Author: Honoré de Balzac

Cited by

• Rohinton Mistry (1)
  • IN: A Fine Balance (1997) Historical Fiction, NULL
    EPIGRAPH: "Holding this book in your hand, sinking back in your soft armchair, you will say to yourself: perhaps it will amuse me. And after you have read this story of great misfortunes, you will no doubt dine well, blaming the author for your own insensitivity, accusing him of wild exaggeration and flights of fancy. But rest assured: this tragedy is not a fiction. All is true."
    FROM: Le Père Goriot, (1835), Novel, France
• Mario Puzo (1)
  • IN: The Godfather (1969) Crime Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
    FROM: Le Père Goriot, (1835), Novel, France
• Sophie McManus (1)
  • IN: The Unfortunates (2015) Fiction, American
    EPIGRAPH: Behind every great fortune there is a great crime.
    FROM: Le Pere Goriot, (1835), Novel, France
• Dan Vyleta (1)
  • IN: Pavel and I (2008) Fiction, German
    EPIGRAPH: I was in the habit of observing the ways of the faubourg, its residents and their characters [...] Observation had already become deeply ingrained in me, it took hold of the soul without neglecting the body, or rather, it seized on external details so well that it immediately moved beyond them, it gave me the ability to live the life of a person upon whom I had trained my sights by allowing me to substitute myself for him, like the dervish in 1001 Nights who stole people's bodies and souls after pronouncing certain words over them.
    FROM: Facino Cane, (1836), Short story, France
• Michel Houellebecq (1)
  • IN: Platform (2001) Fiction, French
    EPIGRAPH: Plus sa vie est infâme, plus l'homme y tient; elle est alors une protestation, une vengeance de tous les instants. (The more contemptible his life, the more a man clings to it; it thus becomes a protest, a retribution for every moment.)
    FROM: Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, (1847), Book, France