The Balzac Yahoo Group undertook the reading of the entire Human Comedy in November 2006. A major influence to the reading order suggested is the book Balzac as He Should Be Read by William Hobart Royce. Royce’s order is mostly historically chronological, and changes have been made in the early readings to at first introduce the reader to one of Balzac’s best works (Father Goriot) and then read a selection of historically early works before tackling some of the lesser, earliest stories which are not necessarily Balzac’s best work.
Listed below is their suggested reading order, listed by the English title.
Father Goriot
The Chouans
An Episode Under the Terror
The Vendetta
The Conscript/The Recruit
The Red Inn
The Maranas/Juana
A Passion in the Desert
The Exiles
Christ in Flanders
Maitre Cornelius
A Second Home/A Double Family/Double Life
The Gondreville Mystery/An Historical Mystery/A Shady Business/Murky Business/A Dark Affair
At the Sign of the Cat and Racket/The House of the Tennis-playing Cat/Fame and Sorrow
The Executioner
Domestic Peace/The Peace of the Home
Louis Lambert
The Quest of the Absolute/The Alkahest
A Woman of Thirty
The Thirteen: The Girl with the Golden Eyes
A Bachelor’s Establishment/The Two Brothers/The Black Sheep
The Elixir of Life
About Catherine de’ Medici: Preface/Introduction
About Catherine de’ Medici:The Calvinist Martyr
Eugenie Grandet
About Catherine de’ Medici: The Ruggieri’s Secret
About Catherine de’ Medici: The Two Dreams
The Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau
The Unknown Masterpiece/The Hidden Masterpiece
Sarrasine
The Hated Son
Adieu/Farewell
The Thirteen: Ferragus
The Message
Colonel Chabert
Facino Cane
Lost Illusions: The Two Poets
Lost Illusions: A Distinguished Provincial at Paris/A Great Man of the Provinces in Paris
Lost Illusions: Eve and David/ The Trials of the Inventor
La Grenadiere
Massimilla Doni
The Lily of the Valley
Melmoth Reconciled
The Atheist’s Mass
The Jealousies of a Country Town: The Old Maid
The Jealousies of a Country Town: The Cabinet of Antiquities
A Seaside Tragedy/A Drama on the Seashore
The Thirteen: The Duhesse of Langeais
Madame Firmiani
The Peasantry/Sons of the Soil
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life: Esther Happy/How Girls Love
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life: What Love Costs an Old Man
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life: The End of Evil Ways
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life: Vautrin’s Last Avatar/The Last Incarnation of Vautrin
Modeste Mignon
The Purse
The Ball at Sceaux
A Marriage Settlement/A Marriage Contract
Gobseck
The Deserted Woman
A Study of Woman
The Commission in Lunacy/The Interdiction
A Start in Life
The Vicar of Tours
The Country Doctor
Another Study of Woman
La Grande Breteche
Letters of Two Brides/Memoirs of Two Young Married Women
Pierrette
Pierre Grassou
The Government Clerks/Bureaucracy
The Magic Skin/Wild Ass’s Skin
Parisians in the Country: Gaudissart the Great/The Illustrious Gaudissart
A Man of Business
A Daughter of Eve
Ursula
The Secrets of a Princess/The Secrets of the Princess Cadignan
Honorine
Albert Savarus
Gambara
The Firm of Nucingen/The House of Nucingen/Nucingen & Co, Bankers
The Seamy Side of History/The Brotherhood of Consolation: Madame de la Chanterie
The Seamy Side of History/The Brotherhood of Consolation: The Initiate
The Imaginary Mistress/Paz/The False Mistress
A Prince of Bohemia
Beatrix
Z. Marcas
The Muse of the Department
The Country Parson/The Village Rector/Poor Relations
Poor Relations: Cousin Betty
Poor Relations: Cousin Pons
The Middle Classes/The Lesser Bourgeoise
Gaudissart II
The Member for Arcis/The Deputy for Arcis
The Unconscious Humorists/The Unconscious Comedians
The Physiology of Marriage
Petty Troubles of Married Life
Seraphita
La Comedie Humaine by Balzac 
Oh thank you so much! I was just looking at some of the wikipedia entries trying confusedly to figure out what order to read. I’ve read a few but want to go back & read them all. Thanks again!
