Cousin Betty

About this film

LibriVox recording of Cousin Betty by Honoré de Balzac. (Translated by Ellen Marriage.) Read in English by Bruce Pirie. Cousin Betty (La Cousine Bette), published in serial format in 1846 as part of his long novel series titled La Comédie Humaine, was one of the last and greatest of Balzac's works. Set in mid-19th-century France, it tells the story of a woman who resents her position as a "poor relation." As we follow her schemes to bring ruin upon the more privileged members of her family, we see a society in transition. The stability and idealism of the old order give way to a new bourgeois world in which virtue is strangled in the struggle for power and money. Balzac searchingly probes the psychology and motivations of his characters. His work influenced the development of literary realism, as practised by authors such as Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Proust, and Henry James. (Summary by Bruce Pirie) For further information, including links to online text, reader information, RSS feeds, CD cover or other formats (if available), please go to the LibriVox catalog page for this recording. For more free audio books or to become a volunteer reader, visit LibriVox.org . Download M4B…

Directors & creators

Honoré de Balzac

Subjects

librivox; audiobooks; literature; fiction; nineteenth-century; France; greed; corruption; realism; bourgeois

View on archive.org ↗