Balzac, Honoré deBal‧zac, Hon‧o‧ré de /ˈbælzæk $ ˈbɔːl-, ˈɒnəreɪ də $ ˌɑːnəˈreɪ-/(1799–1850) a French writer who wrote about French society, and is famous for his set of novels called La Comédie Humaine which includes the books Le Père Goriot and Eugénie Grandet