The Elixir of Life, a Short Story by Balzac

Written by Honoré de Balzac

Narrated by Paul Spera

The Elixir of Life is a fantastic tale by the French novelist and writer Honoré de Balzac in which he gives a satirical version of the legend of Don Juan. This early short story was originally published in 1830; like all the component pieces of Balzac's Comédie Humaine, it is considered a stand-alone piece of literature. The spoiled son of a Spanish nobleman, Don Juan Belvidero cannot wait for the moment to claim the family wealth and title for himself. His father has him called to his death-bed, to inform him that he is in possession of a magic, death-defying potion. If the son will only rub the liquid on his dead body, the father will come back to life. Don Juan assures his father that he will resurrect him, but will he keep his promise or betray the old man? Honoré de Balzac's keen observation of detail, subtle psychology and unfiltered representation of society gave him his place as one of the founders and great masters of realism in European literature, with his magnum opus, La Comédie Humaine (The Human Comedy). His characters are complex, morally ambiguous and utterly real.

• Language: English
• Publisher: SAGA Egmont
• Release date: Jun 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9782821113084

Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist, short story writer, and playwright. Regarded as one of the key figures of French and European literature, Balzac’s realist approach to writing would influence Charles Dickens, Émile Zola, Henry James, Gustave Flaubert, and Karl Marx. With a precocious attitude and fierce intellect, Balzac struggled first in school and then in business before dedicating himself to the pursuit of writing as both an art and a profession. His distinctly industrious work routine—he spent hours each day writing furiously by hand and made extensive edits during the publication process—led to a prodigious output of dozens of novels, stories, plays, and novellas. La Comédie humaine, Balzac’s most famous work, is a sequence of 91 finished and 46 unfinished stories, novels, and essays with which he attempted to realistically and exhaustively portray every aspect of French society during the early-nineteenth century.