The following is a list of characters from La Comédie humaine

La Comédie humaine

La Comédie humaine is the title of Honoré de Balzac's multi-volume collection of interlinked novels and stories depicting French society in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy .-Overview:...

 a collection of 95 loosely connected novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

s satirically

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 detailing the life and times of French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 society in the period after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 (1769-1821)—namely the period of the Restoration

Bourbon Restoration

The Bourbon Restoration is the name given to the period following the successive events of the French Revolution , the end of the First Republic , and then the forcible end of the First French Empire under Napoleon  – when a coalition of European powers restored by arms the monarchy to the...

 (1815–1830) and the July Monarchy

July Monarchy

The July Monarchy , officially the Kingdom of France , was a period of liberal constitutional monarchy in France under King Louis-Philippe starting with the July Revolution of 1830 and ending with the Revolution of 1848...

 (1830–1848). French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac

Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon....

 (1799-1850), over the course of these novels, invents a plethora of unique and memorable characters.

Recurring characters

• Eugène de Rastignac
  Eugène de Rastignac
  Eugène de Rastignac is a fictional character from La Comédie humaine series of novels by Honoré de Balzac. He appears as a main character in Le Père Goriot and his social advancement in the post-revolutionary French world depicted by Balzac can be followed through Rastignac's various appearances...
  
   - student, dandy, financier, politician (appears in 28 works)
• Lucien Chardon de Rubempré (the use of "de Rubempré" is contested) - journalist, parvenu
• Jacques Colin aka Carlos Herrera aka Vautrin aka Trompe-la-Mort - a criminal run away from hard labour
• Camusot - examining magistrate (The Collection of Antiquities, A Commission in Lunacy, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life; his father also appears in A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
• Blondet, Emile - journalist, man of letters, prefect (The Collection of Antiquities, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life). Compare and contrast with Raoul Nathan.
• Raoul Nathan - in 19 works, writer, politician
• Daniel d'Arthez
• Delphine de Nucingen née Goriot
• Roger de Granville
• Louis Lambert
• la duchesse de Langeais
• la comtesse de Mortsauf
• Jean-Jacques Bixiou - in 19 works, artist
• Joseph Bridau - in 13 works, painter
• Marquis de Ronquerolles - in 20 works
• la comtesse Hugret de Sérisy - in 20 works
• Félix-Amédée de Vandenesse
• Horace Bianchon - in 24 works, doctor
• des Lupeaulx - public servant

• Salon leaders: the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, the Marquise d'Espard
• Dandies: Maxime de Trailles, Henri de Marsay
• Courtesans: La Torpille (Esther van Gobseck), Madame du Val-Noble
• Financiers: Ferdinand du Tillet, Frédérick de Nucingen (a thin fictionalization of James Rothschild), Keller brothers
• Actresses: Florine (Sophie Grignault), Coralie,
• Publishers/Journalists/Critics: Finot, Etienne Lousteau, Felicien Vernou
• Money lenders: Jean-Esther van Gobseck, Bidault aka Gigonnet

Characters who appear in several titles but only significantly in one of them.

• Birotteau
• Goriot

Characters in a single volume

• Raphaël de Valentin
• le baron Hulot
• Balthazar Claës
• Grandet
• le cousin Pons