Cousin Bette
by Honoré de Balzac
Poor Relations (1), Scenes from Parisian Life (18), Studies of Manners (55), The Human Comedy (Vol. 17 Les Parents pauvres | 82)
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The crown jewel in a remarkable literary career, Cousin Bette is regarded by many critics to be Balzac's last great work before his death in 1850. A fine example of European realist fiction, the story recounts the attempt of a disgruntled housewife to bring about the misery and destruction of her entire extended family. Fans of Tolstoy's War and Peace will enjoy Cousin Bette..
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In English 19th century novels, a poor relation who exhibits humility, prudence, and a certain amount of native wit can hope to get the modest reward of being allowed to look after the male lead in his infirmity, or perhaps of marrying a younger son. Not in Balzac. If you're a poor relation in one of his novels, you want to go out with a real bang. Nothing less than the ruin and humiliation of the whole rich clan that looks down on you will do.
Actually, what I found really interesting about this book wasn't the revenge plot, but the detailed account of the damage done by the "wives and mistresses" system that had institutionalised itself in Parisian bourgeois society. Neglected wives, naïve young girls tricked into sexual slavery, show more ambitious women obliged to sell themselves to a "protector" to get a foothold in business or on the stage, mistresses exchanged between wealthy men like pieces of real estate, everyone borrowing money like crazy to keep the system going. When it's presented like this, you don't have to be Marx or Engels to spot that there's something very rotten in all this capitalist perversion of sexual relations, and Balzac makes sure we get the point by giving us a close look at practically every aspect of it somewhere in the book. show less
Actually, what I found really interesting about this book wasn't the revenge plot, but the detailed account of the damage done by the "wives and mistresses" system that had institutionalised itself in Parisian bourgeois society. Neglected wives, naïve young girls tricked into sexual slavery, show more ambitious women obliged to sell themselves to a "protector" to get a foothold in business or on the stage, mistresses exchanged between wealthy men like pieces of real estate, everyone borrowing money like crazy to keep the system going. When it's presented like this, you don't have to be Marx or Engels to spot that there's something very rotten in all this capitalist perversion of sexual relations, and Balzac makes sure we get the point by giving us a close look at practically every aspect of it somewhere in the book. show less
When recently published fiction disappoints, I turn to nineteenth century French literature. It has never let me down. [b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] is only the second novel by Balzac that I've read; the first was [b:Old Goriot|578367|Old Goriot|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1397873613l/578367._SY75_.jpg|72392] more than decade ago. Looking at my review of that, the prominent theme of money poisoning relationships is very similar. However [b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de show more Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] is a much more compelling melodrama, as frequently comic as it is tragic. While Balzac is a clear precursor of Zola in his depiction of corruption in French society, he has a tendency to editorialise that Zola's stricter realism did not permit. Although a couple of Balzac's interjections are rather antisemitic, most are entertaining and revealing:
Once I'd established who everyone was and the plot had got going about fifty pages in, I found [b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] extremely involving. While undertaking a certain amount of social critique, Balzac constructs an operatically elaborate family drama. At a few points I laughed with delight at his audacity. These moments invariably involved the combined machinations of Bette and Valérie, an amoral and incredibly manipulative pair that I could not help admiring. I think the highlight is when Valerie gets pregnant and convinces FOUR different men, none of them her actual husband, that they are the father of her child:
[b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] is full of fascinating female characters and is notably named after one whose constant duplicity is never discovered. These women are more vivid, complex, and sympathetic than the men, despite their sometimes appalling deeds. Men may have the political and economic power in Restoration France, but women are depicted as tougher emotionally and able to use that power to great effect. While the narrative states explicitly that certain women are virtuous and certain are wicked, most are some measure of both. Moreover, the most virtuous woman in the book gets no reward for it and latterly realises that wicked women are better off than she. Balzac blames men for the unjust situation of wives who are effectively abandoned:
Bette is particularly interesting for being neither wife nor mistress. She remains enigmatic and independent throughout. Yet, like everyone else in the book, she is preoccupied with love and money. Although these concerns are hardly unique to Paris in the 1840s, Balzac vividly evokes the specifics of that time with details of clothing, furnishings, art, and manners. I found [b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] a highly accomplished work of literature that is also a delight to read. show less
Valérie was anxious to be seen in fresh bright surroundings, in order to appear attractive to Monsieur le Directeur, attractive enough to have the right to be cruel, to play hard to get, with all the art of modern tactics; as if she were holding a sweetmeat out to tantalise a child. She had taken Hulot's measure. Give a hard-pressed Parisian woman twenty-four hours to work and she can bring down a government.
