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Title: Cousin Bette (Modern Library Classics) by Honore De Balzac, Kathleen Raine, Honore De Balzac, Francine Prose ISBN: 0375759077 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 12 February, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.6
Rating: 5
Summary: An Ignored Classic
Comment: Making a movie of it doesn't erase the world's crime of ignoring this great book. The equal of Dickens and James, Balzac has more energy and spirit, and a brighter palette. Cousin Bette has more plot than David Copperfield and sexier women than Valley of the Dolls. Madame Marneffe may be the most attractive monster (rhymes with itch) in literature, and Cousin Bette herself is all the Furies wrapped in an ugly old maid. One of the top fifty novels of all time.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Rubric of the Realist Movement
Comment: This is a remarkable book, setting the template for Flaubert and Zola's respective journeys into the sordid human psyche.
Lisbeth is a peasant girl from Alsace, bitter at her cousin Adeline's preferential treatment during their childhood. Vindictive Bette decides to cut the family from its wealth, as well as to debase her family personally. It's not difficult when Adeline's husband Hector becomes so weak-kneed over a pretty face that he would compromise his family if it came to a choice between sex and relatives. Lisbeth maneuvers skilfully, befriending Madame Marneffe, an unhappily married woman with numerous lovers who only wants to see her sickly husband made a manager of his governmental department. Installed in this household as a spy for hector (who is smitten with Marneffe), Lisbeth works toward an alliance with Marneffe, on one side to destroy the Hulot's, on the other to gain the love of Count Steinbock, to whom Lisbeth is a benefactress.
I saw a feminist agenda in this novel. Consider: Whereas Hector Hulot is not frowned upon for his numerous infidelities, and indeed feels no guilt even though his longsuffering wife turns a blind eye, when Adeline, in trying to save her family, attempts to seduce a wealthy perfumer named Crevel, she fears dishonor for herself, and feels immeasurable guilt over the infidelity she never even commits. Could Balzac be commenting on the fact that both women and men should be allowed their indiscretions? Call it immaterial. Also, the female characters are by and large either intelligent and conniving (Madame Marneffe, Lisbeth), or beautiful and virtuous (Adeline, Hortense). The men are scandalously disloyal (Steinbock, Hector), or inneffectual and dissolute (Monsieur Marneffe, Crevel). A fresh perspective...from a male author. Great in every way, even if quite convoluted.
Rating: 5
Summary: the same, only more and better
Comment: When I described my fascination with Balzac to a pal of mine, I said, "yeah, it is all about disillusioned and cynical people" and he replied: "I am already disillusioned and cynical, so why should I read it?"
Why indeed. This is indispuably one of the best of Balzac's novels, with clearly drawn characters and grim lives in an inexorable descent to self-destruction, which are the classic Balzac themes. It explores the life of a libertine as he ruins himself and his family for the sake of pursuing pretty girls. Unbekonst to him, he gets help from Bette, a cousin full of secret hatreds and bent on vengence. It is very sad to read. One minor character even commits suicide by repeatedly smashing his head into a nail, his only means to finish himself off he could find in his jail cell.
So why read it? Well, again, it is for the wider social portraits that you can find, which are offered almost as an aside. Balzac in one section explains the politics behind the statues you see all over Paris, which is fascinating. You also learn of the career of courtisans, as they use their sex to advance themselves. The book is simply full of these thngs, in addition to the psychology of the many interesting main characters.
Also unusual for Balzac is the coherency of the story, which does not degenerate into ramblings like many of his other novels as they weave the tapestry of his Comedie Humaine like so many threads, that is, as vehicles in his vast project to fully portray an entire society with characters re-appearing in different situations and venues throughout his interrelated novels. The characters stand on their own here and are more clearly drawn. Hence, it is a great intro to Balzac and may get you hooked for more, that is, if you are masochistic enough to subject yourself to it!
Warmly recommended.
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Title: Pere Goriot (Oxford World's Classics Series) by Honore De Balzac, A. J. Krailsheimer, Honore de Balzac ISBN: 0192835696 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: April, 1999 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Eugenie Grandet by Honore De Balzac, Honore de Balzac, Marion A. Crawford ISBN: 014044050X Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: April, 1955 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Lost Illusions (Modern Library Classics) by Honore De Balzac, Kathleen Raine, Richard Howard ISBN: 0375757902 Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks Pub. Date: 13 November, 2001 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: A Harlot High and Low: (Splendeurs Et Miseres Des Courtisanes (Splendeurs Et Mis`Eres Des Courtisanes;) by Honore De Balzac, Rayner Heppenstall ISBN: 0140442324 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: December, 1970 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Cousin Pons: Part Two of Poor Relations (Penguin Classics, L205) by Honore De Balzac, Herbert J. Hunt ISBN: 0140442057 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: August, 1978 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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