Les Proscrits (sometimes translated into English as The Exiles) is a French short story by Honoré de Balzac, published in 1831 by éditions Gosselin, then in 1846 by Furne, Dubochet, Hetzel in Études philosophiques.

At the start of the 14th century, sergeant Tirechair lives in a dark house near Notre-Dame de Paris.

The eldest is a gentleman who attends the royal court, while the youngest, (Godefroy, count of Gand), is the son of countess Mahaut and is taken on as a servant in the Tirechairs's house.

The old gentleman, proscribed by his native land of Italy, is none other than the poet Dante Alighieri.

In his introduction to Études philosophiques, Balzac stated: The warm and scholarly study of Les Proscrits contains two identical propositions - the suicide of a child disgusted with life who wants to reach for the sky, and the genius which becomes fatal to a great poet.