Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac

Cousin Bette Reviews

• 
  Ahmad Sharabiani

  La Cousine Bette = Cousin Bette, Honoré de Balzac
  
  Story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family.
  
  Cousin Bette is considered Balzac's last great work. His trademark use of realist detail combines with a panorama of characters returning from earlier novels. Several critics have hailed it as a turning point in the author's career, and others have called it a prototypical naturalist text.
  
  It has been compared to William Shakespeare's Othello as well as Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace. The novel explores themes of vice and virtue, as well as the influence of money on French society. Bette's relationship with Valérie is also seen as an important exploration of homoerotic themes.
  
  تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و سوم ماه نوامبر سال1971میلادی
  
  عنوان: دختر عمو بت - در دو جلد؛ نویسنده: آنوره (اونوره) دو بالزاک؛ مترجم: م.ا به آذین (محمود اعتمادزاده)؛ تهران، آسیا، سال1347؛ در486ص؛ چاپ سوم سال1368؛ شابک9649067949؛ چاپ دیگر تهران، نیلوفر، سال1390، شابک9789644484988؛ در551ص؛ جلد نخست از ص یک تا ص240؛ جلد دوم از ص243؛ تا ص486؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان فرانسه - سده ی19م
  
  بسیاری، «دختر عمو بت» را، در شمار شاهکارهای «بالزاک» دانسته اند؛ و به واقع نیز، چنین است؛ میتوان داستان پر از شاخ و برگ «بالزاک» را، نپسندید، میتوان وسواس نویسنده را، برای زمینه سازی دقیق، و خسته کننده ی ایشان؛ برای شناساندن یکان یکان از شخصیتهای داستان؛ و گوشه های محیطی که، تخیل و خیال شگفت انگیز او، آنها را به حرکت درمیاورد؛ و به زندگی وامیدارد، به باد انتقاد گرفت؛ یا با پشتگرمی به اندوخته ی دانش امروزین، که از مجاری روزنامه ها، و رسانه ها؛ یا کتابهای دبیرستان، و غیر آن، به دست آمده، تئوری بافیهای «بالزاک» را، کودکانه شمرد؛ و احساس برتری نمود؛ همه ی اینها امکان دارد؛ اما باید توجه داشت، که داستانهای «بالزاک»، همانند خود واقعیت، مجاب کننده هستند؛
  
  زندگی، در میان واژه های ایشان، هماره لمس میشود؛ کمند سوداهایی که «بالزاک»، به گردن قهرمانان خویش، میافکند، و آنها را، به سوی پایان منطقی سرنوشت خود، میکشاند، هیچگاه، ساختگی، و غیرانسانی نیست؛ چهره ها بیگانه نیستند؛ گفته هایشان به گوش خوانشگر آشناست؛ ایشان، از حرکات بسیار عادی، غولهایی میسازند، که نمیتوان دیده بر آنها فروبست؛ و این غولها، کسانی جز خود ماها نیستیم و نیستند؛ همه ی ما، نمونه هایی از: «لیسبت»، «هولو»، «آدلین»، «کرول»، «مارنف» و زنش را، در دور و بر خود، دیده ایم؛ و کنار خود داریم؛
  
  در اطراف ما نیز، آزمندی و هوس، در شمار گردانندگان اصلی رویدادهای روزمره، هستند، و هنوز هم، ارزش هرچیزی، به سودآوری، و با واحد پول سنجیده میشود؛ «کرول»، برای انتقام از «هولو»، و دست یافتن بر زن او، میخواهد سیصدهزار «فرانک»، مایه بگذارد؛ «آدلین» بزرگمنش و زیبا، در لحظه ی درماندگی، حاضر است خویشتنبانی (تقوی) خود را، به دویست هزار «فرانک»، بفروشد؛ برای دختر و داماد «کرول»، که سهم خود را، از میراث وی، در خطر میبینند، زندگی زن دلفریب، و دسیسه کار «مارنف»، تنها پنجاه هزار «فرانک» ارزش دارد؛
  
  در داستان «بالزاک» نیز، حس زنبارگی، حس شرف و مسئولیت را، از یاد پدر میبرد، و او را، پله به پله، از دزدی در اموال دولت، به نوعی قوادی میکشاند؛ و ...؛ در یک جمله ی بلند، میتوان گفت: داستان زن میانسالی است؛ که ازدواج نکرده، و طرح ویرانی خانواده ی پرجمعیت خویش را، در سر می‌پروراند؛ این رمان نیز، عضوی از سریهای کمدی انسانی «بالزاک» به شمار می‌رود
  
  تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 20/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ 29/10/1400هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی
• 
  Petra time heals but a week isnt quite long enough

  
  This is a soap opera masquerading as a classic. It has all the right ingredients.
  
  * A husband, a baron, who has spent all the family money on other women.
  
  * A wife who justifies acting like a doormat by saying it is religious feminine submission.
  
  * An in-law who threatens to put the kybosh on any potential "good match" marriage for their dowry-less but pretty (and rather boring) daughter Hortense if religious doormat doesn't sleep with him.
  
  * Cousin Bette, the protagonist of the story, who is the plain, poor relation given shelter by the Baron, but must earn her own living and who is a jealous, vengeful and cunning woman.
  
  * A talented sculptor who leads on and exploits Cousin Bette for what she can do for him, but falls in love with Hortense (and marries her after he has become rich through using her connections).
  
  * A beautiful mistress/whore, Valerie. Lots of French classics have a woman who exploits her looks but is eventually brought low. Camille in La Dame aux Camélias, Nana, Madame Bovary to name a few I've read.
  
  * The poor but handsome lover of the mistress who is used for sex and spurned because he hasn't got enough money. He's going to have his revenge too.
  
  * More than a hint of lesbianism between the vengeful Bette and the greedy Valerie.
  
  Everyone gets their just desserts in the end, except, mystifingly, the Baron who on his saintly wife's demise marries a servant girl and is happy as a hare in clover satisfied with his comfortable life and lots of sex.
  
  Balzac did write this as a series and it is both light fiction and great literature. It explores the themes of wealth, beauty, cruelty, passion and religion in an elegant fashion. This is what makes it such a good read, a good plot, great characters and plenty of depth to flesh out the story into a real experience. But 4 stars rather than 5 because it does take a bit of wading through.
• 
  J.L. Sutton

  Compelling (and unsavory) characters drew me into Honore de Balzac's Cousin Bette (1846). The main plot centers on Cousin Bette's revenge on her family; however, all the stories which make up the novel are imbued by obsessions which drive the narrative to its dark end. Much of how I described Balzac's earlier novel, Pere Goriot, holds true for Cousin Bette; Balzac's impressively/exhaustively detailed style is at work here. The layers of detail allow readers to immerse themselves in early 19th century French society in general and more specifically in the depiction of the drawn out spiteful vengeance Bette exacts on her family. Once immersed, it can be overwhelming to stand in Balzac's world, but it's probably as close as any of us will get to hanging out with scheming relatives (in 19th century France).
• 
  Perry

  SWEET LAND OF LIBERTINES
  
  
  If you fancy yourself a moralist, you may wanna skip this one. As the undoubted precursor to/playbook for modern-day soap operas, Cousin Bette involves:

  marital cruelty, sexual blackmail, spite-filled revenge, prostitution, unconscionable adultery, women with irresistible sexual allure to men, men and women having a number of different sexual partners (in a day), theft, poisons, passion-filled murder, and just about every other sin and demoralizing character defect one can imagine.

