Joel Shelton’s Reviews > Lost Illusions > Status Update

I probably shouldn’t be taking writing tips from a 19th century author but Balzac’s prose is simply some of the best I’ve ever read.

So far, this is my surprise read of the year. Proust convinced me to read him, as I still journey further into In Search of Lost Time, and I have to say that he wasn’t wrong: Balzac is one of the masters of 19th century literature. His descriptions of class within post-Napoleonic France are almost Dickensian in their approach—the reader just gets captured by the lengthy impressionistic prose.