In Honoré de Balzac's massive cycle, The Human Comedy, 'The Splendor and Misery of Courtesans' occupies a special place. Chapters of this brilliant novel, with its tense plot, almost detective-like plot, and large cast of characters, were published in Parisian newspapers over the course of ten years. The result is a mercilessly realistic portrait of Paris on the eve of the July Revolution of 1830, with its glittering balls and grimy, dimly lit alleys of poverty, society beauties and prostitutes, moneylenders and ambitious young men, aristocrats, bankers, policemen, and convicts. In this city, everything is for sale, even love and virtue, and the morals of those called the cream of society differ little from those of the criminal underworld. The lyrical line of the novel is connected with the transformation of a fatal courtesan beauty who fell in love with an ambitious poet, and anticipates the main theme of 'The Lady of the Camellias' by Alexandre Dumas fils.