The Unknown Masterpiece

The Unknown Masterpiece is a short story by Honoré de Balzac. It was first published in the newspaper L'Artiste with the title "Maître Frenhofer" in August 1831. It appeared again later in the same year under the title "Catherine Lescault, conte fantastique."

Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. The novel sequence La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of post-Napoleonic French life, is generally viewed as his magnum opus.