Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen

To understand the present, one must read Balzac! Deutschlandradio Kultur – A classic in a new translation.

Balzac's centerpiece of the 'Comédie humaine'. With the July Revolution of 1830, the monarchy in France is defeated. An unleashed bourgeoisie takes power, and everything becomes for sale: love, reputation, influence. A society emerges that resembles our own in many ways, characterized by a craving for pleasure and extravagance on one side, and loneliness and poverty on the other. And there are new media – the press! Balzac states: "One destroys the press as one destroys a society: by allowing it all freedom." Vautrin also takes all freedoms for himself. He shrinks from almost no crime and yet always seems to come out on top. Or does he?.