Verlorene Illusionen

Balzac's most beautiful novel in a stunning new translation. Lucien, the handsome young intellectual from the provinces, adored by his mother, sister, and brother-in-law, and declared a genius, travels to Paris with their last savings and falls into many traps there. Poetry does not advance him; only as a newspaper critic does he come into money - and into the arms of a beautiful mistress. But then he gets entangled in intrigues, and suddenly everything is at stake. Balzac's unflinching gaze at the deceitful behavior of people is a magnificent satire, and the variations of the human comedy are still relevant today.