Balzac worked on the novel “Shine and Poverty of Courtesans” for more than ten years, from 1836 to 1847. The novel occupies a significant place in the multi-volume cycle of works united by the writer under the general title “Human Comedy”. With this novel, Balzac ends a kind of trilogy ("Father Gorio", "Lost Illusions", "The Shine and Poverty of Courtesans") Through all three works are the main characters of the "Human Comedy" . The novel ends the story of the hero of “Lost Illusions” poet Lucien Chardon (de Rbampre), who squandered talent and destroyed himself in the pursuit of wealth and the temptations of secular life. Here the reader again meets the successful careerist Rastignac and fugitive convict Jacques Collen, familiar from the novel “Father Goriot”. The novel takes place during the Restoration and covers the years 1824-1830. The writer creates a broad social generalization of the life of France on the eve of the July Revolution of 1830.