"Whether or not Lost Illusions counts as the greatest novel ever written, as the literary scholar Franco Moretti claims, it's a pretty magnificent one. You can read it for its combination of social scope and psychological insight, and for its cinematically vivid portraits of faces . . . and many fine phrases. . . . And then you can read Lost Illusions, as Marx read Balzac, for its account of the double-edged nature of early capitalism."--Benjamin Kunkel, Salon

"Reading Balzac, one can experience that sauntering pace and steady gaze that our forebears gave to their surroundings, speculations, and soul-searching. It's as with reading Hugo and Dumas, Thackeray and Dickens, George Eliot and Flaubert."--Pop Matters

"Among the pleasures of the novel is how neatly it is tied into the times, from some of the events of the times to, especially, the worlds of literature and theater. Balzac bases several of his characters on real figures, too, and MacKenzie's helpful endnotes succinctly place the who and what."--The Complete Review

"Between Lost Illusions and Lost Souls, in two hefty, handsome paperbacks--with scholarly trimmings to help, not impede a reader--we now have both of the novels (technically all seven novels in a trilogy followed by a tetralogy... published between 1837 and 1847 in not entirely chronological order... because Balzac?) tracing the fate of Lucien de Rubempre, in print as though they belong together, on your to-be-read lists and your shelves. They are a remarkable itinerary."--LitHub

"Now we are treated to a handsomely produced, new annotated version by Raymond N. MacKenzie, a prolific translator of 19th century French Literature who knows Balzac well, as his instructive introduction amply shows. "--Metamorphoses