Honore de Balzac (1799 - 1850), French novelist. In total, his literary output amounted to about 100 novels, six plays, many pamphlets and a huge amount of correspondence. The romantic and the realistic coexisted in both Balzac's character and his writings. Considered to be the founder of the realistic school, he used vast reams of meticulous detail and faithfully depicted ordinary and undistinguished lives. —SHSBC Binder 33 Approved Glossary