  
  It seemed realistic and true to the human condition... an exploration of a society uninhibited. Balzac wrote Cousin Bette in 1847 in France at the height of the "libertine" philosophy holding that one need not be restrained by the morals of society, including monogamy and marriage, but should instead seek out and enjoy all of life's pleasures (particularly a variety of sexual partners) with no regard to harm done to others (Note: my uneducated synopsis of Libertinism, which also fits my idea of biblical Sodom and Gomorrah).
  
  Here, money and sex are bartering and blackmail chips; virtues like honor and loyalty take second seat to instant gratification and debauchery. Guilt and regret are non-existent.
  
  The name is somewhat misleading. Cousin Bette is the old maid jilted by her infatuation for Wenceslas in favor of her angelic cousin Hortense Hurlot. As a result, she schemes to ruin the Hurlot family through a temptress named Madame Marneffe, who is as easy as an old shoe. Daddy Hurlot and the Mayor are also sleeping with the Mdme. I cannot start describing the rest of the story without going down a path littered with raunch and degradation.
  
  I wanted to read at least one Balzac novel so I picked this one and read it a few summers back [review updated from then]. I give it 4 stars because there is something to be said for keeping all this straight and being the primary trailblazer of realism in fiction. Plus this is just a part of a larger, loosely-tied sequence of novels and short stories, La Comedie humaine, in which Balzac presented his panoramic view of life in France after Napoleon's downfall in 1815. So many great authors followed his lead in the 20th century in Europe and America and set the world afire down so many different paths toward truth and humanity that are each so unique.
• 
  Chrissie

  I am no literary critic. I will merely try and express what I experienced while reading this book.
  
  I am glad I read it, but I admire the author's opus more than I enjoyed it. Honestly, it was often a struggle.
  
  It has a very slow start. The book's narrator, after a third of the way through, states that only now will the story begin. All that before had just been an introduction to the characters! That "introduction" doesn't read as a normal introduction; you are thrown into events that you scarcely comprehend. Often I was confused, and so also upset, but always I did eventually come to understand what was happening. There are lots of characters. Actually, the number is not the main problem. The confusion is caused by the immense amount of details thrown at you. When I begin a book, I have no idea where the book is leading so I try and remember e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. I was swamped. From all these details the author does periodically summarize and clarify so you do understand. These details do serve a purpose; they very accurately depict life in Paris in the early 1840s.
  
  The book was first published in serial format in Le Constitutionanel. Balzac wrote it to compete against another popular feuilleton author, Eugène Sue, of a socialist bent. Balzac supported the House of Bourbon and venerated Napoléon Bonaparte as a champion of absolutist power. Balzac’s aim was to realistically describe life after Napoléon’s fall. Given that it was published as a feuilleton, he was writing for people of his day. References are made to individuals and events that were the talk of the town. So they understood what he was referring to much better than we do! Much is left unexplained. In addition, the popularity and success of the writing depended upon keeping readers engaged. Melodrama, excitement, titillating scenes and moralistic elements pepper the writing. This very much affects the writing style. I think he magnificently depicts the different social classes vying against each other in Paris, but as with other books written in serial format something quick and exciting must happen in each episode. Do you see why I admire the writing, but don't really love it?
  
  Then there are the characters. Some critics say his figures are complex. I didn’t see them that way. The reader easily spots different character types:
  Bette - think of one seeking revenge. She is the cousin of Adeline.
  Valérie Marneffe - the beautiful, seductive, greedy mistress of four. And she is married!
  Baron Hector Hulot - consumed by sex. Let’s just call him the dirty old man.
  Baroness Adeline Hulot - Hector’s saintly wife.
  Célestin Crevel - the wealthy, retired tradesman and rival of Hulot. Here and elsewhere Balzac shows the importance of wealth.
  Wenceslas Steinbock - the artist. Here Balzac has a chance to spell out what it takes to succeed in art – hard work! You can reflect on Balzac’s own efforts. He wrote this novel in two months! His health suffered.
  
  There are several more figures in the families:
  Hortense Hulot - daughter of the Hulots married to Wenceslas
  Victorin Hulot - the Hulots' son married to Celestine.
  Celestine - Crevel's daughter married to Victorin
  Maréchal Hulot - Hector Hulot's honorable brother
  Johann Fischer – an uncle of the Hulot family, someone handy to send to Algiers to embezzle funds
  
  And mistresses and lovers:
  Josépha Mirah - singer, Jewish, abandoned child
  Baron Henri Montès de Montéjanos - another Baron, another lover, but Brazilian this time
  Agathe - kitchenmaid, mistress and........
  
  I am listing the characters for two reasons. To help those planning on reading the book and to illustrate the caricature each represents. I prefer more complicated, complex characters. I don’t see them that way. There is a strong moral message conveyed.
  
  Yet, Balzac did have a great idea in writing his Comédie humaine, a multi-volume collection of interlinked novels sharing many of the same characters. He completed over 90 novels and had begun over 40 more. You hit upon characters that have turned up in other novels. You remember other things they have done and said. This added depth for me. In
  Père Goriot I met the criminal in-hiding, Vautrin. Here he is in the police force, and we meet more of his family! Doctor Bianchon was one of the diners at the lodging house Mason Vauque. We meet him here too. I liked this very much. You don’t have to read the books in a particular order, but the more you read and the more you know, the fuller the story becomes. As in real life, as with real people, the more you learn about each, the more interesting they become. You become curious for more.
  
  The audiobook I listened to was narrated by Johanna Ward / Kate Reading. She knows how to pronounce French correctly. That is important. For me she spoke too quickly. She dramatizes, but she does this well. Me, I would give the narration four stars.
  
  So the book IS worth reading, but it is difficult. You have to pay close attention. It is by no means an easy read. For me it was a bit too didactic, a bit to melodramatic, its characters a bit too simplified. The next I will read from the Comédie humaine will be
  Eugénie Grandet. My curiosity has been piqued and I do want more, but I need a breather first.
• 
  AiK

  Признаюсь, поначалу меня бесили Аделина и Гортензия, праздные женщины, которых Бальзак изображал идеалами, неизменно награждая эпитетами «эта святая женщина» про мать и «прекрасная» про дочь. Бетта оказалась умной женщиной, не ставшей вступать в неравную открытую борьбу, она сделала себя сама, работала мастерицей-золотошвейкой и зарабатывала се��е этим ремеслом на хлеб. У нее был сильный характер, поскольку она не захотела выйти замуж за четырех мужчин, которых ей сватали, а выбрала сама своего возлюбленного. Ее силы духа хватило за них обоих, она морально помогала ему так, что он начал делать успехи и был замечен. Мне не понравилось, что Бальзак осуждает ее и считает, что у Гортензии есть моральное право, отбив возлюбленного у Бетты, женить его на себе, а у Бетты нет морального права мстить за это, как и у Валери нет морального права отбить у Гортензии Венцеслава. Это действительно, роман о нравах, когда отцы семейств проматывали состояния на содержанок, и у одной содержанки было по нескольку соперничающих между собой любовников, часто знавших о существовании друг друга. В конце, когда Аделина начала заниматься благотворительностью и получать за это зарплату, она стала заслуживать большего уважения, но эпитеты «святая женщина» все равно казались неуместными. И все же, это роман не о Бетте, а о семейной драме Аделины.
• 
  Daisy

