"Gobseck" by Honoré de Balzac is a novella written in 1830. Set during the French Restoration, it tells the story of Anastasie de Restaud, an aristocrat trapped in a loveless marriage who turns to the cunning moneylender Gobseck for financial help. As her affair and reckless spending spiral out of control, she becomes entangled in debts and schemes that threaten to destroy her family. This tale explores the corrupting power of money through the lens of a mysterious usurer who is both petty miser and philosophical observer of human nature. (This is an automatically generated summary.)