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Description
Balzac is concerned with the choice between ruthless self-gratification and asceticism, dissipation and restraint, in a novel that is powerful in its symbolism and realistic depiction of decadence.
First Sentence
Towards the end of October 1830 a young man entered the Palais-Royal1 just as the gambling-houses were opening in conformity with the law which protects an essentially taxable passion.
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