  After a run of reading more modern books that have left me underwhelmed I thought it was time to remind myself of how great a novel can be. I had had this sitting on my shelf for a while but was feeling too tired to commit to 450 pages and the exertions of flipping back and forth to the notes explaining the history of some law that is referenced in passing. Fool!
  This Penguin edition is fantastic; a very brief introduction (I only read the introduction after
  I’ve finished the book when you can understand what they are talking about and there is no risk of spoilers) and absolutely no notes bar a few footnotes. This meant the narrative spoke for itself and could be read without interruption and what a wonderful read it was.
  In terms of characterisation Balzac is akin to Dickens, Cousin Bette is populated by caricatures. There is the malicious, scheming eponymous spinster who is skinny, dark and sports a monobrow, her saintly cousin Adeline who is beauty personified and endlessly patient and forgiving, the greedy, cruel bewitching courtesan and the sexually incontinent baron among others. Yet Balzac has none of the moralising or sentimentality of Dickens. Characters suffer, characters cheat and fail morally and yet the author remains objective and does not offer any opprobrium on them. Instead it is left to the reader to pass judgment on their actions.
  This book is described as a book about vengeance but I would argue it is more about the self-destructive nature of selfishness and greed. Despite being the eponymous character Cousin Bette does remarkably little to bring her cousin, and by association the Hulot family, down. She, in many ways, is a Iago. She has to do remarkably little to exploit the weaknesses in each character and once that faultline has been found she can observe them destroy themselves.
  It is with discomfort that we read of husbands and fathers abandoning and impoverishing their families in the pursuit of sex. Baron Hulot, a handsome, charming man of renown brazenly parades his courtesans around town, paying for them to live in splendour while his family home is in genteel decay. Balzac’s description of the Baron’s home is wonderful.
  
  Cousin Bette, who was not impressed, as the newly rich ex-perfumer had been, by the signs of distress written on the worn chairs, the discoloured hangings, and the split silk. The furniture with which we live is in the same case as ourselves . Seeing ourselves every day, we come, like the Baron, to think ourselves little changed, still young, while other people see on our heads hair turning to chinchilla, V-shaped furrows on our foreheads, and great pumpkins in our bellies. These rooms were still lit for Cousin Bette by the Bengal lights of Imperial victories and shone with perennial splendour.
  
  Like an addict he cannot give up these women and having spent his children’s inheritance, borrowed from everyone possible and even committed fraud against the state will watch his wife move into a garret and work for a living rather than give up his women. The bleakest moment is at the end, in his twilight years (he is over 80) penniless, shabby and looking his age, he still cannot resist the lure of female flesh and again abandons his family for a young kitchen maid – his prizes are no longer the beauties and courtesans but dumpy, plain uneducated serving girls as befits the reduction in his circumstances.
  The courtesans are no less lacking in empathy. They happily drain the coffers of their marks using enough of the flirt an withdrawal, kindness and coldness that today we would call it coercive control.
  Madame Marneffe has an addiction of her own; money. To me she also seemed to have a rage at the world, a need to take everything until she has destroyed it fully. She does this with the men who pay court to her. She will not stop tightening the screws until she has every last sou out of them and has nothing but contempt for the families she is fully aware she is destroying. What makes her so monstrous is her desire to inflict pain on people she has never met and have done her no ill, her greed is incidental (or at best secondary) to her malice and it often seems that money is the method with which she achieves her aims rather than the purpose.
  While reading it I kept thinking how inconceivable it was that people would behave like this and then I thought about online scams where people are fleeced of huge amounts of money by the promise of an attractive object of their affection. I personally know of someone who gave her young children’s savings to a man she had never met in person but had believed she would set up home with him. At least the Baron knew what he was willing to sacrifice everything for. Similarly Madame Marneffe seemed just too cruel and manipulative to be credible, and then I watched The Puppet Master on Netflix and realised that there are people who can strip people of family, finances, autonomy and care not a jot.
  A painful but wonderful read.
• 
  Jonfaith

  Despite some narrative leaps and a reversal of fortune for several of the characters, I truly loved this novel. It was a perfect, snowy weekend for such. The pacing, except for the end, was sublime and supported with equal measures of vitriol and detail.
  
  There is much to say about a family in decline, if not peril. I rank Cousin Bette with Buddenbrooks and The Sound and the Fury.
• 
  Théo d'Or

  Despite the title, cousin Bette does not, at least apparently, play the lead role. Balzac's attention is not so much draw to the biography of a character, as to the biography of the epoch.
  Intriguing, voluntary, sadistic, tenacious, hypocritical, the modest cousin embodies in a synthetic portrait the features of the class of the time she is going through. It can be said that, as the presence of a virus unleashes the plague, the ambitious woman radiates evil, giving the whole picture a gloomy meaning. Under seemingly innocent, Bette disguises a ferocious soul.
  Ancient rages did not cover their faces, this modern Fury wears an angelic mask.
  The realist Balzac folows the alternations between the apparent and the hidden content, the interest going beyond the plastic of the picture, to the depth, in fact, in such pictures the history of the French bourgeoisie appears critically reconstructed, its morals being seen from within by a bourgeois for whom there is no secret, the pen of the realist reaching deep wounds , the word becoming an act of accusation against the bourgeois order and false values.
  The anatomist concerned with the dissection sees the details, the physiologist Balzac sees the relation between phenomena, he studies morals, seeking like a scientist, performance and laws.
  It would be difficult to judge a man only on his own, for the honest Mrs.Hulot, Bette is a kind of idol, but Bette is an idol who - unable to reach - will rejoice in the ruin of the rich. Baron Hulot ruins his family, and Bette offers him all the support in that direction, but playing the role of a guardian-angel. She leads a surprisingly natural double life.
  Here, is a fundamental feature of the balzacian technique : one single side of the heroes, defining for a character, appears exaggerated to the point of monstrosity. You could have the impression of a journey through the lands of Dante, among dehumanized apparitions.
  Here I see the Human Comedy just like it is, of a crisp realism. Glacially in appearance, Balzac penetrates the intimacy of things, beyond what a photographic plate offers. As a writer, he addresses intelligence, the whole epic seeking to highlight meanings, inapparent connections . How does " the one who studies society" explain Bette's wickedness ? In an old-girl, only one side of character develops, to the detriment of the others, virginity favoring the imbalance :))
  With such beings, idealized in the opposite direction, we are co-opted into a world that, if it weren't outrageously real, it would seem like a tragic fairy tale.
  In fairy tales, takes place the battle between good and evil, but here, on a large stretch, the darkness persists.
  Like other balzacian novels, " Cousin Bette " - has a moving, dramatic structure. In the Dante's comedy shadows and ghosts dialogued, here - we meet people, people of rare vitality.
  What I noticed about the creator of Human Comedy - is that the future does not exists, everything represents the present.
• 
  ατζινάβωτο φέγι.

