Balzac has a handle on grandiose sarcasm and his passages about how capitalism obliterates the souls of an entire country generally shine. De Marsay is an entertaining antihero, too. It’s clear, though, that Balzac lacked the critical thinking or the imagination necessary to realize that capitalism affects more than just white men; his disregard for women and Black people is typical of his era, but his statement that in fact women are the one group who are consistently happy under capitalism is a slap in the face. It makes the treatment of Paquita less of a savage irony than a callous objectification. Frankly, more has been done with these same themes by other authors; Alraune by Ewers stands out as a clear example. Balzac doesn’t know what to do with the taboo.