Travels across Sardinia, Corsica and the Italian peninsula. Incurs further debt after speculating in Sardinian silver mines. The Firm of Nucingen.

1840 His play Vautrin opens and is banned. Launches the Revue parisienne, which folds; his review of Stendhal’s The Charterhouse of Parma appears in the third and final issue. Moves to Passy with his mother and housekeeper/mistress Louise de Brugnol.

1841 Signs a publishing contract for The Human Comedy, his collective title since the previous year. Ursule Mirouet, A Murky Business.

1842 Compares human types to animal species in the preface to The Human Comedy. Has his portrait taken by a Daguerréotypeur. Mme Hanska’s husband dies. The Black Sheep. His play The Resources of Quinola is a flop.

Gogol, Dead Souls. Verdi, Nabucco (Nebuchadnezzar).

1843 Visits Mme Hanska in St Petersburg. Sits for David d’Angers. His health is poor. Writes a letter of introduction to Mme Hanska for Liszt, who tries to seduce her. Completion of Lost Illusions, in three parts. Honorine.

1844 Due to ill health, travels and socializes little. Collects furniture and paintings. Modest Mignon and publication of the beginning of The Peasantry.

Dumas, The Three Musketeers. Turner, Rain, Steam and Speed. Heine, New Poems.

1845 Travels in Europe with Mme Hanska, her daughter and her future son-in-law.

Poe, The Raven and Other Poems. Wagner, Tannhäuser.

1846 Mme Hanska delivers a stillborn baby, which would have been named Victor-Honoré. Cousin Bette.

1847 Mme Hanska visits for four months in Paris and he makes her his legal heir. They winter in the Ukraine. Cousin Pons. Completion of A Harlot High and Low.

Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre. Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights.

1848 Returns to Paris. Witnesses the sacking of the Tuileries. His play The Stepmother is a success with critics. Ill health prevents him working regularly. Returns to the Ukraine.

February Revolution.