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F. N. L. Poynter, PhD, DLitt

JAMA. 1968;204(1):7-10.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

It was in 1833 that Honoré de Balzac first had the idea of a great series of novels which would present a complete picture of the human scene, depicting the character of man and society in all its aspects and in every situation. But this grandiose plan was not meant to be merely descriptive, for it was inspired throughout by a unifying philosophy which claimed to show why man is as he is and why the social structure takes the form it does. He had already worked out the number of volumes—48— needed to present this panoramic view of mankind, but it was six years later that he first invited comparison, or contrast, with Dante's great epic by giving the series the title La Comédie Humaine.

Balzac was living and writing in Paris, the city which is still for all Frenchmen le monde, as it certainly was in 1833. If . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
From the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and Library, London.

Footnotes
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