Balzac is considered one of the greatest realist writers in the history of French literature. Indeed, he is the pioneer of social realism in all world literature.
This fact led to the neglect of another no less important aspect of Balzac's creativity, which is the fantasy aspect. If Balzac had reached millions of readers through dozens of realistic and social novels, he also knew how to reach them through fantasy novels, no less powerful than those. Rather, it has more value in terms of its entertainment, as well as its ability to reveal the great amount of wild imagination that this genius writer had.
This prompted his critics to say that Balzac's goal in these works was to push his reader to think and contemplate, distinguishing his position from the position of the English occult writers who essentially intended to "manipulate the reader's thoughts and nerves" through his interaction with their works.