Rating: 
Summary: Lisbeth Fischer et Les Liasions Dangereuses
Review: "Beauty is the greatest of human powers. All autocratic unbridled power with nothing to counterbalance it, leads to abuse, mad excess. Despotism is power gone mad. In women, despotism takes the form of satisfying their whims". This remark engulfs Balzac's opera: To collate the audience with the obliterating debauchery society of 18th century France. Lisbeth Fischer aka Cousin Bette lurks in every chapter as a concealed beast coveting her prey (The house of Hulot) under the same roof. Perhaps Balzac's major achievement in this master piece, is to portrait a flauntering society feigned by its ostentatious opulence but immerse on a licentious and decadent life. "The savage has feelings... only the civilized man has feelings and ideas." Balzac seems to banter at Parisians with this idea: how civilized, civilized society can be. I strongly recommend this book if you intend to follow De Laclos work in Les Liasions Dangereuses. As an amateur reader I founded the characters difficult to identify at the beginning, however is an strategy smartly set by Balzac and very much appreciated as soon as you start to realize and pace through the richness of the narration.
Rating:
Summary: Lisbeth Fischer et Les Liasions Dangereuses
Review: "Beauty is the greatest of human powers. All autocratic unbridled power with nothing to counterbalance it, leads to abuse, mad excess. Despotism is power gone mad. In women, despotism takes the form of satisfying their whims". This remark engulfs Balzac's opera: To collate the audience with the obliterating debauchery society of 18th century France. Lisbeth Fischer aka Cousin Bette lurks in every chapter as a concealed beast coveting her prey (The house of Hulot) under the same roof. Perhaps Balzac's major achievement in this master piece, is to portrait a flauntering society feigned by its ostentatious opulence but immerse on a licentious and decadent life. "The savage has feelings... only the civilized man has feelings and ideas." Balzac seems to banter at Parisians with this idea: how civilized, civilized society can be. I strongly recommend this book if you intend to follow De Laclos work in Les Liasions Dangereuses. As an amateur reader I founded the characters difficult to identify at the beginning, however is an strategy smartly set by Balzac and very much appreciated as soon as you start to realize and pace through the richness of the narration.
Rating:
Summary: Lisbeth Fischer et Les Liasions Dangereuses
Review: "Beauty is the greatest of human powers. All autocratic unbridled power with nothing to counterbalance it, leads to abuse, mad excess. Despotism is power gone mad. In women, despotism takes the form of satisfying their whims". This remark engulfs Balzac's opera: To collate the audience with the obliterating debauchery society of 18th century France. Lisbeth Fischer aka Cousin Bette lurks in every chapter as a concealed beast coveting her prey (The house of Hulot) under the same roof. Perhaps Balzac's major achievement in this master piece, is to portrait a flauntering society feigned by its ostentatious opulence but immerse on a licentious and decadent life. "The savage has feelings... only the civilized man has feelings and ideas." Balzac seems to banter at Parisians with this idea: how civilized, civilized society can be. I strongly recommend this book if you intend to follow De Laclos work in Les Liasions Dangereuses. As an amateur reader I founded the characters difficult to identify at the beginning, however is an strategy smartly set by Balzac and very much appreciated as soon as you start to realize and pace through the richness of the narration.
Rating: 
Summary: French Soap Opera,1840's Style
Review: Again,I saw the movie before reading the book. Warning;book is very different and I liked the movie's ending better. Cousin Bette is like the cousin from hell. It's interesting to see how she is either directly or indirectly responsible for everyone's mis-fortune (Talk about passive-agressive!) However, The constant stream of charactors was hard to follow at times. Actually,a fun read overall and I learned alot about French politcs of that time. Just don't get the version with the painting of the woman reading a book on it's cover unless you don't mind rather stilted tranlations (as I found this one to be at times.)
Rating: 
Summary: Balzac's most complete novel
Review: Balzac's brilliant commentary on the newly born French republic and the struggle for power underneath Napoleon as the old order was guillotined and enterprise had free reign is a marvellous expose of a society in flux. Opening with subtle alacrity the novo homo Monsieur Crevel pays a visit to his son-in-law's mother, the aristocratic Baroness Hulot d'Ervy to explain that his reason (as a tied member of their family now through her son) behind his hindrance of supplying the Baroness' daughter, Hortense, with financial surety is due to two reasons: The first due to the vast debts his son-in-law has run up which he must cover, the second, in an delightfully narrated scene of wickedly humorous selfishness, because the Baroness' husband (his libertine comrade-in-arms) has 'stolen' away Monsieur Crevel's mistress, the now infamous singer, Josepha.
Monsieur Crevel insists that he must have the Baroness himself to avenge himself on her husband and, if she agrees, he will act as financial surety for her daughter Hortense. So, in true Balzac style, in the space of a few pages, we have a marvellously huge dilemma for the cuckolded Baroness for whom, within this society, social standing is everything. It is this sense of stolen love, echoing Moliere whom Balzac constantly refers to, that permeates the novel of revenge that is Cousin Bette.
