Set in contemporary Paris, it describes the rise and fall of a brilliant political strategist abandoned by the politicians he helps into power.

Balzac, a legitimist, believed that France's lack of bold leadership had led to mediocrity and ruin, and that men of quality were being ignored or worse.

The story also explores Balzac's conviction that a person's name is a powerful indicator of his or her destiny, an idea he drew from the work of Laurence Sterne.

The title character, with his keen intellect, is based on Balzac's conception of himself: a visionary genius who fails to achieve his true potential because of less talented individuals with more social power.

He also lost large sums of borrowed money in the publishing trade, attempting to capitalize on cheap editions of classical works.

[2] Although his views on politics were always changing, Balzac was primarily a legitimist who supported the House of Bourbon and believed that the July Revolution of 1830 had left France without strong leadership.

[4] In July 1840 he attempted to fuse his desire to make money with his politics by founding a magazine called the Revue Parisienne, funded by his friend Armand Dutacq.

In his comic essay Balzac en pantoufles, Gozlan recounted his associate's insistence: "On est nommé là-haut avant de l'être ici-bas.

")[9] Balzac insisted to Gozlan that by searching through the streets of Paris, they would find a name suitable for a character he had imagined, a political genius thwarted by the mediocrity of the time.

Répétez-vous à vous-même ce nom composé de deux syllabes, n'y trouvez-vous pas une sinistre signifiance?

Recognizing at an early age that he had an incisive mind for politics, Marcas had allied himself with an unnamed man of some fame who lacked wisdom and insight.

Ses cheveux ressemblaient à une crinière, son nez était court, écrasé, large et fendu au bout comme celui d'un lion, il avait le front partagé comme celui d'un lion par un sillon puissant, divisé en deux lobes vigoureux."

")[15] Marcas appears to be destined for greatness; he is described as having tremendous spirit, sound but speedy judgment, and comprehensive knowledge of public manners.

[17] Despite these innate proficiencies, however, the political genius living in the students' midst requires their aid to dress himself when official company comes to call.

[18] The character of Z. Marcas nonetheless represents a fiery drive to succeed in the world of politics, an acute mind seeking to do good in the public sphere.

Like Marcas, the author dreamed of fame and positive influence; as Balzac believed himself to be, the character is dismissed and manipulated by mediocre minds.

[20] Balzac began using characters from earlier works in his 1835 novel Le Père Goriot, and made the technique a hallmark of his fiction.

In the case of Z. Marcas, the narrator – Charles Rabourdin, whose identity is only revealed at the end of the story – is in fact the son of a central character from Balzac's 1837 tale La Femme supérieure [fr].

"This technique", insists critic Mary Susan McCarthy, "not only furnished him with a unifying principle but also offers the reader a network of relationships through which to unite the many separate stories and novels in which the characters appear, forming the fictional universe that is La Comédie humaine.

As critic Charles Affron puts it: "The creator of a universe so tied up with inner rhythms and resounding with so many echoes does not hesitate to imply that the germs of a character's failure can be found in the physical qualities of his name.

The students live in shabby environs, furnished by "qu'un maigre tapis en lisière" ("only a scrap of thin carpet").

[31] They share "une blonde perruque de tabac turc" ("a tawny twig of Turkish tobacco")[32] with their neighbor, and the three discuss political personalities drawn directly from recent history, including William Pitt the Elder and the Voltigeurs.

[34] Z. Marcas is best known for its reflection of Balzac's political views, specifically the neglect of talent and ability in a sea of republican mediocrity; and the abandonment of young people by older generations.

"[35] Balzac believed that the July Monarchy had brought a wave of poor leadership, and that people of quality and integrity were scorned in the name of cronyism.

La jeunesse n'a pas d'issue en France, elle y amasse une avalanche de capacités méconnues, d'ambitions légitimes et inquiètes, elle se marie peu, les familles ne savent que faire de leurs enfants; quel sera le bruit qui ébranlera ces masses, je ne sais; mais elles se précipiteront dans l'état de choses actuel et le bouleverseront.

Youth has no outlet in France; it is gathering an avalanche of underrated capabilities, of legitimate and restless ambitions; young men are not marrying now; families cannot tell what to do with their children.