ABSTRACT
Marx himself possessed a surprisingly wide familiarity with Balzac's work, not just the better known novels or those of the most obvious social interest but also such stories as L'Illustre Gaudissart or Balzac's play, Le Faiseur. In less obviously doctrinaire a fashion, he delighted in comparing acquaintances in real life to characters from La Comedie humaine. It is to be regretted that he never produced the study of Balzac that his son-in-law, Paul Lafargue, revealed that he had intended to write. Both Marx and his disciples were well aware of the paradox that Balzac himself was no revolutionary but a staunch proponent of legitimate monarchy. The paradox had indeed been a theme within French discussion of Balzac at least since Victor Hugo's funeral oration. But it was Engels who ensured that the paradox was to be enshrined in all Marxist discussion of Balzac for many years to come.