  Ο Μπαλζακ γλαφυρα και κυνικα ξεμπροστιαζει την γαλλικη κοινωνια δινοντας στο εργο του διαχρονικη ποιοτητα. Με καθε πιθανη μορφη και τροπο, η Αρετη και η Κακια αντιμαχονται η μια την αλλη μεχρι θανατου αποτελωντας τις δυο κυριαρχες δυναμεις που κανουν αυτον τον κοσμο να γυριζει. Χαρακτηρες πωρωμενοι, φιληδονοι, αγαθοι, εκδικητικοι, μιζεροι, μικροπρεπεις, γοητευτικοι, περηφανοι, ανιεροι, ποταποι και ταπεινοι κατακλυζουν τις σελιδες αυτου του οικογενειακου δραματος που παιρνει διαστασεις τραγωδιας οταν η εξαδελφη Μπεττυ παιρνει την αποφαση να εκδικηθει για ολα εκεινα που της στερησαν. Σαν φιδι δινει θανασιμες δαγκωματιες και απειλει να γκρεμισει τα θεμελια της οικογενειας Υλο που ζει με αυταπατες μιας χαμενης αιγλης και τρεφει στον κορφο της την προσωποποιηση του αχαλινωτου παθους (ο ασωτος πατηρ). Ο Μπαλζακ πλαθει με τετοιο ολοκληρωτικο(κοινωνικα, διοικητικα,οικονομικα) και απολαυστικο τροπο το πορτραιτο της γαλλικης κοινωνιας του 19ου αιωνα που σε συναρπαζει και σε ταρασσει με την αληθεια του και τον ρεαλισμο του. Πολιτικες μηχανορραφιες και μια γιαγια πληρωμενη δολοφονος αποτελουν το κερασακι στην τουρτα. Μυθιστοριογραφια στα καλυτερα της, γεματη ολοζωντανους διαλογους.
  
  
  Απόσπασμα απο την δημοσίευση ��τη Λέσχη του Βιβλίου
• 
  Jim

  This is the third time I have read this late masterpiece of Balzac's -- and it got better with each reading. There have been other novels (mostly European) about men who have ruined themselves for illicit love of other women, but Balzac's Baron Hector Hulot goes further than any of them. At the beginning of Cousin Bette, he is at his apogee: married to a loving woman, with two loving adult children -- and an incredible itch for what willing young women have to offer. I will not say what happens to him in the end, but his fall is precipitous and involves the ruin of his brother, his uncle (who commits suicide), and numerous others who are tangentially affected by his ways.
  
  Rather than summarize the story, which the author handles masterfully, I thought I would discuss what makes for a great Balzac novel:
  
  1. The best Balzac stories show temptations or character weaknesses to which the hero or heroine yields, and for which he or she suffers grievously. This ranges from the lecherousness of Hulot to the improvidence of César Birotteau the perfumer to the excessive indulgence of Old Goriot to his daughters to the blind ambition of Balthazar Claes in The Quest for the Absolute to find the alchemist's stone. Perhaps the classical plot in this respect is The Wild Ass's Skin.
  
  2. Behind the best Balzac plots are demoniacal moneylenders who are never, ever bested in their transactions with mere mortals. In Cousin Bette, there is Vauvinet, but the best moneylender in his work is the eponymous hero of Gobseck.
  
  3. Balzac's Paris is full of young dandies on the make who act as a kind of Greek chorus to the story. Perhaps the best depiction of them is in Lost Illusions.
  
  4. Envy plays an outsize role in the world of Balzac. Whenever someone looks to be doing well, often one finds a sort of cabal forming to do him or her in. And this cabal is every bit as relentless as the moneylenders, with whom they are frequently in cahoots. Again, Lost Illusions is a prime example. This is related to the extreme vengeance that plays such a large part in Cousin Bette and Cousin Pons.
  
  5. Not only evil, but good, sometimes acts under the cover of a seemingly all-powerful secret society. The classical case are the three stories collected under the title The Thirteen. For good, there is Mme de la Chanterie, who appears in the current novel and also, at greater length, in The Wrong Side of Paris. In Cousin Bette, we see the archvillain Vautrin, now become chief of police, working with dubious villains like Mme Nourrisson, to help Victorine Hulot wreak revenge on Mme de Marneffe.
  
  6. There is something Mephistophelian in Balzac's best villains, especially Vautrin in the three or four novels in which he figures as a major character. I would have to include Mme de Marneffe, whose avarice is matched only by the unbridled lust of her lovers.
  
  7. Although Balzac keeps returning to the balm of the Catholic Church, he likes to let his victims twist in the wind before they get any of the Church's benefits.
  
  8. There are frequently large sums of money involved in highly complex financial transactions that defy anyone whose knowledge of French economics of the July monarchy is less than professorial. In this edition, in fact, there is an appendix entitled "Money Plot of Cousin Bette." Having read it, I'm still in the dark.
  
  9. Balzac virtually invented the idea of the same characters appearing in two or more or even a dozen stories. Doctor Bianchon is, I believe, in over thirty of them. The more Balzac you read -- including the minor works and the shorter stories -- the more you will appreciate novels like this one, in which dozens of characters reappear elsewhere.
  
  In short, looking back at the many Balzac novels I have read -- and I have read most of them -- I find myself looking at what its author called "The Human Comedy" -- men and women who fall far short of the ideal and are grievously punished for it.
  
  The five novels I will list here are among the greatest works from the mind of man and well-deserving of close study by anyone who is interested in how human beings fall short of their hopes and aspirations: (a) Père Goriot; (b) Lost Illusions; (c) A Harlot High and Low; (d) Cousin Bette; and (e) Cousin Pons. I could easily have expanded the number to ten, or fifteen, or even more.
  
• 
  Anascape Taylor

  *Spoilers Inside* Sigh. It is a shame to give only 3 stars to a book so eloquently written, but what will linger in my mind about Cousin Bette 30 years from now will most likely be the rotten taste it has left in my mouth, not the honey-dipped words.
  
  The first star was lost because I had to suffer through long sections of Balzac's rambling, misguided moralizing. His sermons seem to cover all topics, from the high-handed judgment of a variety of races to the merits of "good breeding." I like an author to fascinate me such that I feel like I would not be worthy to hold a conversation with them, if we were to meet. Unfortunately, I got the feeling that Balzac would be a remarkably loud and boring dinner guest who liked to listen to himself better than anyone else.
  
