{"product_id":"9780140441604-cousin-bette","title":"Cousin Bette","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003ePoor, 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eA gripping tale of violent jealousy, sexual passion and treachery, Honoré de Balzac's \u003ci\u003eCousin Bette \u003c\/i\u003eis translated from the French with an introduction by Marion Ayton Crawford in Penguin Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePoor, 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. The culmination of the \u003ci\u003eComédie humaine\u003c\/i\u003e, and a brilliant portrayal of the grasping, bourgeois society of 1840s Paris,\u003ci\u003e Cousin Bette\u003c\/i\u003e is one of Balzac's greatest triumphs as a novelist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMarion Ayton Crawford's lively translation is accompanied by an introduction discussing the novel's portrayal of rapidly changing times, as the new, ambitious middle classes replaced France's old imperial ways.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHonoré De Balzac (1799-1850) failed at being a lawyer, publisher, printer, businessman, critic and politician before, at the age of thirty, turning his hand to writing. His life's work, \u003ci\u003eLa Comédie humaine\u003c\/i\u003e, is a series of ninety novels and short stories which offer a magnificent panorama of nineteenth-century life after the French Revolution. Balzac was an influence on innumerable writers who followed him, including Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles Dickens, and Edgar Allan Poe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you enjoyed \u003ci\u003eCousin Bette\u003c\/i\u003e, you might like Balzac's \u003ci\u003eOld Goriot\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Classics.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":31161470877793,"sku":"9780140441604","price":9.55,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_32417128.jpg?v=1737439944","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9780140441604-cousin-bette","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}