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Blzac's hero in Lost Illusions is young provincial would-be poet, whose feminine grace belies his driving ambition. he is naive, inexperienced and weak, but has genuine talent. Taken up by Madame de Bargeton, Lucien prepares to forge his way in the beau monde of Paris, a fickle and captivating society in which he rapidly discovers that simple confidence in his own desires is not enough - he has a lot to learn about other people. Lost Illusions (1837-43) is one of the greatest novels in the rich procession of The Human Comedy. It reveals Balzac, bored by provincial life but equally satirical about Parisian society, torn between admiration and contempt for his central characters and altogether at his most engaging and ambivalent.
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