Honore de Balzac 
Lesser Bourgeoisie 

Throughout his entire literary career, French writer Honore de Balzac was fascinated by the many ways in which social class can impact the trajectory of a life. In the early novel The Lesser Bourgeoisie, an ambitious young lawyer named Theodose de la Peyrade tries every trick in the book to ingratiate himself with the affluent Thuillier family — and finds his integrity threatened along the way.