What unfolds is a perfidy to subtle and over such a long period of time that its eventual terrible denouement is a tragic tale of requited love, treacherous money motivated mistresses and selflessly loving wives.
Cousin Bette has saved from suicide one Wencelas Steinbock, a Polish refugee, and has secreted him away in her tiny home for a few months financially caring for him whilst he begins to exercise his professed enormous artistic talent. Eventually she leaks her secret to her niece, Hortense who promptly falls in love with Wencelas and steals him away to marry her. In the interim, Josepha spurns Baron Hulot, who promptly turns his attentions to Madame Marneffe who lives next door to Cousin Bette. It is with Madame Marneffe that Cousin Bette finds the terrible instrument of he revenge as she inserts her into the Hulot social circle, Baron Hulot taking up with her and his lavish spending on his innocent mistress driving then entire family to penury. Madame Marneffe then comes to an agreement with Crevel to become his mistress thus stealing her from Baron Hulot and gaining his revenge on Hulot's stealing of Josepha. In the meantime the bewitching Marneffe secures herself more and more money from the slavering old men whilst carrying on with her returned Brazilian lover. Cousin Bette then gets Wencelas to obtain a loan from Madame Marneffe, knowing full well that he would fall in love with her causing Hortense's misery (and her mother's) to be absolute. By midpoint of the novel the plot is well in motion, the Hulot family is torn apart through husbands betrayals, their money is gone, wasted on a treacherous mistress who holds them all her thrall. A better siren there could not be all the time controlled by the wicked Cousin Bette.
Having reached the pinnacle of her revenge the tables begin to turn with further disgrace on Baron Hulot's part as he is founding guilty of defrauding the government in Algiers of two hundred thousand francs. His uncle and brother commit suicide and he is forced to hide in Paris (with Josepha's help). His brother's death, the Marshal, to whom Cousin Bette has secured a marriage - and hence an income - to means she begins to be revealed as a 'sword of Damocles' over the Hulot family. Victorin Hulot, the son, commences to rebuild the family fortunes. Determined to restore the family fortune, Victorin sanctions the downfall of Madame Marneffe and her new husband, Crevel, through the enigmatic Madame Nourrison firstly through revealing her relationship with Crevel to Baron Montes whose rage knows no bounds, then lastly through a debilitating disease that claims the life of the Mayor and his lover. As Cousin Bette watches her evil mechinations fall apart with the death of her instrument of despair and then with Victorin restoring the family fortunes and the prodigal father's return she eventually dies, though not without some minor satisfaction at their mourning of her passing.
This is probably Balzac's most accomplished novel, a story of jealousy and envy spiralling into bitterness and a perfidious desire. Cousin Bette invents multiple reasons to hate her Hulot family and unerring hits the week points of their personalities in an attempt to ruin them and thence be seen as their saviour. The insatiably wandering eye of Baron Hulot, the vainglorious ineptitude of Wencelas, coupled with their wives who seek to retain the family dignity bring this once proud family to their knees until the son realises that by simply revealing the truths behind the lies will break apart Cousin Bette's tenuous web of despair and set them on the road to happiness again. Halfway through there is a pointed aside as Balzac gives his definition of what creates a great artist - namely hard work and fires a single shot across this reviewer by aptly pointing out that those who cannot themselves achieve greatness in their art end up being a critic of those who can. Still...this is one Balzac novel that is well worth the time.
Rating:
Summary: Different, but interesting.
Review: I found this novel long,but well worth reading. You learn
a lot about different people's personalities in it. I was
interesting.
Rating:
Summary: Different, but interesting.
Review: I found this novel long,but well worth reading. You learn
a lot about different people's personalities in it. I was
interesting.
Rating:
Summary: excellent book
Review: I've recently read again this book, and now I like it much more than I did before since in the meantime I've realized that Balzac has known much more about ugly sides of human nature than poor naive me. Read the book to see how envious ugly spinster cousin pays back for al the help she got from her beautiful cousin who didn't forget her after a good marriage, brought her to Paris and tried to find her a husband. In this way she has only brought misfortune to herself and her children, because evil cousin Bette was scheming to ruin them in every possible way. Irony is, cousin Bette dies after failure of her intrigues, and was regarded as the best friend of the family.
Rating:
Summary: Balzac's Paris is a pretty mess.
