Balzac’s influence on Paul Bourget was long-standing and cannot just be reduced to his defense of the monarchist and Catholic causes. This Balzacism has two stages, but the first, that of his passion for the novelist, does not end with the second, his admiration for Balzac as a political thinker: the two combine to make Balzac a near-unsurpassable master. Paul Bourget’s œuvre ought to be interpreted in light of his limitless admiration for the author of La Comédie humaine.
