Sarrasine

Full text.
Published by Honoré de Balzac in the tempestuous year of 1830, the tale follows the undulating pathways of Sarrasine the sculptor's shocking journey to his coming of age. As one of the "fathers of realism" Balzac painted with his words a vivid portrait of life in the swirling salons of Europe at the end of the Bourbon monarchy, and we follow Ernest-Jean Sarrasine from France to Italy in search of both his métier and his muse. However it is also the story of La Zambinella, an Italian opera-singer with whom Sarrasine falls madly and passionately in love. But that passion holds a secret which Sarrasine spies too late.