| The Quest of the Absolute | |
| Title Orig: | La Recherche de l'absolu |
| Author: | Honoré de Balzac |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
| Series: | La Comédie humaine |
| Pub Date: | 1834 |
The Quest of the Absolute (French: La Recherche de l'absolu) is a novel by Honoré de Balzac.[1] The novel first appeared in 1834, with seven chapter-divisions, as a Scène de la vie privée; was published by itself in 1839 by Charpentier; and took its final place as a part of the Comédie in 1845.
The astronomer Ernest Laugier helped Balzac in the use of chemical terminology in this novel.[2]
In François Truffaut's 1959 film The 400 Blows, teenager Antoine Doinel idolizes Balzac's work and depicts 'my grandfather's death' in a school essay, based on the plot of The Quest of the Absolute, leading his teacher to accuse of him of plagiarizing, causing him to quit school.