Review: If I had a time machine, I'd want to go back to 1840's Paris. Not the richly cultured Paris of Chopin, Berlioz, and Delacroix, but Balzac's Paris, a circus world where envy, avarice, and revenge drive passionate people to ridiculous extremes. One sin breeds another, and so an envious person can play off another's avarice in order to avenge a perceived slight. I sense that Balzac was essentially a moralist who felt that sins do greater service in comedy, but the sobering effect of tragedy is important for keeping balance.In "Cousin Bette," the title character, Lisbeth "Bette" Fischer, is a plain, middle-aged spinster who has lived her whole life in the shadow of her pretty cousin Adeline. Adeline has married the Baron Hector Hulot D'Ervy, a high-ranking military and government official who nevertheless does not have much money and is an incurable womanizer, overtly keeping mistresses in spite of his wife's inexorable devotion to him. Their daughter, Hortense, becomes enamored with Bette's "boyfriend," a young Polish sculptor named Wenceslas Steinbock, and marries him, believing that his (rather unremarkable) art will bring in a fortune. At this point, Bette feels she has been upstaged one too many times by the Hulot family and resolves to take revenge. One night Baron Hulot spots a beautiful young woman in Bette's apartment building and immediately plots to make her his latest mistress. This is Bette's close friend Valerie Marneffe, whose husband happens to be menially employed in Hulot's department. Bette gets the idea to use Valerie as a siren to entrap the men who have deceived her and enrage their wives. In short order, Valerie seduces Hulot, his friend and romantic rival Monsieur Crevel, and Steinbock, securing for herself large sums of money and eventually marrying Crevel, who is a wealthy retired businessman. I've only scratched the surface of the plot, and yet to reveal any more would be beside the point of a Balzac novel because the quality of his writing is more in the interaction between the characters than in the events that advance the story. I've not yet even mentioned the excellent supporting cast, including Hulot's conscientious son Victorin; his wife Celestine, who happens to be Crevel's daughter; the Brazilian playboy Montejanos, whose fiery passion for Valerie endangers the lives of her and everyone around her; a sinister old woman who goes by a number of aliases and arranges "accidents"; and her accomplice, an elegant courtesan called Carabine. All of these characters fit together perfectly like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and elevate the novel to exciting new levels of intrigue. Convention would dictate that Bette's revenge be fulfilled and Hulot learn his lesson by the end of the novel, but Balzac has a more realistic outlook than to concede to a reader's expectations. He is a novelist with the dialogue-oriented sensibilities of a playwright and a knack for devising unusually complicated plots by making the most out of a minimal number of characters. If, as he states in the novel, inspiration gives genius its opportunity, then "Cousin Bette" must be the product of the highest inspiration because there is plenty of genius on display.
Rating:
Summary: Balzac's Paris is a pretty mess.
Review: If I had a time machine, I'd want to go back to 1840's Paris. Not the richly cultured Paris of Chopin, Berlioz, and Delacroix, but Balzac's Paris, a circus world where envy, avarice, and revenge drive passionate people to ridiculous extremes. One sin breeds another, and so an envious person can play off another's avarice in order to avenge a perceived slight. I sense that Balzac was essentially a moralist who felt that sins do greater service in comedy, but the sobering effect of tragedy is important for keeping balance. In "Cousin Bette," the title character, Lisbeth "Bette" Fischer, is a plain, middle-aged spinster who has lived her whole life in the shadow of her pretty cousin Adeline. Adeline has married the Baron Hector Hulot D'Ervy, a high-ranking military and government official who nevertheless does not have much money and is an incurable womanizer, overtly keeping mistresses in spite of his wife's inexorable devotion to him. Their daughter, Hortense, becomes enamored with Bette's "boyfriend," a young Polish sculptor named Wenceslas Steinbock, and marries him, believing that his (rather unremarkable) art will bring in a fortune. At this point, Bette feels she has been upstaged one too many times by the Hulot family and resolves to take revenge. One night Baron Hulot spots a beautiful young woman in Bette's apartment building and immediately plots to make her his latest mistress. This is Bette's close friend Valerie Marneffe, whose husband happens to be menially employed in Hulot's department. Bette gets the idea to use Valerie as a siren to entrap the men who have deceived her and enrage their wives. In short order, Valerie seduces Hulot, his friend and romantic rival Monsieur Crevel, and Steinbock, securing for herself large sums of money and eventually marrying Crevel, who is a wealthy retired businessman. I've only scratched the surface of the plot, and yet to reveal any more would be beside the point of a Balzac novel because the quality of his writing is more in the interaction between the characters than in the events that advance the story. I've not yet even mentioned the excellent supporting cast, including Hulot's conscientious son Victorin; his wife Celestine, who happens to be Crevel's daughter; the Brazilian playboy Montejanos, whose fiery passion for Valerie endangers the lives of her and everyone around her; a sinister old woman who goes by a number of aliases and arranges "accidents"; and her accomplice, an elegant courtesan called Carabine. All of these characters fit together perfectly like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle and elevate the novel to exciting new levels of intrigue. Convention would dictate that Bette's revenge be fulfilled and Hulot learn his lesson by the end of the novel, but Balzac has a more realistic outlook than to concede to a reader's expectations. He is a novelist with the dialogue-oriented sensibilities of a playwright and a knack for devising unusually complicated plots by making the most out of a minimal number of characters. If, as he states in the novel, inspiration gives genius its opportunity, then "Cousin Bette" must be the product of the highest inspiration because there is plenty of genius on display.
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