 Balzac kept a rough draft of the novel for six years before completing it in 1837 after being offered 20,000 Francs by "Le Figaro", provided it was ready to appear before December 15 that year.Explaining the delay he would later write "For six years I have kept a rough draft of César Birotteau despairing of ever being able to interest anyone in the character of a rather stupid, somewhat mediocre shopkeeper, whose misfortunes are commonplace, symbolising that world of the small Parisian tradesman which we so often ridicule ...".César is a man of peasant origins from the Touraine region.