Cousin Bette (Oxford World's Classics) (ISBN 0192836684)

V For Virtue:
This novel examines the effects of virtue and vice on the involved characters as well as commenting on the temper of the times. Balzac's style can be melodramatic but at his best he is able to put the reader in the scene and reveal the complexities of inter-personal activity. Bette serves a doorway between the upper middle class existence of the Hulot family and the demi-monde of Josepha, Jenny Cadine and Valerie. These two worlds mingle and collide in a Paris which is transiting from Empire to Republic. The structure of the novel can be choppy as Balzac is prone to long dissertations on a variety of subjects, happily, most of which are interesting.There is no moral to this story only a cynical overtone with elements of schadenfreude. There is an appeal to religious sensibilities but it doesn't ring true.I think in later ages Balzac might have developed into a psychologist since he fascinated by the workings of the human mind.

Don't Miss Balzac:
This is a wonderfully convoluted plot with the insight and delightful prose you would expect of Balzac. A couple of times you wonder if perhaps Balzac changed his mind on the direction of the plot in "mid-stream." But his firm grasp of the characters makes you care about all of them. His novels "wear" well in our time. Moreover, there is a masculinity about his novels as he gives you the background about the ins and outs of the financial machinations of the characters in a way a Jane Austen, for example, never could. So, you see a well-rounded view of what makes 19th century Paris work (or not). Lacking the chastening (and socially cleansing) effects of the Prostestant Reformation, there is an amazing dichotomy in the character of the Parisian men: they take some of their obligations (usually the public ones such as providing a dowry for their daughters to allow them to marry well) very seriously while not-so-privately they dart from one expensive mistress to another with no apparent thought for their obligations to their wives or the effects of such financial misadventures upon their families. Balzac brings home the morally debilitating effects of the dissolute Parisian lifestyle. Don't miss Balzac!

Worth Reading But LONGISH!:
I guess people in the 19th Century had alot of time on their hands to spend reading a long book that goes over the same material again and again. I read this as a book on tape. The book for me was alittle longish and dull so I doubt I would have been able to read it in its hardcopy form without giving up on it. However, thanks to books on tape, I was able to stick with the book until its end. Yes, do read the book! Apparently Balzac, poor fellow, was himself a victim to debts and even penury. I read in the bio that he never made much money from his writing. I was sorry to hear that. In this book there are innumerable mentions about the financial plight of his characters----their debts, going into debt, mortgages on houses that can't be paid, borrowing money that can't be repaid, the threat of debtors prison and arrest imminent. So, if you think you have "financial problems" your "problems" will seem miniscule compared with the characters in this book! Yes, this book is worth reading as long as you are patient and don't get bored too easily. I at first gave it 3 stars but then I felt sorry for Balzac so I raised it up to 4---I suppose a 3.5 would be more a more accurate guage of my opinion about this book. Actually, it is well written. Don't let me dissuade you from giving it a try. You'll find alot in the book to enjoy and you will learn about what life was like in Paris during the first part of the 1800's. The courtesans sounded interesting to me...but don't tell my wife! :o) Email Boland7214@aol.co

Masterpiece:
Balzac is often cited as the father of realism and I would have to agree, though I think Flaubert and Tolstoy took the form to new heights. This immensely rich novel begins with a devastating scene of psychological rape; M. Crevel has entered the home of the Baron Hulot and he has ransomed his wife for having stolen his former mistress. This novel exposes the hollowness of the post-revolution French bourgeoisie, as nearly all of the characters are despicably charlatans and libertines whose only interests are sex and money. This is a wonderfully entertaining read, it is impossible not to imagine the rich landscape that Balzac has so brilliantly created. However, his political diatribes are a bit pedantic and often detract from the otherwise perfect narrative. This novel is clearly a precursor to Proust, whose brilliance for detail would take the novel form to another plane altogether.

Love as a Ponzi Scheme:
This was Honoré de Balzac's last great novel. Within a few more years, he would be dead of overwork. His last great scheme -- the marriage with the Polish Countess of his dreams -- finally came off, but poor Eveline Hanska had nothing on her hands but a ruined hulk of a man who had given everything for his art and had little left to give her. COUSIN BETTE is about "love in all the wrong places," to quote a popular country & western song. Baron Hulot d'Ervy is a former Napoleonic officer who now serves as an official in the Ministry of War. But mostly, he serves Cupid. At the start of the novel, his faithful wife Adeline is besieged by a rival philanderer who tries to make a play for her, even as the Baron is getting dumped by his current mistress Josepha -- who was taken away from him by none other than the Célestin Crevel who is currently besieging his wife. Two very important things occur that set in motion a diabolical scheme for revenge on the part of a poor old-maid cousin living with the Hulots, one Lisbeth Fischer. She has a protegé in a young Polish count named Wenceslas Steinbock who has shown some talent as a sculptor. Lisbeth has him practically caged up in his studio because she believes that (1) he has talent and (2) he might one day come to like her, though she is by far the older of the two. When Hortense, Baron Hulot's daughter, learns of Steinbock's existence, she becomes intrigued and takes some trouble to locate him, throwing a wrench into Lisbeth's plans when they fall in love with each other. Enter Valerie Marneffe, Balzac's most accomplished villain. A young housewife married to a complaisant older husband, she makes a play for Hulot, who sets her up as his mistress. But Valerie's ambitions in love are truly Napoleonic: she also snares Crevel, Steinbock, and a returning Brazilian ex-lover of hers called Montes de Montejanos. And probably a couple dozen more unnamed co-conspirators. Living in Valerie's house as her housekeeper, advisor, and mother confessor is none other than Lisbeth Fischer. When Valerie becomes pregnant, the real fun begins. She brazenly tells each lover that he is the father of the child, and each commits a princely sum for an annuity. (As in most Balzac novels, the trail of the money is fascinating to follow.) The over-leveraged Hulot is the first to fall. Even before meeting up with Mme Marneffe, he was teetering on the edge of bankrupty. he falls so hard that he has to go into hiding, even from his family. Curiously, Adeline actually manages to make a comeback in a small way, though she is apparently in the beginning stages of Parkinson's Disease. Marneffe's transgressions are now beginning to be talked about in society, and finally they catch up with her. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, but suffice it to say that not even Herod had a worse come-uppance than Valerie and her husband. And Lisbeth Fischer? She, too, is ultimately foiled: First, her desired beau, Field Marshal Hulot, commits suicide; and second, she herself sickens and dies, but without anyone ever discovering her treachery to the family. I have read COUSIN BETTE twice now, and it only grows better on re-reading. This is one of the handful of Balzac novels that stands at the pinnacle of literary greatness. The novel's vision of the ruin of great families from indiscriminate womanizing is almost cosmic.