La Peau de chagrin
He had bought the newspaper "La Chronique de Paris" in 1836, and founded "La Revue Parisienne" in 1840. Both of these business ventures were failures. A number of his novels had been published in serial form in the newspapers, though he often had disagreements with the publishers. He had also received harsh reviews in the newspapers from critics such as Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve and Jules Janin. Balzac had been critical of the press in "La Peau de chagrin", and later published a criticism of the press called "Monograph of the Paris Press" in 1842.