Balzac chercheur by José-Luis Diaz (review).

This article reviews *Balzac chercheur*, an extensive study that positions Honoré de Balzac primarily as a relentless seeker ("chercheur") engaged in social and epistemological inquiry beyond his role as a novelist. The author analyzes Balzac's diverse writings—including novels, journalistic pieces, and correspondence—to reveal his self-fashioning as a social scientist and thinker whose work anticipates social science discourse while remaining literary. The study also examines nineteenth-century receptions of Balzac's intellectual persona and traces the thematic and conceptual evolution across his oeuvre, emphasizing Balzac's experimental approach to knowledge, society, and modernity. This first volume offers a detailed, source-based exploration of Balzac's multifaceted identity as a researcher, with a forthcoming second volume promised to focus on his aesthetic investigations.