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Review
Raine's translations restore Balzac to his passionate and efficient outrage upon the expectations of fiction. This best of his novels is worthy to be 'ours'--and now it is --Richard Howard
The novel exemplifies what Henry James described as Balzac s huge, all-compassing, all-desiring, all-devouring love of reality --V. S. Pritchett --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
The novel exemplifies what Henry James described as Balzac s huge, all-compassing, all-desiring, all-devouring love of reality --V. S. Pritchett --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Product Description
Cousin Bette (1846) is considered to be Balzac's last great novel, and a key work in his Human Comedy. Set in the Paris of the 1830s and 1840s, it is a complex tale of the devastating effect of violent jealousy and sexual passion. Against a meticulously detailed backdrop of a post-Napoleonic France struggling with massive industrial and economic change, Balzac's characters span many classes of society, from impoverished workers and wealthy courtesans to successful businessmen and official dignitaries. The tragic outcome of the novel is relieved by occasional flashes of ironic comedy and the emergence of a younger generation which has come to terms with the new political and econimic climate.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
An astounding, even disturbing book! Since I recently read Old Goriot (Classics) and afterwards The Wild Ass's Skin: (La Peau de Chagrin) (Classics) I've become something of a Balzac-addict (not a Balzac-expert, I wouldn't dream of claiming that) and so it was with eager anticipation and high hopes that I began 'Cousin Bette'. Let me immediately state for the record that I wasn't disappointed in the least.
Using a relatively small cast of (main) characters, Balzac succeeds in depicting a whole host of passions and emotions, most of them the kind we like to attribute to others but are hesitant to acknowledge in ourselves, such as treachery, envy, jealousy, even hatred. The story in itself is simple and straightforward: Bette is the (poor) cousin of Adeline who married into money after meeting the (then young and dashing) Baron Hulot, and has depended on her relatives' goodwill and patronage ever since. Bette has secretly fallen in love with the Polish count Steinbock, and when Adeline's daughter Hortense captures his attention and subsequently marries him, that is the last straw for Bette. From that moment on she sets out to plot and deceive with the sole goal of ruining the entire Hulot-family. Does she succeed? Well, I urge you to find out for yourselves. In doing so you'll encounter a rich array of very lifelike characters, in a plot that moves along briskly, find yourself facing some serious (at times disturbing) dilemmas (such as 'What would I have done?'), and be treated to little nuggets of timeless insight into the human mind on virtually every page.
A real treat, as worthy of our attention today as it was upon its first publication in 1847!
Using a relatively small cast of (main) characters, Balzac succeeds in depicting a whole host of passions and emotions, most of them the kind we like to attribute to others but are hesitant to acknowledge in ourselves, such as treachery, envy, jealousy, even hatred. The story in itself is simple and straightforward: Bette is the (poor) cousin of Adeline who married into money after meeting the (then young and dashing) Baron Hulot, and has depended on her relatives' goodwill and patronage ever since. Bette has secretly fallen in love with the Polish count Steinbock, and when Adeline's daughter Hortense captures his attention and subsequently marries him, that is the last straw for Bette. From that moment on she sets out to plot and deceive with the sole goal of ruining the entire Hulot-family. Does she succeed? Well, I urge you to find out for yourselves. In doing so you'll encounter a rich array of very lifelike characters, in a plot that moves along briskly, find yourself facing some serious (at times disturbing) dilemmas (such as 'What would I have done?'), and be treated to little nuggets of timeless insight into the human mind on virtually every page.
A real treat, as worthy of our attention today as it was upon its first publication in 1847!
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Balzac at his best. Through his writing you experience a rainbow of undesirable emotions and immoral passions with such insight that you feel tainted by your acquaintance with the characters through the book.Devastating/Funny/Sad/Insightful - anyone familiar and endeared to Balzac will easily be seduced by this book.
17 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is an amazing book for those who are interested in daily life bothers of people with remarkable passions. The interesting figures of the novel:a husband who loves his caring and self-denying wife but cannot resist his passion towards a coldhearted beauty, a cousin who enjoys the pains of her "protecting" relatives and a number of other figures from different spheres of society with varying ambitions. You will enjoy this great book and learn more about not only human nature but also an eventful era in French history.
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