LOST ILLUSIONS reveals, better perhaps than any other single work, the scope of Balzac's genius. This great novel has scenes of provincial life as brilliant as any Balzac ever wrote, while the life of journalism, the stage and the great world of Paris are described with a brio that he never excelled.  The complete trilogy ("Two Poets," "A Provincial Celebrity in Paris," and "The Sufferings of an Inventor") was out of print in English for many years prior to this edition, which appeared in England in 1951 and has not previously been generally available in this country.

   This superb translation by Kathleen Raine, the distinguished British poet, has received wide critical acclaim.