Cover of Lost Illusions by Honore de Balzac Audiobook Lost Illusions
Audiobook · Sovereign

Lost Illusions

Author
Honore de Balzac
Read by
Eloise Fairfax
Language
English
Length
23 hours 50 minutes
ISBN
9781802564198
Published
24 March 2025
Imprint
Sovereign
  • Balzac
  • realism
  • France
  • French
  • historical
  • classics
  • thriller
  • novel
  • philosophical
  • psychological

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Description

Ambitious poet Lucien Chardon leaves his provincial home for Paris, seeking fame and fortune in the literary world. However, he soon becomes entangled in the city’s cutthroat society, where corruption, vanity, and greed reign supreme. Seduced by luxury and manipulated by influential figures, Lucien compromises his ideals, trading integrity for fleeting success. Balzac’s novel exposes the harsh realities of ambition, the commodification of art, and the moral costs of social climbing. With sharp social critique and vivid characters, Lost Illusions paints a timeless portrait of human frailty and the relentless pursuit of power.

Author

Honore de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. Known for his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multifaceted characters, who are morally ambiguous. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, described as a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.

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