Author : Honoré de Balzac
Publisher : Penguin UK
ISBN 13 : 0141913592
Total Pages : 519 pages
Book Rating : 4.99/5 ( download)
Book Synopsis Cousin Bette by : Honoré de Balzac
Download or read book Cousin Bette written by Honoré de Balzac and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2004-12-02 with total page 519 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.