Bal·zac  (bôl'zāk', bāl'-, bäl-zäk')  French writer and a founder of the realist school of fiction who portrayed the panorama of French society in a body of works known collectively as La Comédie Humaine. Bal·zac'i·an (-zāk'ē-ən) adj. |
A nineteenth-century French author. In his long series of novels known as La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy), he portrayed the complexity of contemporary French society.