  The second star was lost because I was left completely unsatisfied. Now don't tell me that if I want a happy ending I should go find a children's book. Here's the deal: the character who is "punished by the vengeance of God," as it was painted, Madame Marneffe of course, is not really the one I cared to see brought to justice. Yes, she was terrible and cruel. But who is to blame: the woman who mercilessly steals a family's honor and fortune, or the stupid and selfish man who hands it over to her willingly? No, I didn't really care about the Madame's fate. And Bette couldn't have been punished any more judiciously than she was in the end. But the Baron? What justice did he receive? None, of course. And while Adeline's character was honorable, on some level I see her impassioned hunt for him through the slums of Paris to be one of complete selfishness. He didn't want to come home, as he said and demonstrated to the very end. He even wished her dead, even more so when he came home, so she couldn't very well have saved him from God's wrath. I realize that she was supposed to have not seen this, but it certainly doesn't leave one impressed with Balzac's idea of perfect virtue. It seems that his definition of virtue boils down to martyrdom. And what a convenient bar to set for a woman of 19th century Paris. Furthermore, in the end Balzac glorifies Crevel, putting his vanity up on a pedestal as some mark of greatness. Well then, take me to the nearest Porsche dealer and find me a real genius! Really, the only two characters I respected in the whole thing were Hortense and Victorin. Hortense, for the most part, nips her husband's insults in the bud. She has the wherewithal to throw him to his transparent Madame and not suffer a lifetime of pointless martyrdom that makes no one the better. And Victorin pulls his family together in their time of "disgrace," proving to be the only thing standing between Lisbeth and her vengeance. So I feel that mine and Balzac's definitions of vice and virtue differ markedly, and not in ways that can be accounted for simply by the passage of 150 years.
• 
  Bradley

  My first Balzac.
  
  I had the impression, somewhere, that I would have to sit through some dreary pompous horrorshow, perhaps pulpy purple prose with a plethora of prodigious penuries.
  
  But to be sure, I did get a horrorshow, but not the kind I expected. Indeed, I had a great time once I fell into a certain kind of groove. You know what I mean. The kind that you get into when reading a good Stephen King novel, revving up with a huge cast of dispicable human beings whom you have a great time rooting for their ultimate demises. Hopefully with some supernatural beastie tormenting them to their dooms. Or devils dragging them to suddenly opening graves. Something like that.
  
  To think that this was considered one of the great REALIST novels! By a realist novelist! In all honesty, it reads like the plot of some 1980's daytime soap opera but placed in post-Napoleonic France.
  
  Enter the mass-philandering Baron and his wife who doesn't care! Enter the disgruntled spinster who, just after finding a taste of love, has her younger cousin come in like a bitch to scoop him up, sending the spinster into a whirlwind of Italian rage and vengeance that will last the rest of their lives.
  
  Is this total preoccupation with Sex and Death funny? Yep. As I said, I'm a fan of Stephen King. I rooted for EVERYONE'S ultimate tragedy. :)
  
  If this is realism, then what does that say about me? Hmmmm... oh my.
• 
  Michael

  This tale involves a byzantine plan of revenge by old maid Bette over the theft of a young sculptor she had designs for. It was a great device for all the greedy aristocratic people to achieve their just deserts. There is also a satisfying comic touch in the way her courtesan confidante is able to juggle four lovers and play them off against each other. But the narrative bogs down for me a lot over the repetitive competition for each others' mistresses and arcane schemes for money. Still, as an audiobook experience with a free Librivox recording on my commutes to work, it was a diverting sociological experience with Paris society circa 1830 and a nice window on the French tradition of blending realism with romanticism.
• 
  Semjon

  Ich würde gerne Balzac mögen, denn ich kann durchaus seine Bedeutung für die Literaturgeschichte erkennen. Sein unbändiger Drang, dem Mensch und der Gesellschaft den Spiegel vorzuhalten, ist beachtlich. In den beiden bislang von mir gelesenen Werken Eugenie Grandet und Tante Lisbeth ist die Darstellung der Realität im Frankreich der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts wahrscheinlich so treffend und schonungslos überspitzt, dass es fast schon unwirklich wirkt. Der Vater Grandet ist nicht nur geizig, er ist krankhaft aufs Geld fixiert. Die Männerfiguren in Tante Lisbeth sind nicht verlogen, sie sind pathologisch selbstverliebt und schwanzgesteuert.
  
  Und damit ist mein Problem schon angesprochen. Mir ist die Handlung einfach zu überdreht bei Tante Lisbeth, so dass es wirkt wie eine Mischung aus Big Brother und billiger Soap Opera. Ich hätte gerne, dass Balzac für mich wie arte schauen wäre und nicht wie RTL 2. Vielleicht gehe ich mit falschen Erwartungen an seine Romane, aber ich finde, dass die Geschichten sich als Bühnenstücke besser eigenen würden. Sie enthalten alles, was ein Drama benötigt.
  
  Womöglich ist die Handlung in Paris zwischen Dirnen, Kurtisanen, Aristokraten und hinterhältigen, alten Jungfern auch nicht das, was mich fesselt. Das war bereits bei Zolas Nana so. Aber die Tatsache, dass hässliche, alte Männer, teilweise auf die 80 zugehend, ihre sexuelle Anziehungsfähigkeit so hoch einschätzen, dass es sie nach jeder Ertappung sofort wieder so einem unbescholtenen Fräulein hinzieht und die Ehefrau dies so gar noch zum x-ten mal entschuldigt, lässt mich kopfschüttelnd zurück. Aus heutiger Sicht wirkt das alles klischeehaft und überzeichnet.
  
  Balzac bleibt trotzdem in meinem Fokus, denn womöglich bin ich einfach noch nicht reif genug, seine Genialität zu erkennen, die alle schriftstellerischen Größen der letzten 150 Jahre so stark hervorheben.
• 
  Sandra

  Lussuria, invidia, avidità, sete di potere, corruzione, odio e VENDETTA: le passioni che imbrigliano l'umanità.
  Il tutto amalgamato sullo sfondo di una Parigi post napoleonica, descritto minuziosamente ed in modo vivido, tanto da non essere solo Parigi ma il mondo intero.
  Insomma, il peggio del meglio (o il meglio del peggio, come ci pare).
  Uno dei capolavori di Balzac.
• 
  Roman Clodia

  "I!" said Lisbeth. "I see vengeance wherever I turn in nature; insects even die to satisfy the craving for revenge when they are attacked."

  
  For some reason, Balzac is the French novelist I've always struggled with and his vast La Comedie Humaine series just doesn't compete, for me, with Zola's Rougon-Macquart. La Cousine Bette, often noted as one of the best in the sequence, feels to me like a quirky mix of soap opera, dark comedy, farce and polemic. Don't expect subtlety here: from the angelic Adeline to the ugly, Machiavellian Bette consumed with a voracious appetite for revenge, characters are defined by one or two key characteristics.
  
  Money permeates the text as Balzac quantifies emotions and human relationships in terms of financial transactions - everything, he seems to be saying, has a price. His cynical vision of French bourgeois capitalist society where everyone is consumed with self interest (except Adeline? but then look what happens to her...), where public figures are corrupt and self-serving, where love is sexual obsession, punctuated by money and, largely, exploitative is not that far from that of Zola - yet how differently I respond to their books. This one had me laughing somewhat derisively and while I don't want to include spoilers let me just say that any book that seriously includes an incurable native poison from Brazil has a hard job compensating for that low point!
  
  The two most interesting characters are Bette herself and Valerie, a toned down version, in some ways, of Zola's Nana - a kind of unofficial courtesan with whom every man is obsessed. Their relationship, rather crudely, is articulated as a quasi-marriage as they scheme, plot and share confidences. All the same, they don't have quite the same pull as other manipulative women: Becky Sharp, say, or Madame de Merteuil.
  
