Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac, Paris, 1636 (Google Books)

In December 1664, Lister returned to one of his favorite authors.

Balzac’s fame as a precise and clear prose stylist rests chiefly upon the Lettres, which promoted a national language and the most cultivated literary form.

Balzac has thus the credit of executing in French prose a reform parallel to Malherbe’s in verse ¹.