A poet trades his soul for Parisian fame—turns out the 19th century invented clout-chasing.
Season 1 • Episode 4
Latest1819, Angouleme, France, a young ambitious poet, Lucien Chardon is introduced in the salon of Mme de Bargeton where meets the high society of the city. Lucien dreams of going to Paris to conquer the glory. But if Paris is the city where he can find fame, it is also that of great disappointments.
Writing
Balzac's dialogue hits like a gossip column written by Shakespeare.
Costume
The cravats are immaculate, the moral decay even more so.
Acting
Rénier's Lucien: all hunger, no survival skills.
Creator
Maurice Cazeneuve
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This 1966 adaptation arrived during France's own post-war reckoning with class and collaboration—Balzac's 19th-century corruption felt uncomfortably contemporary.
Cazeneuve shot the Paris scenes in actual historic locations that were being demolished for modernization, accidentally capturing a city eating its own past.
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