Christ in Flanders, written in 1831, is part of the Philosophical studies section of The Human Comedy. The story concerns itself with the appearance of Christ (or a Christ like figure) to a group of people on a ferry from the Island of Cadzand to Ostend.

Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of short stories and novels collectively entitled Human Comedy, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the 1815 fall of Napoleon Bonaparte.Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multifaceted characters, who are morally ambiguous.