Ratings2
Average rating2.5
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. Cousin Bette is a gripping tale of violent jealousy, sexual passion and treachery, and a brilliant portrayal of the grasping, bourgeois society of 1840s Paris. The culmination of the Comédie humaine, Balzac's epic chronicle of his times, it is one of his greatest triumphs as a novelist.
Reviews with the most likes.
In all frankness, I have to admit to not really liking this.
Perhaps I am misreading this but, even allowing for the time in which it was written, I found it elitist, racist and misogynistic.
Series
41 primary booksLa Comédie Humaine is a 41-book series with 41 primary works first released in 1829 with contributions by Honoré de Balzac, Jordan Stump, and 10 others.
Series
1 released bookÉtudes de mœurs : Scènes de la vie parisienne is a 12-book series first released in 1830 with contributions by Honoré de Balzac, Honore De Balzac, and 5 others.
Series
1 released bookPoor Relations is a 3-book series first released in 1846 with contributions by Honoré de Balzac, Honore De Balzac, and Eduard Claudiu Braileanu.