  I might give Balzac a further try (I've previously only read his
  Père Goriot but the fact that this took about 3 weeks for me to get through it is saying something.
• 
  Sara

  Lisbeth Fischer is consumed with hatred for her cousin, Adeline Hulot. Cousin Adeline has married a Baron and come up in the world, and Bette is the poor spinster relation, who has to work for part of her living and depends on the charity of the family for the remainder. Cousin Adeline’s husband, the Baron Hulot, is a despicable womanizer who ruins himself for “love”, uh make that lust. Nothing to envy in Adeline’s life at all...I’d have rather had the independence of Lisbeth, but then Lisbeth never bothers to enjoy her independence except in the ways that it gives her opportunity to take revenge and help to destroy her family.
  
  Balzac does some great character development, especially with his female characters. Valerie Marneffe is the epitome of the beautiful woman who manipulates men for money, her husband the consummate cur, Bette the picture of a soul driven by jealousy and pettiness, and Steinbock is all the artist who squanders his talent and good fortunes might ever be. His good characters are weaker, in my mind. Adeline becomes almost a caricature, and does all the fainting, enduring and praying to excess, Victorin is almost too willing to sacrifice for his father’s sake, and Clementine too forgiving of hers.
  
  I did enjoy parts of this novel immensely, at other times I wished to speed up the narrative and push Balzac toward some conclusion. I was troubled by the ages of the girls that Hulot pursues, fourteen and sixteen year olds who are often already overly acquainted with the world. But, I kept reminding myself that this is Paris of the early 1800s and seventy year old men bedding fourteen year old girls might not have shocked a soul, particularly if the old men were Barons.
  
  I debated long about whether my 3.5 star rating should be rounded up or down, finally settling for down. While there was much I did like about the novel, it falls short of being a truly captivating read. I am glad to have read it, however, since it is only the second Balzac I have tackled.
  
• 
  Manny

  Plain, spinsterish Lisbeth has become insanely jealous of her beautiful cousin Adeline, and decides that she will finally get even with her. She knows that Adeline's husband is unable to resist feminine charm, so she forms an alliance with the gorgeous and completely amoral Madame Marneffe. I love the following quote; a slightly adapted form even found its way into the dreadful movie version.

  « Madame Marneffe était la hache, et Lisbeth était la main qui la manie, et la main démolissait à coup pressés cette famille qui, de jour en jour, lui devenait de plus en plus odieuse »

  Madame Marneffe was the axe, and Lisbeth was the hand that wielded it, and, with rapid strokes, the hand demolished the family which, every day, she came to hate more and more.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Shawn Mooney (Shawn The Book Maniac)

  I read a couple hundred pages of this and realized I didn’t care very much about these awful people and the intricacies of how money bound them all up to one another in such a cynical way. I didn’t hate it, but I certainly didn’t like it well enough to finish.
• 
  Erika Hope Spencer

  You have to be in the right mood for this book. If you're interested in French society during this historical period (Romantic era-ish, post-Napoleon) and you're prepared to (more or less) dislike the characters, then few books will more effortlessly reveal the petty and vindictive nature of Paris social life. I recently found a fascinating (I don't use the term lightly) book about Old Regime France by Clare Haru Crowston,
  Credit, Fashion, Sex: Economies of Regard in Old Regime France. I haven't been able to finish it quite yet, but what I did read went a long way toward convincing me that the sordid and debauched lifestyles that Balzac portrays were actually fairly realistic. I guess I grew up reading Duma's Count of Monte Cristo where the evil are punished and the good are rewarded-pretty much with systematic regularity. So reading Balzac, where every character was self-serving (save the impossible to like/too weak/enabler Madame Hulot) seemed almost shocking. But it was also refreshing in a way. Balzac didn't really seem to be judging any of these characters. And for all their vindictive plotting and vengeful schemes, (that unlike Duma's Count were motivated by their ego and sexual appetite, rather than say, being wrongfully imprisoned for the entirety of one's youth) some of them show a complexity that does remind us that while humans are often horrible- sometimes we can understand why. Balzac doesn't mince words about Cousin Bette...she is basically an unattractive and lonely woman whose jealousy toward her (beautiful and sweet) cousin directs the course of events in her life. Who can blame her?! Not Balzac. Nor does he seem to censure any of the weak-willed or calculating schemers in this novel. In fact, this work leads one to speculate a bit about Balzac's life. Like many authors who wrote these long plot-driven serials/novels you wonder how many of these characters were based on people known to said author. Especially since Balzac himself was almost obscenely prolific. Recommend if you want to be totally enveloped into mid 19th century Paris, and with a less-than-scrupulous crowd.
• 
  Haaze

  Vice Conquers All
  
  
  Mme Marneffe
  
  While reading this novel I felt as if I was experiencing a social economic history of Paris in the disguise of a romantic drama. Balzac never neglects to inform the reader about interest rates, loans, deals etc and, frankly, at times it becomes a bit much. If I was a historian studying the economic infrastructure of social life of Paris in the mid-19th century this would be an excellent starting point. ; -) In contrast, I find his characterizations and conversations very enjoyable. The novel is a bit dark with a juggernaut of vice permeating every nook and cranny of the storyline. I really wanted to like this novel, but it became more of a quest in terms of completing it. I did enjoy parts of it, but at times felt as if I was experiencing a mid 19th century soap opera. I definitely would not begin with this novel if I was approaching Balzac for the first time. Regardless, I am still pursuing Balzac's works as I find them intriguing.
  
  I read Balzac's
  Lost Illusions last year, which I found much more agreeable. However, Balzac is definitely on a mission to convey the French lives of the 19th century in his works; Carefully embedded facts wrap around the characters and their actions. Recommended to Balzac fans!
  
  
• 
  Magrat Ajostiernos

  Me ha costado lo mío terminar esta novela (yo que creía superado mi trauma con los franceses xDD) pero en fin, una vez terminada y reposada puedo decir que 'La prima Bette' es una novela larga, densa, demasiado minuciosa en los detalles y aún así, no ha dejado de resultarme interesante y curiosa en ningún momento, y desde luego me alegro de haber llegado hasta el final. Sus últimas 150 páginas me han encantado y la descripción de esos personajes tan odiosos me ha llegado al alma.
  Y además, qué queréis que os diga, yo soy #TeamBette a tope xDDD
• 
  Baba

  So, I have attempted my first
  Honoré de Balzac read, and it didn't go well for me at all! Balzac's 'gripping tale of violent jealousy, sexual passion and treachery, and a brilliant portrayal of the grasping, bourgeois society of 1840's Paris (The culmination of the Comedie humaine).' just didn't grab me at all. I n hindsight I should have tried some of his earlier work first maybe? 2 out of 12.
  
• 
  John

  Another excellent Balzac novel. A battle between virtue and vice set in 1840s Paris. Bette or Lisbeth is bent on revenge against her cousin Baroness Hulot. That revenge is based on her being jealous of her. Her husband the Baron Hulot is a profligate without conscience. He is fooled by his mistresses especially Madame Marneffe who has four lovers all thinking they are the one. To cover expenses he goes to great lengths even fraud resulting in the death of his virtuous brother.
  