Once I'd established who everyone was and the plot had got going about fifty pages in, I found [b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] extremely involving. While undertaking a certain amount of social critique, Balzac constructs an operatically elaborate family drama. At a few points I laughed with delight at his audacity. These moments invariably involved the combined machinations of Bette and Valérie, an amoral and incredibly manipulative pair that I could not help admiring. I think the highlight is when Valerie gets pregnant and convinces FOUR different men, none of them her actual husband, that they are the father of her child:
Thanks to these tactics, based on the pride and conceit of man in his capacity of lover, Valérie had four delighted men round her table, all excited and under her spell, each believing that he was adored; Marneffe [Valérie's husband] dubbed them in a jocose aside to Lisbeth, including himself in the band, the five Fathers of the Church.
[b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] is full of fascinating female characters and is notably named after one whose constant duplicity is never discovered. These women are more vivid, complex, and sympathetic than the men, despite their sometimes appalling deeds. Men may have the political and economic power in Restoration France, but women are depicted as tougher emotionally and able to use that power to great effect. While the narrative states explicitly that certain women are virtuous and certain are wicked, most are some measure of both. Moreover, the most virtuous woman in the book gets no reward for it and latterly realises that wicked women are better off than she. Balzac blames men for the unjust situation of wives who are effectively abandoned:
Hortense was a wife, but Valérie was a mistress.
Many men desire to have these two editions of the same work, although it is proof of deep inferiority in a man if he cannot make his wife his mistress. Seeking variety is a sign of impotence. Constancy will always be the guardian spirit of love, evidence of immense creative vigour, the vigour that makes a poet!
Bette is particularly interesting for being neither wife nor mistress. She remains enigmatic and independent throughout. Yet, like everyone else in the book, she is preoccupied with love and money. Although these concerns are hardly unique to Paris in the 1840s, Balzac vividly evokes the specifics of that time with details of clothing, furnishings, art, and manners. I found [b:Cousin Bette|59144|Cousin Bette|Honoré de Balzac|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388880372l/59144._SY75_.jpg|1028809] a highly accomplished work of literature that is also a delight to read. show less
My first Balzac.
I had the impression, somewhere, that I would have to sit through some dreary pompous horrorshow, perhaps pulpy purple prose with a plethora of prodigious penuries.
But to be sure, I did get a horrorshow, but not the kind I expected. Indeed, I had a great time once I fell into a certain kind of groove. You know what I mean. The kind that you get into when reading a good Stephen King novel, revving up with a huge cast of dispicable human beings whom you have a great time rooting for their ultimate demises. Hopefully with some supernatural beastie tormenting them to their dooms. Or devils dragging them to suddenly opening graves. Something like that.
To think that this was considered one of the great REALIST novels! By a show more realist novelist! In all honesty, it reads like the plot of some 1980's daytime soap opera but placed in post-Napoleonic France.
Enter the mass-philandering Baron and his wife who doesn't care! Enter the disgruntled spinster who, just after finding a taste of love, has her younger cousin come in like a bitch to scoop him up, sending the spinster into a whirlwind of Italian rage and vengeance that will last the rest of their lives.
Is this total preoccupation with Sex and Death funny? Yep. As I said, I'm a fan of Stephen King. I rooted for EVERYONE'S ultimate tragedy. :)
If this is realism, then what does that say about me? Hmmmm... oh my. show less
I had the impression, somewhere, that I would have to sit through some dreary pompous horrorshow, perhaps pulpy purple prose with a plethora of prodigious penuries.
But to be sure, I did get a horrorshow, but not the kind I expected. Indeed, I had a great time once I fell into a certain kind of groove. You know what I mean. The kind that you get into when reading a good Stephen King novel, revving up with a huge cast of dispicable human beings whom you have a great time rooting for their ultimate demises. Hopefully with some supernatural beastie tormenting them to their dooms. Or devils dragging them to suddenly opening graves. Something like that.
