“Les élus de Dieu sont en petit nombre” Balzacian spirituality and inner life

This article shows how romanesque representation in La Comédie humaine transforms the characters into real subjects differentiated by their faith. To do this, Balzac distinguishes inner being from outer being, develops a theorization of the interiority of the characters through their differentiated access to spirituality, and organizes a metaphysical system around original theoretical concepts such as spécialité, instinctivité, and the category of spheres.