Cousin Bette (1846)

This is a soap opera masquerading as a classic. It has all the right ingredients.

* A husband, a baron, who has spent all the family money on other women.

* A wife who justifies acting like a doormat by saying it is religious feminine submission.

* An in-law who threatens to put the kybosh on any potential "good match" marriage for their dowry-less but pretty (and rather boring) daughter Hortense if religious doormat doesn't sleep with him.

* Cousin Bette, the protagonist of the story, who is the plain, poor relation given shelter by the Baron, but must earn her own living and who is a jealous, vengeful and cunning woman.

* A talented sculptor who leads on and exploits Cousin Bette for what she can do for him, but falls in love with Hortense (and marries her after he has become rich through using her connections).

* A beautiful mistress/whore, Valerie. Lots of French classics have a woman who exploits her looks but is eventually brought low. Camille in La Dame aux Camélias, Nana, Madame Bovary to name a few I've read.

* The poor but handsome lover of the mistress who is used for sex and spurned because he hasn't got enough money. He's going to have his revenge too.

* More than a hint of lesbianism between the vengeful Bette and the greedy Valerie.

Everyone gets their just desserts in the end, except, mystifingly, the Baron who on his saintly wife's demise marries a servant girl and is happy as a hare in clover satisfied with his comfortable life and lots of sex.

Balzac did write this as a series and it is both light fiction and great literature. It explores the themes of wealth, beauty, cruelty, passion and religion in an elegant fashion. This is what makes it such a good read, a good plot, great characters and plenty of depth to flesh out the story into a real experience. But 4 stars rather than 5 because it does take a bit of wading through. ( )

A flawless novel by a master of the written word! ( )

This novel is another in the series, "Scenes from Parisian Life" in the 19th century. I don't think Balzac was capable of writing a happy story. Lisbeth Fischer, called Cousin Bette by everyone, is skilled in the art of making gold and silver lacework, but remains poor and unmarried. She is possessed by jealousy of her cousin Adeline who married into wealth, although her husband Baron Hulot is a besotted womanizer. The development of the characters and their tragic relationships form the basis of this great work.

Cousin Bette is at many points convoluted and melodramatic. This novel is filled with amazing details and aphorisms that trump whatever flaws exist in the narrative structure. Balzac is philosopher. ( )