Thanks for your comment - it (as well as the original link) inspired me to head to Wikipedia and I started reading about Balzac and literary realism and other relevant subjects. I had vaguely heard of Balzac, but never given him much thought and definitely not read any of his novels. I'm now busy reading Father Goriot which is available on Amazon for free (and probably Gutenberg too):
It corrects a lot of typos in the Gutenberg/Amazon edition. It also corrects missing accent marks on French names/words and a bunch of other transcription errors.
Father Goriot is an excellent book, and this translation is very fresh and modern, considering its age.
https://www.amazon.com/Father-Goriot-Honor%C3%A9-Balzac-eboo...