Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, translated variously as The Splendors and Miseries of Courtesans, A Harlot High and Low, or as Lost Souls, is an 1838-1847 novel by French novelist Honoré de Balzac, published in four initially separate parts: Esther Happy (Esther heureuse, 1838) What Love Costs an Old Man (À combien l’amour revient aux vieillards, 1843) The End of Evil Ways (Où mènent les mauvais chemins, 1846) The Last Incarnation of Vautrin (La Dernière incarnation de Vautrin, 1847) It continues the story of Lucien de Rubempré, who was a main character in Illusions perdues, a preceding Balzac novel. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes forms part of Balzac's La Comédie humaine. Plot summary Lucien de Rubempré and the self-proclaimed abbey Carlos Herrera (Vautrin) have made a pact, in which Lucien will arrive at success in Paris if he agrees to follow Vautrin's instructions blindly. Esther van Gobseck throws a wrench into Vautrin's best-laid plans, however, because Lucien falls in love with her and she with him. Instead of forcing Lucien to abandon her, he allows Lucien this secret affair, but also makes good use of it. For four years, Esther remains locked away in a house in Paris, taking walks only at night. One night, however, the incredibly rich banker Baron de Nucingen spots her and falls deeply in love with her. When Vautrin realizes that Nucingen's obsession is with Esther, he decides to use her power as a tool to help advance Lucien by extrapolating the maximum amount of money from the Baron as possible. The plan is the following: Vautrin and Lucien are 60,000 francs in debt because of the lifestyle that Lucien has had to maintain. They also need one million francs to buy the old Rubempré land back, so that Lucien can marry Clotilde, the rich but ugly daughter of the Grandlieus. Things don't work out as smoothly as Vautrin would have liked, however, because Esther commits suicide after giving herself to Nucingen for the first and only time (after making him wait for months). Since the police have already been suspicious of Vautrin and Lucien, they arrest the two on suspicion of murder over the suicide. This turn of events is particularly tragic because it turns out that only hours before, Esther had actually inherited a huge amount of money from an estranged family member. If only she had held on, she could have married