The complete online text of Adieu by Honoré de Balzac.

Had Balzac been a less masterful novelist, the disreputably profligate fraud in him might have overwhelmed his artistry. Still, the other Balzac, the artist, is tainted by his well-earned reputation for what has been called artistic license or dishonesty...

The French novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was the first writer to use fiction to convey the total social scene prevailing within one country at a particular period in its history. Commonly regarded as the founder of social realism, he also...

Martin F. Nolan is editor of the Globe's editorial page. Long ago, when spring hoped eternal, I bought tickets for today's game at Fenway Park. It is the last regular-season game, not including -- rueful chuckle -- the playoffs or the World Series. Red...

Fly Life HALCYON CLOSES SHOP-FOR NOW; JEANNIE HOPPER AND WPS1 ART RADIO GO LIVE It was hard not to feel a little verklempt during Halcyon's final weekend. The Brooklyn cafe/club/furniture and record store said sayonara to its devoted followers on April 16....

Italian designer Valentino bid adieu to fashion with a star-studded haute couture show in Paris on Wednesday, ending a 45-year career that saw him dressing luminaries from Jacqueline Kennedy to Julia Roberts.Celebrities, socialites and fashion editors gave the 75-year-old couturier a rousing standing ovation as...

The Hold Steady’s second album, Separation Sunday, starts late at night, in a quiet, dirty room. As lead singer Craig Finn tells it in the opening verse, the girl looks down at what’s left and, with tired apprehension, says to the boy: “I won’t be...