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The Latest Breaking News from Honoré de Balzac

Want to understand Honoré de Balzac? Try Dungeons & Dragons instead of literary theory

Most people think originality comes from endless freedom. The role playing game Dungeons Dragons suggests the opposite. It gives players a small number of races, classes and backgrounds and somehow produces characters that feel endlessly distinct. A half-elf paladin might be an immediately recognisable type, yet no two half-elf paladins…

The Conversation

Twenty experts on the book that got them through their 20s – part one

Your 20s can be an intense decade. In the words of Taylor Swift, those years are “happy, free, confused and lonely at the same time”. Many of us turn to literature to guide us through the highs and the lows of this formative era. We asked 20 of our academic…

The Conversation

Kiran Desai’s first novel in nearly 20 years is shortlisted for the Booker. Last time, she won it

Kiran Desai’s surname was familiar to the world of literature when her second novel, The Inheritance of Loss, won the Man Booker Prize in 2006. Her mother, Anita Desai, was already an accomplished novelist, who had been nominated for the Booker three times. The Inheritance of Loss was hailed as…

The Conversation

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How to visit Paris with a toddler — and actually enjoy it

In pursuit of fabulous food, fashionable boutiques — and fun for all the family, Prudence Ivey headed to Paris. Here’s your guide to nailing your visit with a little one in tow

Evening Standard

Honoré de Balzac’s La Comédie Humaine is a Hindu mandala

The 19th-century novelist Honoré de Balzac was Catholic, French to the core and obsessed with the material details of French society. Yet there is something profoundly Hindu in the way he sought to understand the world.

The Conversation

The Guardian view on Europe’s growing wealth divide: back to the world of Balzac

Editorial: A new study highlights the dangers of a modern rentier capitalism that perpetuates inequality through the generations

The Guardian - UK

How to build a cinematic universe: the secret to Marvel’s enormous success among a history of failures

Since Iron Man hit the big screen in 2008, the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has made more than US$30 billion, from films to series, to merchandise and comics. As scholars and the press have noted, key to its success is the use of a highly gripping and elaborate “shared universe”.

The Conversation

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How 19th-century French novelist Balzac mastered the multiverse long before Marvel

The multiverse has become an essential part of pop culture. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) brought this shared universe style of storytelling to global prominence with Iron Man (2008), where a post-credit scene hinted at a larger interconnected universe.

The Conversation

‘Very rich, very famous, and very powerful’: How Bernard Tapie became France’s first tycoon – and wound up in prison

Benard Tapie is the subject of a new Netflix series, ‘Class Act’, which dramatizes his life. Actor Laurent Lafitte, director Tristan Seguéla, and screenwriter Olivier Demangel speak to Clémence Michallon

The Independent UK

"Lost Illusions" and allure of fake news

This engrossing adaptation of Balzac's novel shows that threats to journalistic integrity have always been around

Salon

Hugo, Flaubert: 19th century French writers' letters to be auctioned in Paris

Letters from great French writers of the 19th century such as Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, Gustave Flaubert, George Sand, Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine, will be auctioned tomorrow, Thursday 9 June.

Radio France Internationale

Lost Illusions review – Balzac adaptation is period-drama perfection

Benjamin Voisin and Cécile de France star in a superb costume coming-of-age story for the Netflix generation

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