To think that this was considered one of the great REALIST novels! By a show more realist novelist! In all honesty, it reads like the plot of some 1980's daytime soap opera but placed in post-Napoleonic France.
Enter the mass-philandering Baron and his wife who doesn't care! Enter the disgruntled spinster who, just after finding a taste of love, has her younger cousin come in like a bitch to scoop him up, sending the spinster into a whirlwind of Italian rage and vengeance that will last the rest of their lives.
Is this total preoccupation with Sex and Death funny? Yep. As I said, I'm a fan of Stephen King. I rooted for EVERYONE'S ultimate tragedy. :)
If this is realism, then what does that say about me? Hmmmm... oh my. show less
If you're a feminist, the character of Adeline may infuriate you. To wit, she tells her daughter Hortense, who has dumped her husband Wenceslas for cheating on her: "Do as I have done, my child," continued her mother. "Be gentle and kind and you'll have an easy conscience. If, on his deathbed, a man says, 'my wife has never caused me the least sorrow,' God, who hears these last whispered words, counts them in our favor. If I had given way to rages, like you, what would have happened? Your father would have become embittered. Perhaps he would have left me, and he wouldn't have been held back by the fear of distressing me."
Wow, what a family! Balzac had a few moral lessons to teach us readers in his book Cousin Bette. Bette spent her show more whole life trying to reap vengeance on her beautiful cousin Adeline, hating her for her beauty and her"luck" in marrying the Baron Hulot. But what kind of luck is it to be married to an eternal mujeriego, I'd like to know. Don't be vengeful, don't be a mujeriego, don't be a courtesan... Balzac's moral for this story. show less
Wow, what a family! Balzac had a few moral lessons to teach us readers in his book Cousin Bette. Bette spent her show more whole life trying to reap vengeance on her beautiful cousin Adeline, hating her for her beauty and her"luck" in marrying the Baron Hulot. But what kind of luck is it to be married to an eternal mujeriego, I'd like to know. Don't be vengeful, don't be a mujeriego, don't be a courtesan... Balzac's moral for this story. show less
La Cousine Bette est le récit d’une vengeance implacable, celle d’une vieille fille, Lisbeth Fischer, qui travaille à la destruction systématique d’une famille – sa famille. Le poison de jalousie et de haine qu’elle distille répand autour d’elle son venin mortifère ; la toile arachnéenne qu’elle tisse empiège ceux qui ont ouvert la boîte de Pandore de ses passions contrariées.
Nul ne sortira indemne de ce thriller réaliste, pas même le lecteur de Balzac, plongé dans un monde gangrené par la bassesse humaine et le pouvoir de l’argent. «La Cousine Bette prendra place à côté de mes grandes œuvres,» prophétisait Balzac en 1846. La postérité lui donne raison : premier volet du diptyque des Parents show more pauvres, ce récit noir de jais est l’une des cimes de la création romanesque du XIXe siècle. show less
Nul ne sortira indemne de ce thriller réaliste, pas même le lecteur de Balzac, plongé dans un monde gangrené par la bassesse humaine et le pouvoir de l’argent. «La Cousine Bette prendra place à côté de mes grandes œuvres,» prophétisait Balzac en 1846. La postérité lui donne raison : premier volet du diptyque des Parents show more pauvres, ce récit noir de jais est l’une des cimes de la création romanesque du XIXe siècle. show less
This French classic is an exploration of moral decay filled with greed, lust, and selfish choices. There was no one to root for as the even the virtuous Adeline was insufferable. Her husband Baron Hulot flits from one affair to the next and she just pretends that nothing is wrong. She's held up as a paragon of saintly womanhood, a standard that even her daughter can't emulate when faced with the same dilemma. I wish Bette had been less petty and more devious. Her plot was interesting until she was shuffled off to the sidelines as we watched the "redemption" of the awful Baron.
This is a tale of sex and money, and sex for money, and incidentally love and passion, but it is primarily a tale of revenge. The eponymous Cousin Bette, cousin of Baroness Hulot, wants to destroy the baroness's family for multiple reasons. This is not my favorite Balzac, but after the first hundred pages or so it was certainly a page turner.
