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...

WASHINGTON — James Taranto, The Wall Street Journal's resident anthropologist, put it perfectly when he described Sen. Jean-Francois Kerry as "a comic perpetual motion machine." And as such, the junior senator from Massachusetts provides an invaluable service to us. He provokes us to laugh about...

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...