The Lesser Bourgeoisie

It tells of the attempts made by a young attorney named Theodose de la Peyrade to worm himself into the good graces of a nouveau riche Paris family, the Thuilliers. As his reward he aims for the hand of the lucky heir of this childless couple, one Celeste Colleville. Balzac tends to find the ambitious middle class characters as amusing, compared to Flaubert, who made of the equally bourgeois Madame Emma Bovary a tragic character.