The Message

It begins with the undignified scene of two young men on a Parisian stagecoach, boasting about their love affairs with older, married women.

Hubris turns to tragedy when the coach overturns, leaving one of the men with fatal injuries. However, drama dictates that there is always time for some final words before death.

The dying man gives his travelling companion a mission - collect love letters from his house and deliver them to his lover, a countess.

How will the countess react to the news of her lover's death? And how will the count take the news that she was betraying him?

If you like this classic short story by Honoré de Balzac about betrayal, try 'Anna Karenina' by Leo Tolstoy or 'Rebecca' by Daphne du Maurier.

Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) was a French novelist and playwright, most famous for a sequence of novels, collectively called 'The Human Comedy'. His signature style was a warts-and-all representation of post-Napoleonic French life, rich in detail and featuring complex, unfiltered characters.

The style means Balzac is regarded as one of the pioneers of European literary realism. He is named as an influence on writers including Emile Zola, Henry James, Charles Dickens, and Gustave Flaubert.

The first novel he published under his own name was 'Les Chouans' in 1829. In 1834 he hit upon the idea of grouping his novels together to record all of society. The result, over a period of years, was 'The Human Comedy', which comprised three categories: 'Analytic Studies'; 'Philosophical Studies'; and 'Studies of Manners'.