The complete online text of Ursula 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...

THE CHILD THAT BOOKS BUILT A Life in Reading By Francis Spufford Henry Holt. 213 pp. $23While Francis Spufford was growing up as a faculty child in a small university town in England, his little sister was diagnosed with a rare...

Ursula Ruth Strumpfler Gallivan, 81, a charter member and visiting chairman of Mended Hearts Association, a support group for people who have had heart disease or medical procedures, died of congestive heart failure Dec. 4 at a daughter's home in Clemmons, N.C. Mrs....

Ursula Vaughan Williams, who wrote librettos for her composer husband and produced his biography, has died at age 96.She died Tuesday in London, Gwen Knighton of the English Folk Dance and Song Society said Thursday. Vaughan Williams, who was president of the society, had been...

Petr EbenPRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) — Czech composer Petr Eben, whose wide variety of music has been performed around the globe, has died. He was 78.Eben died late Wednesday at his home in Prague, his son Marek told the CTK news agency Thursday. He was...