A book exhibition «The Artistic World of Honore de Balzac» has been organized in the Hall of World Literature, dedicated to the 225th anniversary of the French writer, novelist, founder of realism in European literature Honore de Balzac.

Honore de Balzac was born on May 20, 1799 in the French city of Tours in a peasant family. Since childhood, Balzac was trained for a career as a lawyer. To do this, he studied at the College of Vendome, at the Paris School of Law, and then worked as a scribe for a notary. However, he soon devoted himself to literature.

The writer's work reached its greatest heyday in the 1820s and 1830s. These were novels in the spirit of romanticism. The first book signed with the name «Balzac» was published in 1829. It was a historical novel, «The Chouans». After that, he wrote many works and novels, which finally attracted the attention of critics. Balzac wrote about his surroundings: about the life of Paris and the French provinces, about the lives of the poor and aristocrats. His novels were rather philosophical short stories, revealing the full depth of the social contradictions existing in France at that time and the severity of social problems. Gradually, Balzac combined all the novels he wrote into one large cycle, which he called the «Human Comedy». The cycle is divided into three parts: «Studies on manners» (this part includes the novel «Splendor and poverty of courtesans»), «Philosophical studies» (the novel «Shagreen Skin» was included), «Analytical studies» (in this part the author included partly autobiographical works like «Louis Lambert»). Balzac's work influenced many other talented writers, including Dickens, Zola, Dostoevsky. In 1845, Balzac was awarded the Legion of Honor.

In 1832, he met his future wife Evelina Ganskaya, a Polish landowner and a Russian maid. In the last years of his life, Honore de Balzac lived at his wife's estate in the village of Verkhovne. The great writer died in Paris on August 18, 1850 and was buried at the Pere Lachaise cemetery (France).

Feature films and television series have been shot about Balzac's life and work, including: the melodrama «The Great Love of Balzac» (Poland-France, 1973). There are several museums in France: the House Museum in Paris, the Balzac Museum in the Chateau Sachet of the Loire Valley (Tours). Postage stamps were issued in many countries of the world in honor of the writer, streets in different cities were named.

The book exhibition from the fund of the National Library of the Republic of Kazakhstan presents the author's works in Kazakh, Russian, Bulgarian, French, English: «Scenes of Parisian Life» (1834-1887); «Eugenia Grande» (1968); «Collected works in 10 volumes» (1987); «Father Goriot» (1979); «Shagreen skin» (1982); «Uzilgen umitter» (1985); «Lost Illusions» (1987); «Elixir of Longevity» (1987); «Abandoned Woman» (2003) and others.

There are also books by researchers of the writer's work: A.Puzikov «Honore de Balzac» (1955); A.Herbstman «Biography of the writer» (1972); S.Wyman «Balzac's Paradox» (1981); «Balzac in the memoirs of contemporaries», a series of literary memoirs (1986); A. Troye «Honore de Balzac» (2006).

We invite everyone to visit the book exhibition!