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. And though, like a cowbird, he left at least one and possibly three children in the nests of others, he took away with him knowledge, insights, images and stories that later took their places in La Comédie humaine (1842-1846, 1848, 1855; translated as La Comédie humaine [The Human Comedy], 1895-1900). Balzac's life regularly fertilized his fiction; however, his literary reputation would benefit if he lacked a biography. The view of his masterpiece, La Comédie humaine, has been seriously undermined by his irresponsibility, his casual attitude toward debts and contracts, his crass arrivisme, his naiveté about his purchases and investments, and perhaps even by his...