A Start in Life

French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac is widely regarded as the founder of realism in European fiction, due to his keen observations and his unfiltered presentation of society. Although Balzac was a prolific writer finishing over ninety works in his life time he left many unfinished. During his life he attempted to be a publisher, businessman, critic and politician; failing at everything but writing he used his personal experiences that he got from each of these endeavors into his work.