Baron Hulot is what we would now call a sex addict, and he throws away his fortune on the current object of his affections. When the book opens, he is seeing Josepha, an opera singer/courtesan but she throws him over for a more wealthy duke who sets her up in a palatial home. Distraught, he spies a lovely woman on his way to Cousin Bette's and Bette is happy to introduce him to Madame Marneffe, who show more juggles multiple lovers and befriends Cousin Bette. Baroness Hulot, Adeline, knows of the baron's adulteries, forgives him in her Christian way, but suffers mightily. The family is rounded out by a son who is married to a daughter of M. Crevel (who figures in the plot in a big way) and a daughter, Hortense. The baron has thrown so much money away she doesn't have a dowry, but she falls in love with a Polish sculptor, Wenceslas, who was a count in his home country, who Cousin Bette has been protecting because he lives in an attic in her building. Eventually, she marries him, but discovering his liaison with Madame Marneffe, she doesn't follow her mother's example of unnatural toleration, but instead returns to live with her mother.
All this is prologue (except for the Wenceslas debacle). The main plot develops three years later, and is very complex but enjoyable in a train wreck sort of way. The reader can sympathize up to a point with Bette, but not her cunning vengeance. And the reader can also sympathize up to a point with all the more ambiguous characters. It is the unnaturally good ones, especially Adeline, that are a little hard to take. It is too much for me to go into all that happens, but suffice it say some characters come to a ghastly end. show less
Baron Hulot is what we would now call a sex addict, and he throws away his fortune on the current object of his affections. When the book opens, he is seeing Josepha, an opera singer/courtesan but she throws him over for a more wealthy duke who sets her up in a palatial home. Distraught, he spies a lovely woman on his way to Cousin Bette's and Bette is happy to introduce him to Madame Marneffe, who show more juggles multiple lovers and befriends Cousin Bette. Baroness Hulot, Adeline, knows of the baron's adulteries, forgives him in her Christian way, but suffers mightily. The family is rounded out by a son who is married to a daughter of M. Crevel (who figures in the plot in a big way) and a daughter, Hortense. The baron has thrown so much money away she doesn't have a dowry, but she falls in love with a Polish sculptor, Wenceslas, who was a count in his home country, who Cousin Bette has been protecting because he lives in an attic in her building. Eventually, she marries him, but discovering his liaison with Madame Marneffe, she doesn't follow her mother's example of unnatural toleration, but instead returns to live with her mother.
All this is prologue (except for the Wenceslas debacle). The main plot develops three years later, and is very complex but enjoyable in a train wreck sort of way. The reader can sympathize up to a point with Bette, but not her cunning vengeance. And the reader can also sympathize up to a point with all the more ambiguous characters. It is the unnaturally good ones, especially Adeline, that are a little hard to take. It is too much for me to go into all that happens, but suffice it say some characters come to a ghastly end. show less
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ThingScore 75
De wereld van deze roman is bevolkt met slechte karakters die elkaar poeslief en elegant ten val willen brengen. Hun gedragingen zijn bedriegelijk en leugenachtig, ze zijn altijd op eigen voordeel uit, alles wat ze zeggen maakt deel uit van hun machtsspel. De woorden van nicht Bette geven precies weer hoe de mensen met elkaar omgaan: ,,Je moet de mensen in de maatschappij zien als gereedschap show more dat je opneemt, gebruikt en weer weglegt al naar het je van dienst kan zijn.'
