At the Sign of the Cat and Racket

<p>At the Sign of the Cat and Racket</em> is a novella by Honoré de Balzac first published in 1830. It is the first work in the Scènes de la vie privée</em> a selection of writings which make up the first volume of Balzac's La Comédie humaine</em>. It tells the story of the relationship between the lofty artist Théodore de Sommervieux and Augustine Guillaume the down-to-earth daughter of a cloth merchant. </p>