The Books Oracle

The Unknown Masterpiece

by Richard Howard / Arthur C. Danto / Honoré de Balzac · La Comédie Humaine series

An aging painter pursues an impossible perfection and destroys his masterpiece in the process. Balzac's philosophical tale of artistic obsession, the gap between vision and execution, and the madness of trying to capture life on canvas.

La Comédie Humaine in reading order

• 7. Albert Savarus — Honoré de Balzac
• 22. La Femme de Trente Ans — Honoré de Balzac
• 25. The Athiest's Mass — Honoré de Balzac
• 74. The Quest Of The Absolute — Honoré de Balzac
• 87. Seraphita — Honoré de Balzac
• A Passion in the Desert — Honoré de Balzac
• A Start in Life — Honoré de Balzac
• Beatrix — Honoré de Balzac
• Colonel Chabert — Ellen Marriage / Honoré de Balzac
• Cousin Bette — Sylvia Raphael / David Bellos / Honoré de Balzac
• Cousin Pons — Honoré de Balzac / Herbert J. Hunt
• Eugénie Grandet — Honoré de Balzac
• Gobseck — אונורה דה בלזאק / מירי ליטבק / ראובן מירן / אפרת ניר / Honoré de Balzac
• La Piel De Zapa — Honoré de Balzac
• Lost Illusions — Ellen Marriage / George Saintsbury / Honoré de Balzac
• Maître Cornélius — Katharine Prescott Wormeley / Honoré de Balzac
• Modeste Mignon — Katherine Prescott Wormeley / Honoré de Balzac
• Pierrette — Honoré de Balzac
• Sarrasine — Sophie Lewis / Honoré de Balzac
• The Ball At Sceaux — Honoré de Balzac
• The Chouans — Honoré de Balzac
• The Elixir Of Life — Honoré de Balzac
• The Girl with the Golden Eyes — Charlotte Mandell / Honoré de Balzac
• The Mysterious Mansion — Honoré de Balzac
• The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan — Honoré de Balzac / Katherine Prescott Wormeley
• The Unknown Masterpiece — Richard Howard / Arthur C. Danto / Honoré de Balzac
• A Daughter Of Eve — Honoré de Balzac
• A Harlot High and Low — Rayner Heppenstall / Honoré de Balzac
• A Murky Business — Honoré de Balzac / Herbert J. Hunt
• Another Study Of Woman — Honoré de Balzac

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