"Par la faute de M. de Balzac" by André Maurois is a short story first published in 1923. The narrative follows Lecadieu, a brilliant but poor young man who attempts to climb the social ladder by seducing a minister's wife. When his real-life situation mirrors a scene from Balzac's novel, he imitates the fictional character's strategy with unexpected consequences. Decades later, his former classmate discovers how deeply literature shaped—and perhaps destroyed—his ambitious friend's destiny. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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