Honore de Balzac 
Gobseck & At the Sign of the Cat and Racket 

Gobseck, an 1830 novella by French author Honore de Balzac (1799-1850), appears in the Scenes de la vie privee section of his novel sequence La Comedie humaine. Gobseck first appeared in outline form in La Mode in March 1830 under the title l’Usurier (The Usurer), and then in August 1830 in the periodical Le Voleur. The actual novella appeared in a volume published by Mame-Delaunay under the title Les Dangers de l’inconduite. This novella would appear in 1835 under the title of Papa Gobseck in a volume published by Madame Charles-Bechet. The definitive title of Gobseck originated in 1842 in the Furne edition of La Comedie humaine.