Honoré de Balzac in Iran

It is an undeniable fact that Honoré de Balzac was an influential and well-known writer of nineteenth century who was known as one of the founders of realism in Europe. He helped to establish the traditional form of the novel and is generally considered to be one of the greatest novelists of all time. The novel La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus. Iranians are familiar with Balzac thanks to translators and translated books. Many of Balzac's works have inspired Iranian and writers and they are a continuing source of inspiration. The aim of this study was to discover the reason of Balzac's reception in Iran since the publication of his first translated book (the Girl with the Golden Eyes and Colonel Chabert). We will represent and use the reception theory; moreover we will have a brief look at the list of his translated books into Persian considering the social and cultural condition of Iran.