Balzac

Beginning June 1, after a two-year renovation, Hôtel Balzac, a member of Relais & Châteaux, the luxury hotel and restaurant network, is planning to open in the Eighth Arrondissement, within walking distance of the Champs-Élysées.

In it, he explored his own experiences with the drug cannabis at the Paris-based Club des Hachichins—some of which took place alongside the likes of Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire.

At an elevation, he looked like a haggard Rodin bust of Balzac.

Until then, however, remember Honoré de Balzac’s advice: “Believe everything you hear about the world; nothing is too impossibly bad.”

The academy noted that Oe’s work has been strongly influenced by Western writers, including Dante, Poe, Rabelais, Balzac, Eliot and Sartre.