Honora de Balzac is considered the founder of social realism. Balzac was the first writer to write about the all social levels of the social scene in France. His vast collection of works encompasses the Restoration period and the July Monarchy. La Comedie Humaine was written between 1799 and 1850. This collection contains 95 novels, stories, and essays. Felix Grandet, the embodiment of greed and domestic tyranny, destroys the romance of his daughter Eugénie with her cousin Charles, condemning her to a futile, joyless existence.