The novel that made Balzac famous and popularized the phrase "Balzac age." On one hand, it is an elegant and tender narrative about love in its highest manifestations. On the other hand, it is a requiem for married life. Julie is an extraordinary, independent, and emotionally free woman. Due to her husband's indifference and coldness, she says goodbye to youthful illusions and becomes disillusioned with marriage. After all, "we are more often ruined not by griefs themselves, but by lost hopes." And what choice to make when on one side of the scales there is burdensome legalized love, and on the other—criminal passion? A woman who has experienced and understood everything has the highest right to happiness. Hundreds of thousands of women have found a healer in Balzac, as he pardons any of their missteps if only that step was taken out of love.