Given the state of bloggers and self-referential journalists, both in old media and new, Honoré de Balzac's Lost Illusions offers some welcome, if not comforting, perspective on current trends from a viewpoint in the distant past.

The more things change...

Balzac finished the book more than 170 years ago. Contained within the larger story of a youth from the provinces anxious to succeed in Paris is a portrait of a segment of the publishing industry known as 'petits journals.' With their emphasis on alternative sources of information, they were noninstitutional and lively, but also irresponsible and malicious. Balzac's descriptions of them will seem familiar to contemporary readers, as will the characters of many of the journalists who were seduced into writing for them.

To quote Balzac, every journal was "a shop which sells to the public whatever shades of opinion it wants. [The media] are no longer concerned to enlighten, but to flatter public opinion."

The book is fascinating, but with a long and winding plot. More conventional introductions to Balzac are Le Père Goriot and Eugénie Grandet.

To download a free copy of Lost Illusions in an EPub, Kindle, or plain text version, go to Project Gutenberg at www.gutenberg.org and search 'Illusions Perdues, English.' Many of Balzac's most famous works are available in English at this extraordinary, invaluable site.