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You are welcome, Alicia. We read in this order, and I have to say it worked pretty well. It was daunting to us, too, to know how to begin!
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Just found your site, and I am intrigued. Have read something like 25 of Balzac’s novels/stories, and consider him the master. I’m just afraid that your order may discourage the modern reader. I found “Lost Illusions” the best way into Balzac, although I certainly wouldn’t quibble with Cousin Bette or Pere Goriot.
Steve S.
P.S. I happened upon the George Saintsbury 1901 edition by the Jefferson Press at an estate sale, and now own the entire work. I’ll try your guide out for some of those I haven’t read.
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There’s something in what you say, Steve, because it can be a problem getting through some of the works set earlier in time. The problem I see with Lost Illusions (and Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life which picks up the same storyline) is that the length could be daunting for a new to Balzac reader.
Congratulations on picking up a Saintsbury edition! Pamela and I both have Saintsbury editions too.
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Alicia, I wish you could have been with us at the Yahoo Balzac group when we started reading the entire Comedie Humaine in 2006. After over five years, we are now nearing the end. You’ll find summaries here for all the books and as you progress, you might enjoy reading the comments in the group archives. All Balzac fans are welcome at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balzac/
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I’ve just joined this blog family. Have read much of Balzac, but, of course, there is always more. Just rectly finished “Jealousies of A Country Town,” which contains “The Old Maid” and “A Collection of Antiquities.” Good Balzac, but not as great as Cousin Bette (that great black pearl of a novel. Old Maid sort of petered out, and Antiquities became frenetic and melodramatic before righting itself. Now that I have found you, I hope to participate if I can. Delighted!
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Marvelous, Allen! If you visit our “Discussion Schedule” page, you’ll find that discussions were held at the Yahoo group. They’re all in the archives which you’re welcome to read as you go along. Comments will be more than welcome. We still remember most of the stories well enough to add to your comments. The link for the group is on the Discussion Schedule page or jump right to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/balzac/
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I have the list! Now I need a translator. Could someone please direct me to a discussion comparing English translations? Thank you so much.
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We didn’t have a lot of discussion about comparisons between English translations because most of us were reading the same ones. There was some though on a few of the books, especially Pere Goriot. You can find them at the Balzac Yahoo Group referenced above at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Balzac
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Thanks to Dagny, I’ve just visited this blog and I really appreciate the great work done. However, since I’ve already read some books in no particular order, I decided to re-start the whole series by following the date of publication instead. It’s just my particular choice.
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Probably you have already read Pere Goriot as it is one of the more popular and prominent books. But if not, I strongly urge you to go with it next as it introduces two major recurring characters in their college days plus a few other characters with multiple appearances.
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I’ve already read Pere Goriot a long time ago but I’m planning to re-read it pretty soon.
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Always good to have a refresher. I consider Pere Goriot the cornerstone of the entire Comedie Humaine. I’ve read it at least six times. I can never resist a new translation.
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Hello, can you tell me where to find the reading order as in “Balzac as He Should Be Read” by William Hobart Royce? Can’t find it anywhere on the net. I already know the main works of the human comedy and would love to follow a strictly chronological order.
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If you go to the home page of this blog, balzacbooks.wordpress.com, on the right side you will see ‘Publication Chronology” and also “Suggested Reading Order”. The publication chronology is obviously in the order the books were first published. The “Suggested Reading Order” is from Royce’s recommendations, which are mostly historical order. Our group used Royce’s order with slight modifications to read the entire works over about six years, and Royce’s plan worked well for us.
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If you want Royce’s exact order, I probably have it offline somewhere. (But the order listed here is mostly Royce, just a couple of premier works early to keep the reader from getting discouraged by lesser works.)