Balzac heeft niet alleen zijn personages breeduit getekend, ook in de talloze voortreffelijke dialogen, hij heeft daarnaast veel aandacht besteed aan de decors, waarin zij hun menselijke komedie opvoeren. Straten en wijken van Parijs beschrijft hij, interieurs van verschillende stand, veel couleur locale waar de feuilletonlezers van destijds al evenzeer van gesmuld zullen hebben als wij nu doen, die er de historische situatie beter door leren kennen. show less
Balzac heeft niet alleen zijn personages breeduit getekend, ook in de talloze voortreffelijke dialogen, hij heeft daarnaast veel aandacht besteed aan de decors, waarin zij hun menselijke komedie opvoeren. Straten en wijken van Parijs beschrijft hij, interieurs van verschillende stand, veel couleur locale waar de feuilletonlezers van destijds al evenzeer van gesmuld zullen hebben als wij nu doen, die er de historische situatie beter door leren kennen. show less
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a Cousine Bette is een adembenemend melodrama, waarin een keurige familie te gronde wordt gericht door de ongeneeslijke wellust van de heer des huizes en de heimelijke wraakzucht van een ongetrouwde en verbitterde nicht. Het aardige is dat nicht Bette, bijgenaamd `de Geit', door de familieleden juist als een loyale vertrouwelinge en beschermengel wordt gezien, met als gevolg dat zij tegen het show more eind snikkend rond haar sterfbed staan.
Van Bette schrijft Balzac dat zij `heerste, net als de jezuïeten, in het verborgene'. Pas de niets verhullende blik van de schrijver legt de waarheid bloot. `Hortenses ogen vulden zich met tranen, en van die aanblik genoot Bette met volle teugen, zoals een kat slobbert van de melk'. Voordien is Bette dan al afgeschilderd als een primitieve `natuurmens', gedreven door slechts één passie: afgunst jegens haar even mooie als deugdzame nicht Adeline, die getrouwd is met de wellustige baron Hulot. Ooit een hoge ambtenaar van Napoleon, ruïneert deze Hulot zichzelf en zijn familie door fortuinen uit te geven aan zijn maîtresses, die hem op hun beurt gewetenloos bedriegen. Het kost nicht Bette niet veel moeite om hem stiekem tot instrument van haar wraak te maken, nadat hij verliefd is geworden op haar doortrapte, maar beeldschone buurvrouw. De plot van de roman, vol list, bedrog en zelfs een dubbele gifmoord, herinnert aan die van een boulevardstuk, zoals wel vaker bij Balzac, maar dat vergeet en vergeef je moeiteloos dankzij de energie en de vaart, waarmee het verhaal op zijn fatale ontknoping afstevent.
Keukenmeid
In het voorwoord bij de Comédie humaine betoogt Balzac dat de schrijver niet alleen de `secretaris' van de geschiedenis, maar ook de `leermeester van de mens' moet zijn. Katholicisme en monarchie worden door hem aangeprezen als de twee onmisbare pijlers van de samenleving. Hij verdedigt zich daarom tegen het verwijt van `immoraliteit', dat elke `dappere' schrijver naar het hoofd krijgt geslingerd, en hij wijst erop dat bij hem de misdaad nooit ongestraft blijft. Inderdaad, in La Cousine Bette krijgen de schurken tenslotte niet de kans de vruchten te plukken van hun boosaardige intriges. show less
Van Bette schrijft Balzac dat zij `heerste, net als de jezuïeten, in het verborgene'. Pas de niets verhullende blik van de schrijver legt de waarheid bloot. `Hortenses ogen vulden zich met tranen, en van die aanblik genoot Bette met volle teugen, zoals een kat slobbert van de melk'. Voordien is Bette dan al afgeschilderd als een primitieve `natuurmens', gedreven door slechts één passie: afgunst jegens haar even mooie als deugdzame nicht Adeline, die getrouwd is met de wellustige baron Hulot. Ooit een hoge ambtenaar van Napoleon, ruïneert deze Hulot zichzelf en zijn familie door fortuinen uit te geven aan zijn maîtresses, die hem op hun beurt gewetenloos bedriegen. Het kost nicht Bette niet veel moeite om hem stiekem tot instrument van haar wraak te maken, nadat hij verliefd is geworden op haar doortrapte, maar beeldschone buurvrouw. De plot van de roman, vol list, bedrog en zelfs een dubbele gifmoord, herinnert aan die van een boulevardstuk, zoals wel vaker bij Balzac, maar dat vergeet en vergeef je moeiteloos dankzij de energie en de vaart, waarmee het verhaal op zijn fatale ontknoping afstevent.
