Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. He is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. Balzac's first project was a libretto for a comic opera called "Le Corsaire", based on Lord Byron's "The Corsair". In 1820 he completed the five-act verse tragedy Cromwell. After writing several novels, in 1832 Balzac conceived the idea for an enormous series of books that would paint a panoramic portrait of "all aspects of society". "Illusions perdues/Lost Illusions" is a serial novel written between 1837 and 1843.