![]() ![]() Cousin Bette is an intense psychological drama and character study that burns with the fire of Balzac's critique of French society. She recruits the young and beautiful Valérie Marneffe-an unhappily married woman-to seduce Adeline's husband, Baron Hector Hulot, whose uncontrolled desires and extensive vanity both test his family's loyalty and stretch their finances to the furthest possible limit. ![]() When he falls in love with Hortense, the daughter of Bette's cousin Adeline, she hatches a plan to gain revenge for this perceived personal slight. After rescuing the young sculptor Wenceslas Steinbock from suicide, Bette develops a complex affection for the man. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Bette Fischer, a 42-year-old woman whose bitterness at remaining unmarried-despite several proposals by men she deemed unworthy-drives her to ruin the reputations and lives of her extended family. It has inspired several film and television adaptations, as well as earned comparisons to Shakespeare's Othello and Tolstoy's War and Peace. ![]() ![]() Part of Balzac's La Comédie 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 series. Cousin Bette (1846) is a novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. ![]()
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