The Red Inn was one of the most typical novels that Balzac wrote to reveal the real society and its people. Balzac sought to present his characters as real people, neither fully good nor fully evil, but fully human. "To arrive at the truth", he wrote in the preface to Le Lys dans la vallée, "Writers use whatever literary device seems capable of giving the greatest intensity of life to their characters." "Balzac's characters", Robb notes, "were as real to him as if he were observing them in the outside world." This reality was noted by playwright Oscar Wilde, who said: "One of the greatest tragedies of my life is the death of Lucien de Rubempré. It haunts me in my moments of pleasure. I remember it when I laugh."At the same time, the characters represent a particular range of social types: the noble soldier, the scoundrel, the proud workman, the fearless spy, the alluring mistress. That Balzac was able to balance the strength of the individual against the representation of the type is evidence of the author's skill. One critic explained that "there is a center and a circumference to Balzac's world."

巴尔扎克的中篇小说《红房子旅馆》描写了18世纪末法德战争时期发生在莱茵河畔的一家小旅馆的谋杀案，无辜的青年军医助理被枪决，而真正的罪犯——前帝国军货供应商三十年来一直遭受一种怪病的折磨......小说充满了强烈的现实主义批判精神，深刻揭露了资产阶级沾满血腥的财富。