 Image from Les Proscrits | |
| Author | Honoré de Balzac |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Édouard Toudouze |
| Language | French |
| Series | La Comédie humaine |
| Publisher | Charles Gosselin |
Publication date | 1831 |
| Publication place | France |
| Preceded by | Gambara |
| Followed by | Louis Lambert |
Les Proscrits (sometimes translated into English as The Exiles) is a French short story by Honoré de Balzac, published in 1831 by éditions Gosselin, then in 1846 by Furne, Dubochet, Hetzel in Études philosophiques. He subtitled it an esquisse historique. It forms part of the Livre Mystique, as do Louis Lambert and Séraphîta, and shares several of the themes of Louis Lambert - doctor Sigier's theory that intelligence knows several avatars, from animal intelligence to angels' intelligence, and the idea that angels live among men, which often recurs in Balzacs' descriptions of women (Esther, the fallen angel in Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, looks like an angel and ends her life in a kind of angelic redemption).