The Alkahest

Publisher Marketing: Honore De Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. "The Alkahest: or the House of Claes" has also been called "La Recherche de l'absolu" or "The Quest of the Absolute." Historically, an alkahest is a universal solvent that has the power to dissolve any substance known to man, even gold. It also was speculated that the alkahest was in actuality the philosopher's stone, or the element that could turn anything into gold and would make a man immune to even death. A philosopher at his core, Balzac utilizes this mythological device to explore obsession and its effects. As the main character of the book, Balthazar Claes, is introduced to the mysteries and wonder of alchemy, his quest for the alkahest or the philosopher's stone begins. His determination quickly becomes a single-minded obsession. As he sinks deeper into his sole fixation he begins to ruin his life and that of his family. This downfall makes the message of the book very clear - The struggles of Balthazar's wife Josephine pull at the heart strings of the reader, and watching her suffer as a result of her husband's self-centered obsession and negligence drives Balzac's main point home: when we think only of ourselves those around us suffer deeply. This short book, ending in tragedy, is a great read for the individual interested in Balzac's philosophy. Often considered as a masterpiece, this book is one of Balzac's finest. It stands out as an interesting story for a wide range of readers from the casual to the academic. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works." Contributor Bio:  De Balzac, Honore Honore de Balzac (20 May 1799 - 18 August 1850) was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled La Comedie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte. Owing to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multifaceted characters, who are morally ambiguous. His writing influenced many subsequent novelists such as Marcel Proust, Emile Zola, Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, Edgar Allan Poe, Eca de Queiros, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Oscar Wilde, Gustave Flaubert, Benito Perez Galdos, Marie Corelli, Henry James, William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac, and Italo Calvino, and philosophers such as Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx. Many of Balzac's works have been made into or have inspired films, and they are a continuing source of inspiration for writers, filmmakers and critics.