Instead he sent his instalments directly to the newspaper editor. In fact he abandoned his usual practice of editing his work on printers’ proof copy. Balzac wrote the whole of Cousin Bette in only two months – an astonishing rate of literary production, even by his normal standards. The novel began life as a long story called Le Parasite (an ironic reference to Bette’s role in the family) and from the start it was seen as a companion novel to Cousin Pons which appeared the following year. A year later it appeared as Volume XVII in the definitive Furne edition of Balzac’s collected works, given the title La Comedie Humaine.
In 1847 the novel appeared in book format, published by Chlendowski. This was a newspaper featuring commerce, politics, and literature. La Cousine Bette (full French title) was first published as a serial in La Constitutionnel in 1846. The setting is upper-class society in Paris, most of whose inhabitants are ruthless social climbers, wallowing in financial corruption, adultery, and a world of polite hypocrisy. It is an action-packed story that deals with all his favourite themes – financial greed, sexual desire, and the drive for social status – plus some spectacular examples of successful and failed revenge. The culmination of the Comedie humaine, Balzac’s epic chronicle of his times, it is one of his greatest triumphs as a novelist.Tutorial, commentary, study resources, web linksĬousin Bette (1846) is often regarded as the greatest of Balzac’s many novels and stories.
Cousin Bette is a gripping tale of violent jealousy, sexual passion and treachery, and a brilliant portrayal of the grasping, bourgeois society of 1840’s Paris. Already deeply resentful of their wealth, when Bette learns that the man she is in love with plans to marry Hortense, she becomes consumed by the desire to exact her revenge and dedicates herself to the destruction of the Hulot family, plotting their ruin with patient, silent malice. Poor, plain spinster Bette is compelled to survive on the condescending patronage of her socially superior relatives in Paris: her beautiful, saintly cousin Adeline, the philandering Baron Hulot and their daughter Hortense. You can read this before Cousin Bette PDF EPUB full Download at the bottom. Here is a quick description and cover image of book Cousin Bette written by Honore de Balzac which was published in February 12th 2002.
Brief Summary of Book: Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac
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