as titles). It does not include Balzac's five theatrical plays or his collection of humorous tales, the "Contes drolatiques" (1832 - 37). The title of the series is usually considered an allusion to Dante's Divine Comedy; while Ferdinand Brunetiere, the famous French literary critic, suggests that it may stem from poems by Alfred de Musset or Alfred de Vigny. While Balzac sought the comprehensive scope of Dante, his title indicates the worldly, human concerns of a realist novelist. The stories are placed in a variety of settings, with characters reappearing in multiple stories.