We like to bring up Maurice because of the setting (okay, Downton is really only concurrent with the novel during S1, but still…), and all things Oscar Wilde are obviously great because snarky gayness, but my current reread of Illusions perdues has got me seriously considering throwing together some meta on Vautrin (and his unsuccessful relationships with Eugène de Rastignac and Lucien Chardon/de Rubempré) the ambitious and manipulative gay man with a taste for younger men he can mentor but who clearly aren’t that into him. Sound familiar?
My only problem with this thought is that, like practically all French authors not named Victor Hugo, Balzac is not widely known in the English-speaking world, so even if there are some very strong parallels they won’t mean much if most people in the fandom are unfamiliar with the source material. Also, the man was such a prolific author – Vautrin appears prominently in three separate novels, with small mentions or appearances elsewhere in the nearly one hundred completed works of La Comédie humaine – that would take an awful lot of time and energy to condense all of that content into one or two posts.
Gascon-en-exil: Gallophilic Cultural Posturing 