You can email me at scamper@chartertn.net and I’ll see what I can dig up if you want his exact order. The actual Royce book is very rare, just not practically available, or at least it wasn’t a few years ago. I managed to get my library to borrow a rare copy. At the time the only copy for sale on the net was about $200 – pretty steep for a book less than 100 pages, LOL.
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I have read Pere Goriot, Cousin Bette, Cousin Pons, Eugenie Grandet, The Black Sheep, Lost Illusions, and A Harlot High and Low in that order. I usually prefer to read Recent translations in Penguin Classics or Oxford World Classics in print rather than on ebooks. Which three books, say, would you suggest I read next?
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You could drop back in time and read Colonel Chabert. There’s at least one newish translation. I don’t know for sure, but I think the great majority of what’s left don’t have new translations in Penguin Classics or Oxford World Classics.
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Thanks. I printed out a list the other day. There really are a large number of books to get though. I will take your recommendation and try Colonel Chabert. I also think
I will have to try other publishers , as it seems Penguin Classics and Oxford World Classics do not publish many of the less famous Balzac novels.
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Hello,
Congratulations on the site, which is a dream for Balzac readers and admirers.
Next month I will start reading the complete Comédie Humaine, which I intend to do as a whole and without interleaving other books.
Of course, I am struggling with the problem of the reading order. I am now aware of Royce’s order (and I managed to read his book) and of Yahoo Group’s order.
Having you read the whole series, are you still happy with the reading order choice you made? Would you recommend it to new Balzac readers?
What do you think of the adopted order in Balzac’s time (Études de Moeurs, Études Philosophiques and Études Analytiques)? Would that be a good reading order? What would be the advantages and the disadvantages of this order?
I never read Balzac, but I am a fairly experienced XIX century French novels (I have read the whole Rougon-Macquart series, read Les Miserables, Notre Dame de Paris, most Dumas père, most Flaubert, Maupassant, the whole À La Recherche, etc).
So, I am pretty sure I will not be put down if starting with lesser works and I am quite excited with this enterprise.
Thanks in advance for your help!
João Pedro Baptista
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Hello,
Next month I will start reading the complete Comédie Humaine, which I intend to do as a whole and without interleaving other books.
Of course, I am struggling with the problem of the reading order. I am now aware of Royce’s order (I managed to read his book) and of this Yahoo Group’s order.
Having you read the whole series, are you still happy with the reading order choice you made? Would you recommend it to new Balzac readers?
What do you think of the adopted order in Balzac’s time (Études de Moeurs, Études Philosophiques and Études Analytiques), sketched by Balzac itself to the première edition, modified in view of a new edition (adopted in the Pléiade)? Would that be a good reading order? What would be the advantages and the disadvantages of this order?
I never read Balzac, but I consider myself a fairly experienced XIX century French novel reader (I have read the whole Rougon-Macquart series, read Les Miserables, Notre Dame de Paris, most Dumas père, most Flaubert, Maupassant, the whole À La Recherche, etc).
So, I am pretty sure I will not be put down if starting with lesser works and I am quite excited with this enterprise.
Thanks in advance for your help!
João Pedro Baptista
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Dear Mr. Baptista,
I would say I have read roughly 40 of the Balzac novels/stories through the years, and consider him a true master. Since I own a complete set of the Human Comedy, I am now trying to follow the Yahoo-recommended order. However, if you are just looking for a place to jump in, I think it makes sense to start with Cousin Pons, a recognized masterpiece, and then go on to something like “Lost Illusions,” which happens to be my personal favorite of the novels I’ve read so far. To me it makes sense to see if you really enjoy Balzac, as I would imagine he may not be everyone’s “cup of tea.” [I think of the Evelyn Waugh story where a Britisher lost in the wilds of the Amazon jungles was forced to listen to the stories of Dickens as a form of torture!]
I would just comment that your plan to read right through all of the Human Comedy without breaking it up with other reading sounds like a daunting task!
I wish you happy reading!
Steve Schoenbeck,
St. Louis, Missouri USA
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I have conquered Zola Les Rougon-Macquart cycle of 20 novels in French….
…now I’m ready for Balzac!
Thanks so much for all this reference material about Balzac.