  Balzac draws you into the Paris of the wealthy and the poverty stricken. The descriptions of the houses, furnishings and the characters is sublime. The rich idiot Creval, the brooding Brazilian and Wenceslas the gifted but lazy artist. All of them are easily led down the proverbial garden path by Madame Marneffe and taken to the cleaners. Her partnership with Bette is one built on fleecing men without morals or ethics.
  
  The ending proves there is no fool like an old fool!
• 
  Caroline

  In the dedication to Cousin Bette, Balzac describes his glowing admiration of Don Michele Angelo Cajetani, Prince of Teano, for the impromptu exegesis of Dante’s Divine Comedy that he gave one evening in Balzac’s company. Thus, presumably, the umbrella title of La Comedie Humaine for his many of his novels. Balzac writes:
  
  

  The two sketches I dedicate to you [The Poor Relations: Cousin Pons and Cousin Bette are the two eternal aspects of one and the same fact. Homo duplex, said the great Buffon: why not add Res duplex? Everything has two sides, even virtue. Hence Moliere always shows us both sides of every human proble; and Diderot, imitating him, once wrote, “This is not a mere tale”...

  
  
  At the beginning of the novel, this claim that even virtue has two sides, catches your attention, since you’re quite sure there will be a lot of vice in the pages ahead. But indeed, by the time we reach page 361, where the courtesan Josepha tells saintly, endlessly-forgiving Madame Hulot:
  
  

  ”You make me sorry, Madame, that I cannot tread in your footsteps, in spite of the thorns that tear your feet and hands. --But it cannot be helped! I am one with art, as you are one with virtue.”

  
  
  we realize that virtue taken to an extreme can facilitate vice to the extent that both sinner and saint are equally guilty. When you are married to a man as weak as Hulot, you have an obligation to rein him in.
  
  I have mixed feelings about the novel. Balzac’s ability to paint characters is wonderful, and I really enjoyed his authorial interludes. (One has to set political correctness aside, of course, but the epigrammatic nuggets are worth the dated smears of other nationalities.) But it is all just unbelievable. Yes, men can be silly over a woman, but for so many men to be so ruinously infatuated for so long in the face of Madame Marneffe’s greedy machinations is not credible. Nor is her ability to juggle their assignations for so many years unknown to each other (at least as lovers) believable.
  
  One final observation. I was quite intrigued with how specific the references to money were. I have been reading Austen, Trollope, and Balzac, and am thus immersed in nineteenth century financial preoccupations, particularly associated with marriage and inheritance. But Balzac is the accountant among these authors. Every page of Cousin Bette is suffused with the spiraling financial disaster of the Hulots, and the ever-increasing fortunes of Crevel and Malneffe. Every loan, every gift, every appointment to a paying position, is detailed and set down in the ledgers. A thousand francs. Ten thousand francs. Two hundred thousand frances. Six thousand francs. On and on. Presumably Balzac is considering the changing class structure and distribution of wealth in mid-century France, from the nobility to the middle class. Does he think the middle class and the tradesman are somehow cheating and conniving their way at the expense of an inherently superior nobility? A nobility that is degenerating, as Hulot does before our eyes? Since there are several still-noble servants of the state in high positions, it seems he views Hulot as the kind of weak link in the chain that puts everything at risk. All quite fascinating.
• 
  Paradoxe

  Το βιβλίο αυτό, συγκεντρώνει ορισμένα χαρακτηριστικά που το καθιστούν πολύ δύσκολο ανάγνωσμα. Για το αν αξίζει τον κόπο όμως, δε μπορώ να το περιγράψω διαφορετικά, παρά έτσι: πριν μερικά χρόνια, είχα ανάγκη κάποια έκτακτά χρήματα και ένας συντηρητής πισίνας μου πρότεινε να πάω μαζί του σε μια πισίνα, για να ξύσω τα άλατα στα πλακάκια, πριν χρησιμοποιήσει τα χημικά του. Πράγματι, πήγα και μου δώσανε μια πολύ μικρή ξύστρα, τόσο μικρή που χώραγε στην παλάμη μου. Η επιφάνεια τεράστια, η ξύστρα απειροελάχιστη και ο χρόνος ανύπαρκτος. Στην αρχή κάθε τέταρτο ήθελα να τα παρατήσω, όμως κάποια στιγμή έβαλα τον εαυτό μου σε τάξη, χώρισα την επιφάνεια και άρχισα να το παλεύω σταδιακά. Αισθανόμουν μια απίστευτη πίεση στα χέρια μου, είχα κουραστεί, είχα ιδρώσει, αλλά όσο έβλεπα να φεύγουν τα άλατα και να γίνονται πάλι λεία τα πλακάκια, μου έδινε ικανοποίηση.
  
  Έτσι είναι κι αυτό το βιβλίο. Αξίζει τον κόπο, αλλά έχει κόπο. Δεν υπάρχουν κεφάλαια, τα γράμματα είναι πολύ μικρά, αλλά κυρίως αυτό που χωλαίνει είναι η μετάφραση. Απαιτεί μια μορφή διαστροφής για να διαβάσεις σε μετάφραση Παπαλεξάνδρου. Μετέφραζε σε δημοτική, αλλά στη δημοτική της εποχής του. Αυτό όμως δεν είναι πρόβλημα, ίσα – ίσα που η περίεργη κλίση των ρημάτων, κάποιες λέξεις που δε χρησιμοποιούνται πια, ή που έχουν αντικατασταθεί, έχουν κάτι το ωραίο, τουλάχιστον για ‘μενα. Το πρόβλημα είναι πως πρόκειται για ένα αχτένιστο λογοτεχνικό έργο, που όταν μεταφράστηκε διατηρήθηκε η μορφή αυτή. Δεν έγιναν παρεμβάσεις τέτοιες που θα μπορούσαν να έχουν βοηθήσει το νόημα. Υπάρχουν πάρα πολλά σημεία που θα πρέπει να διαβαστούν και να ξαναδιαβαστούν, ή να προσπεραστούν με την ελπίδα πως θα γίνουν κατανοητά εκ των υστέρων. Σε μεγάλο βαθμό αυτό συμβαίνει, αλλά στερεί τόσο απ’ τη συγκέντρωση, όσο κι απ’ την ατμόσφαιρα. Από την άλλη, για οποιονδήποτε θα θελήσει να το διαβάσει, η έκδοση είναι μονόδρομος. Υπάρχουν βέβαια άλλες δυο ελληνικές μεταφράσεις, αλλά σε αυτή την περίπτωση καλύτερα να προτιμηθεί ετούτη εδώ.
  
  Το βιβλίο το αγόρασα πάντως συνειδητά. Επειδή είναι Μπαλζάκ, επειδή είναι εκδ. Γράμματα κι επειδή ήθελα να διαβάσω Παπαλεξάνδρου. Το γεγονός πως χρονολογικά, το βιβλίο τοποθετείται μετά τις Χαμένες ψευδαισθήσεις και τις Εταίρες του Παρισιού, ήταν ένα ακόμη δέλεαρ. Απ’ όταν το ξεκίνησα πάντως, δεν το εγκατέλειψα λίγες φορές. Όμως, κάθε φορά που ζοριζόμουν εισέπραττα κάτι. Κάτι γεμάτο από ζωή, ακόμη κι αν η ιστορία είναι παλιά.
  
