Ewelina Hańska Ewelina Hańska Eveline Hańska (Ewelina, née Rzewuska, 6 January c. 1805 – 11 April 1882) was a Polish noblewoman best known for her marriage to French novelist Honoré de Balzac. Born at the Wierzchownia estate in Volhynia, (now Ukraine) Hańska married landowner Wacław Hański (Wenceslas Hanski) when she was a teenager. Hański, who was about 20 years her senior, suffered from depression. They had five children, but only a daughter, Anna, survived. In the late 1820s, Hańska began reading Balzac's novels, and in 1832, she sent him an anonymous letter. This began a decades-long correspondence in which Hańska and Balzac
Paul Adam (French novelist) Paul Adam (French novelist) Paul Adam (December 7, 1862 – January 2, 1920) was a French novelist. Adam wrote a series of historical novels that dealt with the period of the Napoleonic Wars and their aftermath; the first installment in the series, "La Force", was published in 1899. Together with Jean Moréas, he co-wrote "Les Demoiselles Goubert", which was a novel that marked the transition between Naturalism and Symbolism in French literature. His novel "Stephanie", which appeared in 1913, argued in favour of arranged marriages as opposed to those founded on romantic attachments. He was born and died in Paris.