Individual Morality, Collective Morality Mores, Morality, and Civil Society in Balzac during the “Moment” of La Comédie humaine (1842–1848)

From 1842 onward, Balzac questioned the collective dimension of a morality previously illustrated by individual and exceptional figures. From then on, three levels of reading this morality emerge: the criticism of mores, the putting forward of a pragmatic morality, and the representation of a civil society seeking collective fulfillment.