Balzac contemplates suicide.

Louis XVIII dies and is succeeded by Charles X.

Beethoven, Ninth Symphony.

1825 Launches a publishing and printing venture, producing editions of Molière and La Fontaine. Meets Victor Hugo.

Grillparzer, King Ottokar’s Rise and Fall.

1828 Printing business collapses, leaving him in debt. His literary purpose strengthens.

Schubert, Schwanengesang (Swansong).

1829 Frequents the salons, introduced by the Duchesse d’Abrantès. His father dies. The Chouans, the first novel he signs with his own name.

1830 Publishes numerous short stories, including ‘Gobseck’, ‘The Vendetta’ and ‘Sarrasine’.

July Revolution. Charles X abdicates. July Monarchy. Louis-Philippe becomes king.

Delacroix, Liberty Leading the People. Berlioz, Symphonie fantastique.

1831 Adopts a lifestyle beyond his means. The Wild Ass’s Skin establishes his reputation. Begins systematically and publicly to use the particle ‘de’ before his surname.

Victor Hugo, Notre-Dame de Paris. Pushkin, Boris Godunov.

1832 Travels widely. Begins corresponding with Eveline Hanska, a Polish countess. Joins the neo-legitimist (ultra-conservative) party and publishes political essays. Rumoured to be going mad. Louis Lambert, Colonel Chabert.

Goethe, final revision of Faust before his death.

1833 Meets Mme Hanska for the first time, in Switzerland. Signs a contract for the publication of Studies of Nineteenth-Century Life, a collective work which will stretch to twelve volumes over the next four years. The Country Doctor, Eugénie Grandet.

1834 Birth of Marie du Fresnay, his supposed daughter by Maria du Fresnay. Becomes Mme Hanska’s lover. Meets Countess Guidoboni-Visconti. Has grand idea of recurring characters between novels and begins adapting previous works to establish continuity. History of the Thirteen, The Quest of the Absolute.

1835 Spends three weeks with Mme Hanska in Vienna, the last time for eight years. Old Man Goriot, Seraphita and collected Philosophical Studies.

Gautier, Mademoiselle de Maupin.

1836 Birth of Lionel-Richard Guidoboni-Visconti, his supposed son. Death of Laure de Berny. Liquidates La Chronique de Paris, the journal purchased the previous year.

Serial publication of Dickens’s Pickwick Papers begins in England. Some months later, Balzac’s The Old Maid is serialized in La Presse, the first roman-feuilleton.

1837 Countess Guidoboni-Visconti settles his debts to save him from imprisonment. His tilbury is seized by the bailiffs. Travels to Italy, staying at the best hotels. Exhibition of his portrait in a monk’s habit by Louis Boulanger. César Birotteau.

1838 Visits George Sand (who begins a nine-year relationship with Chopin this year).