Lost Illusions tells the story of a good looking young man who lusts after fame in Paris and as a result brings his supportive good-natured provincial family to bankruptcy. It's a rather long-winded novel. In common with many 19th century novelists Balzac does like to give elaborate descriptions of everything he sees. Thus every room is presented to us in meticulous detail - wonderful if you want to research interior design in 19th century France; on the tedious side otherwise; every character's physiognomy is put under a microscope even though they may never appear again. It's a facet of the novel that has been greatly improved over the decades. He's also rather over-keen on aphorisms. But on the whole this was a brilliantly moving novel which very convincingly created an entire world in a particular moment of history. In an ideal world though it would be clipped of a couple hundred of its very many pages.