Love Flower, by: Honoré de Balzac

If Balzac's novels made him one of the greatest writers in the world, then the novel "The Flower of Love" is truly one of his greatest in strength and brilliance, and Balzac himself admitted that it was his most effort-consuming novel to write. It contains much of himself, his thoughts, and his extraordinary past. There is no doubt that the character "Félix," the hero of this novel, is almost an artistic portrait of Balzac when he was in his twenties, and many similarities exist between them. Balzac grew up, like Félix, deprived of affection in his family environment, so his heart experienced loneliness and resentment from the beginning of his life. When Balzac reached maturity and became a young man, he took a beloved — as Félix did — choosing someone older than him to find in her affection and tenderness a substitute for the love of his mother and relatives. This first beloved helped him shape his life and build his fame, and nothing demonstrates his sincere love for this lady, "Madame de Berny," more than the contents of this novel, which criticize young women and their selfish love, taking without giving, destroying their lovers' lives, and ruining their future. In fact, this phenomenon indicates that Balzac believed that the ambition for success in life is inseparable from love, and that reason, contemplation, and good judgment are not separate from emotion.