Honore de Balzac 
Melmoth Reconciled 

In this long story, part of the Philosophical Studies section of Honore de Balzac’s epic masterwork The Human Comedy, the author takes the uncharacteristic step of alluding to a previously published novel, Charles Robert Maturin’s 1820 work Melmoth the Wanderer. In Balzac’s Melmoth Reconciled, Melmoth is a mysterious figure who comes to the aid of a desperate clerk who is on the brink of committing a crime.