Honor? de Balzac; born Honor? Balzac 20 May 1799 - 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Com?die humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus. Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities. His writing influenced many famous writers, including the novelists ?mile Zola, Charles Dickens, Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert, and Henry James, and filmmakers Fran?ois Truffaut and Jacques Rivette.