Keukenmeid
In het voorwoord bij de Comédie humaine betoogt Balzac dat de schrijver niet alleen de `secretaris' van de geschiedenis, maar ook de `leermeester van de mens' moet zijn. Katholicisme en monarchie worden door hem aangeprezen als de twee onmisbare pijlers van de samenleving. Hij verdedigt zich daarom tegen het verwijt van `immoraliteit', dat elke `dappere' schrijver naar het hoofd krijgt geslingerd, en hij wijst erop dat bij hem de misdaad nooit ongestraft blijft. Inderdaad, in La Cousine Bette krijgen de schurken tenslotte niet de kans de vruchten te plukken van hun boosaardige intriges. show less
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Author Information
Born on May 20, 1799, Honore de Balzac is considered one of the greatest French writers of all time. Balzac studied in Paris and worked as a law clerk while pursuing an unsuccessful career as an author. He soon accumulated enormous debts that haunted him most of his life. A prolific writer, Balzac would often write for 14 to-16 hours at a time. show more His writing is marked by realistic portrayals of ordinary, but exaggerated characters and intricate detail. In 1834, Balzac began organizing his works into a collection called The Human Comedy, an attempt to group his novels to present a complete social history of France. Characters in this project reappeared throughout various volumes, which ultimately consisted of approximately 90 works. Some of his works include Cesar Birotteau, Le Cousin Pons, Seraphita, and Le Cousine Bette. Balzac wed his lifelong love, Eveline Hanska in March 1850 although he was gravely ill at the time. Balzac died in August of that year. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Series
Poor Relations
1 works (1)
Scenes from Parisian Life
16 works (18)
Studies of Manners
60 works (55)
The Human Comedy
86 works (Vol. 17 Les Parents pauvres | 82)
Belongs to Publisher Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Is retold in
Has the adaptation
Has as a commentary on the text
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Cousin Bette
- Original title
- La Cousine Bette
- Original publication date
- 1846
- People/Characters
- Lisbeth Fischer (Cousin Bette); Adeline Fischer Hulot; Hector Baron Hulot d'Ervy; Hortense Hulot; Pierre Fischer; Célestin Crevel (show all 18); Célestin Crevel Hulot; Maréchal General Hulot Comte de Forzheim; Josépha Mirah; Jenny Cadine; Wenceslas Count Steinbock; Valérie Fortin Marneffe; Jean Paul Stanislas Marneffe; Stidmann; Victorin Hulot; Léon de Lora Montez; Atala Judici; Agatha Piquetard
- Important places
- Paris, France
- Related movies
- Cousin Bette (1998 | IMDb); Cousin Bette (1971 | IMDb)
- First words
- Towards the middle of July in the year 1838, one of those vehicles called "milords," then appearing in the Paris squares for the first time, was driving along the rue de l'Universite, bearing a stout man of medium height in t... (show all)he uniform of a captain in the National Guard.
- Quotations*
- 'Wat is de oorzaak van dit diepgewortelde kwaad?' vroeg de barones.
'Het verlies van religie,'antwoordde de arts, 'en de machtsovername van het kapitaal wat niets anders is dan verstokte zelfzucht. Vroeger betekende geld n... (show all)iet alles; voor de mensen golden toen hogere belangen en waarden, zoals een edelmoedige inborst, talent en het je inzetten voor de gemeenschap. Maar tegenwoordig heeft de wet het geld verheven tot de standaard waar alles aan wordt afgemeten, en het bezit ervan bepaalt iemands bevoegdheid in de politiek! Zo zijn sommige magistraten niet verkiesbaar, Jean-Jacques Rousseau zou niet verkiesbaar zijn! Door de steeds verdergaande verdeling van de erfgoederen wordt iedereen al op zijn twintigste ertoe gedwongen om in de eerste plaats aan zichzelf te denken. En nu hier in Frankrijk, ondanks de loffelijke pogingen van degenen die een reveil van het katholicisme nastreven, het religieus bewustzijn verdwijnt, is de noodzaak om fortuin maken maar een stap verwijderd van grootscheepse malversaties. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)"Parents can oppose their children's marriages, but children have no way of preventing the follies of parents in their second childhood," said Maitre Hulot to Maitre Popinot, second son of the former Minister of Commerce, and a fellow lawyer, who had spoken to him of that marriage.
- Original language
- French
- Disambiguation notice
- There have been at least 4 adaptations for film and television.
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