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Cousin Bette (1846) is considered to be Balzac's last great novel, and a key work in his Human Comedy. Set in the Paris of the 1830s and 1840s, it is a complex tale of the devastating effect of violent jealousy and sexual passion.

Cousin Bette (1846) is a novel by French author Honor de Balzac. Part of Balzac's La Com die humaine sequence, the novel is recognized as being the author's last fully-realized work, and features several characters who appear elsewhere throughout his legendary... Read Full Overview

"Bette is a wronged soul; and when her passion does break, it is, as Balzac says, sublime and terrifying," wrote V. S. Pritchett. A late masterpiece in Balzac's La Com die Humaine, Cousin Bette is the story of a Vosges peasant who rebels against her scornful upper-class relatives,... Read Full Overview

Cousin Bette (1846), long considered Balzac's last great novel, is a key work in his Comedie humaine. Grounded in a meticulous documentation of contemporary France, this tale is set in the prosperous Paris of Louis-Phillipe and details a jealous woman's campaign of persecution... Read Full Overview

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

Honore de Balzac "Cousin Bette" is generally considered to be one of the writer's most famous novels, his last great work before his death. It is a classic novel of revenge, passion, and vices. Along with her friend Val?rie, the title character Bette strategizes for the overwhelming... Read Full Overview

Cousin Bette has been described as Balzac's last great novel and a key work in his Comedie Humaine. Set in the prosperous Paris of Louis-Philippe, it is the story of a jealous woman's campaign of persecution against her own family.

Honor? de Balzac was one of France's most important writers in the 19th century, thanks to his seminal La Com?die humaine, a hodgepodge collection of stories and novels that depicts French life after the Napoleonic era from a contemporary standpoint. His writing style also influenced... Read Full Overview

Set in mid-19th-century Paris, Cousin Bette tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Val?rie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and torment a series of men. One of... Read Full Overview