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I’m happy to find this site. I would greatly appreciate it if someone who knows Royce’s exact order would please post it here. I’d like to say also, be sure not to miss The Duchesse of Langeais, it’s sublime! Also, if sometimes anyone feels a need to depart from Paris and Balzac for a bit, I highly recommend Travels With a Donkey Through the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson. I love Balzac, but Travels with a Donkey absolutely delighted me in the midst of all the complicated intrigues of Balzac.
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Nevermind, I found the book online. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b156953;view=1up;seq=11
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That’s great it is now online! When we did this blog, there was only one copy in one library in the US. We managed to get a library to borrow it, and we used his reading order with perhaps one or two changes as the basis for the order listed on this site. And indeed we read in the order on this site.
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Where do you folks find his 90 novels? I am quite certain that our public library will not have most of them, and it can get a bit pricy to think of buying them. Any suggestions? I love this blog!
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I found myself just needing the “Petty Troubles of Married Life” to complete my reading, and lo and behold that story is available online — free — through the Gutenberg Project. I haven’t bothered looking for other volumes as I was lucky enough to come across a complete set of Balzac (except for Petty Troubles and “The Physiology of Marriage”) at an estate sale. However, you may be able to locate others through the Gutenberg Project as well.
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Nancy, thank you for your interest. The entire Comedie Humaine is available free at Project Gutenberg. You can find them by searching for author: Balzac or the lovely page that David Widger prepared at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31565
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There’s a story called “El Verdugo” in the Penguin Classics “Selected Short Stories” which I don’t see above. It’s from 1830 so probably good to read early on?
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If I’m not mistaken, “El Verdugo” is actually the story included in the Human Comedy as “The Executioner” — and is listed as the fifteenth entry in the suggested order. Steve Schoenbeck,
St. Louis, MO.
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Thank You. Well…I read it anyway! I hope I don’t turn to stone.
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Ken, I don’t think you’ll turn to stone. You suggested reading “The Executioner” relatively early. Given the fact that there are nearly 100 stories (or parts of stories) in the listing, I’d say you’ve accomplished your goal. But if you do turn to stone, I’m sure someone could turn that into a good story! Steve
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Hi, Stephen:
Yes. I got both of your replies.
“The Executioner” was a really good story by the way. It seems the “preferred order” set forth above is chronological in terms of when each story is set. “The Executioner” is sometime during the Napoleonic Wars maybe 1805-1810 so that’d be later than “An Episode Under the Terror” or “The Conscript” both of which I read as well. All of these have been really good. Balzac is the king of melodrama.
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I’ve been looking for this book for ages, all I can find is a Balzac bibliography by William Hobart Royce. The reading order isn’t contained in this book is it, by any chance? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
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The reading order is identified in a separate book on this site. It is a thin book, not available really. I was able to get it on an interlibrary loan to post on this site a few years ago. There’s not much in the book BUT reading order, so you have to gist of it here.
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Thanks so much for that. I had a look but not available by interlibrary loan in SW England nor the usual book sites. I’m going to reread the novels and the list here is fine. Thanks for your post.
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Clare, if you will email me at scamperpamela@gmail.com I have something to email you that will be helpful!
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Ken, Not sure if you got my earlier reply. I see that it was posted to the website, though perhaps not a part of the e-mail chain (I don’t claim to be the most sophisticated computer user!) “El Verdugo” is “The Executioner,” which is included as the fifteenth entry in the reading order. Steve Schoenbeck (PS: Would appreciate your responding if you get this, just so I’ll know that I’ve made
contact)
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I got your earlier reply and replied above.
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[…] À La Recherche Du Temps Perdu. It’s not even clear Balzac thought an order was necessary, and readers have navigated their ways through the comédie as they thought best or as the novels arrived from a […]
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This list is so helpful. I have read several of his books but now I know in which order to continue.
Thank you
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Thank you for this list- read a few over the years but have always wanted to give the whole thing a go…
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Welcome to the journey. I think you’ll find there are some “hidden gems” along the way (in addition to the towering classics that probably first drew you in.)
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