  Το περιβάλλον πάντως του βιβλίου έχει στοιχεία που το τοποθετούν τόσο κοντά στις Εταίρες του Παρισιού, όσο και κοντά στον Εξάδελφο Πονς, όπου βέβαια η Μπέτα είναι σαν το αντίστροφο ανάλογο του Πονς, όσο ο Υλό και ο Κρεβέλ βρίσκονται σε αντιδιαστολή με το Γκοριό. Τα θέματα που αναπτύσσονται δεν είναι λίγα. Στον πυρήνα βρίσκεται η εμπάθεια – ζήλια που όσο πιο πολύ απέχει κάποιος απ’ αυτή, τόσο δυσκολότερο είναι να αντιληφθεί τον τρόπο που τυφλώνει και το πόσο επικίνδυνο μπορεί να κάνει κάποιον. Κι είναι γενικά χαρακτηριστικό των αγαθών από εμπάθειες ανθρώπων, ότι δύσκολα θα βάλουν με το μυαλό ότι αυτός που τους προστρέχει στη δυσκολία τους, μπορεί να είναι τελικά αυτός που οργάνωσε την πτώση τους. Και κατά συνέπεια, πολύ κοντά της τοποθετείται κι η εκδίκηση. Και μπορεί τελικά το αποτέλεσμα της εκδίκησης της εμπαθούς Μπέτα, να μη διαφέρει απ’ το αποτέλεσμα της εκδίκησης του Βικτορέν, αλλά προέρχονται από διαφορετικά κίνητρα. Και μερικές φορές κι ένα αγαθό κίνητρο μπορεί να οδηγήσει στις χειρότερες συνέπειες, ειδικά όταν ονομάζουμε την εκδίκηση μας, τιμωρία. Η εκδίκηση αφορά την ικανοποίηση μας και ο άνθρωπος που θέλει να παραμένει δίκαιος στα μάτια του, δε μπορεί να αποδεχτεί αυτή την ικανοποίηση. Τότε λοιπόν λέγεται τιμωρία που αποσκοπεί στη βελτίωση. Όμως, κάθε φορά που δεν είμαστε ειλικρινείς με τον εαυτό μας, με τα πραγματικά μας κίνητρα, οδηγούμαστε σε ενέργειες που τελικά δε μπορούμε να μαζέψουμε.
  
  Γενικά στο έργο, τα πάθη έχουν πολύ μεγάλη σημασία. Το κατά ποσό μπορούν να ελεγχθούν και να χαλιναγωγηθούν και το κατά πόσο είναι συνυφασμένα τελικά με την κοινωνική, ή την οικονομική θέση καθενός. Τόσο ως προς το βαθμό που τους επιτρέπει ο ίδιος να του επιβάλλονται, όσο και ως προς το πόσο δέχονται οι άλλοι να εκτείνονται τα πάθη μας. Τι έχει να προσφέρει όμως το έργο αυτό στη σύγχρονη εποχή; Να το αντιστρέψω για τον άπιστο Θωμά: τι έχει να ζηλέψει απ’ οποιοδήποτε άλλο έργο; Αμεσότητα έχει, ύφος έχει, φράσεις που ξεσηκώνουν, έχει. Τι δεν έχει; Ευκινησία. Τα θέματα του όμως, ή ακόμη και η ίδια η ιστορία, ίσως με μερικές αλλαγές, μπορούν να σταθούν σε οποιαδήποτε εποχή.
  
  Για το τέλος αυτό: το έργο μου έβαλε την ιδέα, πως ίσως και η αρετή να είναι ένα πάθος. Δεν είμαστε άλλωστε όλοι το ίδιο επιρρεπείς σε όλα τα πάθη. Και ίσως αυτός που τελικά αναγνωρίζει το πάθος μας, να είναι κι εκείνος που μπορεί να μας σώσει, ή να μας καταδικάσει, είτε είναι άνθρωπος, είτε θεσμός.
  
  Κι ίσως, η μεγαλύτερη αλήθεια του βιβλίου, που είναι διαχρονική, αλλά για την εποχή που εκφράστηκε ήταν κάτι παραπάνω από θαρραλέα, είναι αυτή που αφορά την ελευθερία στον έρωτα. Ο έρωτας, δε μπορεί να υπακούσει σε κουτάκια και συμβατικότητες. Έτσι, συχνά το πάθος αυτό εγκαταλείπει τους νόμιμους δεσμούς, γιατί εμείς οι ίδιοι έχουμε άλλες αξιώσεις, που μας έχουν επιβληθεί εξωτερικά, για το τι θέλουμε και τι περιμένουμε απ' τον σύντροφο μας και φοβόμαστε να διεκδικήσουμε, όλα εκείνα που μας ικανοποιούν πραγματικά και αρκούμαστε να σιωπούμε και να απιστούμε.
  
  3+
• 
  John

  I had decided to listen to the book itself after recently seeing the 1971 video starring Margaret Tyzack and (a young) Helen Mirren; the novel moves at a slower pace, although the basic elements are the same. A good subtitle would be: "in which (almost) everyone gets what they deserve."
  
  I dislike reviews that rehash plots, but in this case I'm going to have to do that myself to comment on what to expect for folks considering tackling this classic. Poor plain Bette snaps when her niece Hortense, daughter of the beautiful cousin Adeline (Baroness Hulot), whom she's always bitterly resented, "steals" her young ... ward away for a husband. The spinster and her neighbor Valerie then plan a slow, thorough destruction of the Hulot family. Things go according to plan for much of the story, until fate intervenes with one aspect of Bette's scheme, signaling that she has over-reached.
  
  Far from an exact parallel, but this novel reminded of a sort of French forerunner to Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now, with such emphasis on casually squandering (or at least splashing about) huge sums. A whopping difference here, however, being that openly "loose" women are accepted, versus complete disgrace for Englishwomen even suspected of such behavior. Married men who engaged in outright adultery, such as Baron Hulot (who today would be called a "sex addict") were seen as fine fellows, and their wives expected to Suck It Up. A revolting society to me, but it was what it was I guess.
  
  Balzac's language does get a bit flowery, along with Adeline's in-your-face piety, but narrator Johanna Ward handled it all so well, that I never lost interest. If one is new to reading classics, Do Not Start Here! However, those looking to branch out beyond Dickens and Trollope should find the story of interest.
  
  
• 
  Elizabeth (Alaska)

  They are scoundrels! The whole lot of them! Well, ok, there are one or two virtuous people among them, but they are boring. Which is what makes the rest of them scoundrels. I loved this book. I think I was supposed to be scandalized, but I live now, not then.
  
  It is a time of opulence and excess. Money and Sex. Depending on gender, they use one to get the other. To what lengths they will go in pursuit of money and sex! And then there is Cousin Bette who has neither. Because she has neither, she is filled with hate and a burning desire for revenge. Such a web of intrigue and lies in pursuit of the goal.
  
  Balzac has some 90 or so novels and stories in his La Comedie Humaine. I will continue to make inroads in the series, though I don't see how I have time for them all. So many good books, so little time.