{"product_id":"the-death-of-balzac-octave-mirbeau-9781943813568","title":"The Death of Balzac","description":"\u003cp\u003eHere, presented in English for the first time in a translation by Brian Stableford, is one of Octave Mirbeau's darkest works: a fictionalized account of the death of the giant of French letters, ­Honor  de Balzac.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAmong his journalistic endeavors, Mirbeau contributed a large number of short stories to the newspapers in the \u003cem\u003efin-de-si cle \u003c\/em\u003eperiod, and he honed his skill in that kind of work to near-perfection. Many of his anecdotal short stories make the customary tokenistic pretences to be \"true,\" and there is a considerable gray area between his explicit works of fiction, and articles that represent themselves falsely as reportage. None of his other impostures of that ­ambiguous kind, however, are quite as brazen or as seductively ­persuasive in their deception as the triptych making up \u003cem\u003eThe Death of Balzac\u003c\/em\u003e, which, seen purely as a literary exercise, is a masterpiece of sorts, in terms of the persuasiveness of its mendacious execution and the elegance of its narration. It is a gripping and affectively powerful story, artful in its very atrocity; a prime specimen of the work of an exceptional writer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Octave Mirbeau\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1943813566\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781943813568\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Snuggly Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/16\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 92\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.25w x 0.22d","brand":"Octave Mirbeau","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44052964966655,"sku":"9781943813568","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_53378bd2-3449-41e5-bcf6-59a34828a5a5.jpg?v=1685021627","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-death-of-balzac-octave-mirbeau-9781943813568","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}