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Book Synopsis

A gripping tale of violent jealousy, sexual passion and treachery, Honoré de Balzac''s Cousin Bette is translated from the French with an introduction by Marion Ayton Crawford in Penguin Classics.

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. 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. The culmination of the Comédie humaine, and a brilliant portrayal of the grasping, bourgeois society of 1840s Paris, Cousin Bette is one of Balzac''s greatest triumphs as a novelist.

Marion Ayton Crawford''s lively translation is accompanied by an introduc

Cousin Bette

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    A Paperback / softback by Honoré de Balzac, Marion Crawford

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Penguin Classics
      Published 2 December 2004
      ISBN-13 9780140441604
      978-0140441604
      ISBN-10 0140441603
      Also in:
      Honore De Balzac Books by Honore De Balzac

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      A gripping tale of violent jealousy, sexual passion and treachery, Honoré de Balzac''s Cousin Bette is translated from the French with an introduction by Marion Ayton Crawford in Penguin Classics.

      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. 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. The culmination of the Comédie humaine, and a brilliant portrayal of the grasping, bourgeois society of 1840s Paris, Cousin Bette is one of Balzac''s greatest triumphs as a novelist.

      Marion Ayton Crawford''s lively translation is accompanied by an introduc

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