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...
Vautrin is a character from the novels of French writer Honoré de Balzac in the La Comédie humaine series. His real name is Jacques Collin. He appears in the novels Le Père Goriot (Father Goriot, 1834/35) under the name Vautrin, and in Illusions...
Line Vautrin's ravishing costume jewels and sculpted objets are the epitome of Parisian Neo-Romantic chic. Made largely in the Forties and Fifties, of resins, glass and bronze, Vautrin's creations do not belong to any of the traditional genres of jewellery, even of "costume...
An awareness of Vautrin's sexual interest in other men, and particularly Eugene Rastignac, in Balzac's Le Pere Goriot is not new. Though Philippe Berthier, in his often cited article on male same-sex desire in the three "Vautrin" novels, Splendeurs et miseres des courtisanes, Illusions...
A co-producer of ''Nanking,'' an intimate U.S. documentary about the 1937 Japanese occupation of the city, now known as Nanjing, has expressed hopes that the film, which uses only firsthand accounts to tell its story, can help jump-start stalled communication between young Japanese...
