Honorine

"Honorine" by Honoré de Balzac is a novel published in 1843 as part of his series La Comédie humaine. Through a story-within-a-story, a consul recounts his time serving Count Octave, a melancholy nobleman whose beloved wife Honorine fled their marriage in shame. Though Octave secretly supports her from afar, she refuses all contact, consumed by remorse. The consul becomes an unwilling intermediary between the estranged couple, navigating questions of devotion, forgiveness, and the complexities of love and honor in Restoration-era France. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Originally issued 2004-11-06. This work is in the public domain in the United States. Sourced from Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1683).