Author Robb's Book Balzac: A Biography Honore de Balzac was born
in Tours in 1799. The family name did not include the 'de,'
Balzac added that later in life because he thought it had more
prestige. At seventeen he began to study law, but decided
against a legal career three years later. He tried his hand at
writing, and after an unsuccessful start, he began publishing
regularly. A prolific writer, he published some three hundred
works during the later part of his life. Much int... Victor Hugo
was a writer of the 19th century in France. Hugo wrote "The
Hunchback of Notre Dame", and "Les Miserables". Hugo was a self-
proclaimed "revolutionary socialist" and a vocal opponent of
French emperor Louis Napoleon, and so Hugo was forced into
exile. He first went to Brussels, and then to England's Channel
Islands, and it was here that he completed "Les Miserables".
Most modern readers may be unfamiliar with the life of this
great author... View these reviews in summary mode Graham Robb
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