Sentence:  Make-believe <WSD>worseners</WSD> of human nature and human life, Wertherian, Byronic or à la Musset have given way to the trio of the blackening pen, Flaubert, Zola, Maupassant, and later on their heels comes a wit as brilliant and versatile as Voltaire's, but without Voltaire's hopefulness and faith in humanity — Anatole France. Balzac's work has immensely enriched the intellectual capital of the world, has it made the multitude, the "rascal many," happier or better? 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  One who or that which worsens (things), makes things worse.