[Daily article] December 6: Louis Lambert

Louis Lambert is a French novel by Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), 
included in the Études philosophiques section of his novel sequence La 
Comédie humaine. Set mostly in a school at Vendôme, it examines the 
life and theories of a boy genius fascinated by the Swedish philosopher 
Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772). Balzac wrote Louis Lambert during the 
summer of 1832 while he was staying with friends at the Château de 
Saché. The novel contains a minimal plot, focusing mostly on the 
metaphysical ideas of its boy-genius protagonist and his only friend 
(eventually revealed to be Balzac himself). Although it is not a 
significant example of the realist style for which Balzac became 
famous, the novel provides insight into the author's own childhood. 
Specific details and events from the author's life – including 
punishment from teachers and social ostracism – suggest a fictionalized 
autobiography. Critics panned the novel, but Balzac believed that it 
provided an important look at philosophy, especially metaphysics. As he 
developed the scheme for La Comédie humaine, he placed Louis Lambert in 
the Études philosophiques section, and later returned to the same 
themes in his novel Séraphîta, about an androgynous angelic creature.

Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Lambert>

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Today's selected anniversaries:

1060:

Béla I the Champion was crowned king of Hungary.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9la_I_of_Hungary>