The Firm of Nucingen

This novella is a story told as a conversation between four "cormorants" (the metaphor is Balzac's) who sit and drink in a private room while their talk is overheard through the paper-thin partition and reported to us by Balzac himself (or a fictional representative of the writer). As in all of Balzac's tales of financial trickery, the machinations are incredibly involved and complex yet their effects are devastating...