The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan (1830-33)

"Based on an affair the Comtesse de Castellane had had with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Count Mole: 'It's about the pack of lies by which a thirty-seven-year-old woman ... manages to pass herself off as a saint, a virtuous and modest young thing, in the eyes of her fourteenth lover.' One of Balzac's great themes: deceit in the service of genius." (Robb, 329)

(Medium, Les Secrets de la princesse de Cadignan, sdpdc10.txt)