Domestic Peace

by Honoré de Balzac

book data

659 ratings, 3.75 average rating, 69 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		27%
4		36%
3		23%
2		7%
1		4%

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published

June 8th 2009 by Book Jungle (first published 1965)

details

Paperback, 48 pages

isbn

1438519427 (isbn13: 9781438519425)

description

Honora de Balzac is considered the founder of social realism. Balzac was the first writer to write about the all social levels of the social scene in…more

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Jan 02, 2010

Bettie rated it:

(review of isbn 0786159146)

bookshelves: classic, fraudio, french-root, published-1846, revenge, winter20092010

Read in January, 2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 15, 2010

Anascape Taylor rated it:

(review of isbn 0192836684)

Read in January, 2010

*Spoilers Inside* Sigh. It is a shame to give only 3 stars to a book so eloquently written, but what will linger in my mind about Cousin Bette 30 years from now will most likely be the rotten taste it has left in my mouth, not the honey-dipped words.

The first star was lost because I had to suffer through long sections of Balzac's rambling, misguided moralizing. His sermons seem to cover all topics, from the high-handed judgment of a variety of races to the merits of "good br...more *Spoilers Inside* Sigh. It is a shame to give only 3 stars to a book so eloquently written, but what will linger in my mind about Cousin Bette 30 years from now will most likely be the rotten taste it has left in my mouth, not the honey-dipped words.

The first star was lost because I had to suffer through long sections of Balzac's rambling, misguided moralizing. His sermons seem to cover all topics, from the high-handed judgment of a variety of races to the merits of "good breeding." I like an author to fascinate me such that I feel like I would not be worthy to hold a conversation with them, if we were to meet. Unfortunately, I got the feeling that Balzac would be a remarkably loud and boring dinner guest who liked to listen to himself better than anyone else.

The second star was lost because I was left completely unsatisfied. Now don't tell me that if I want a happy ending I should go find a children's book. Here's the deal: the character who is "punished by the vengeance of God," as it was painted, Madame Marneffe of course, is not really the one I cared to see brought to justice. Yes, she was terrible and cruel. But who is to blame: the woman who mercilessly steals a family's honor and fortune, or the stupid and selfish man who hands it over to her willingly? No, I didn't really care about the Madame's fate. And Bette couldn't have been punished any more judiciously than she was in the end. But the Baron? What justice did he receive? None, of course. And while Adeline's character was honorable, on some level I see her impassioned hunt for him through the slums of Paris to be one of complete selfishness. He didn't want to come home, as he said and demonstrated to the very end. He even wished her dead, even more so when he came home, so she couldn't very well have saved him from God's wrath. I realize that she was supposed to have not seen this, but it certainly doesn't leave one impressed with Balzac's idea of perfect virtue. It seems that his definition of virtue boils down to martyrdom. And what a convenient bar to set for a woman of 19th century Paris. Furthermore, in the end Balzac glorifies Crevel, putting his vanity up on a pedestal as some mark of greatness. Well then, take me to the nearest Porsche dealer and find me a real genius! Really, the only two characters I respected in the whole thing were Hortense and Victorin. Hortense, for the most part, nips her husband's insults in the bud. She has the wherewithal to throw him to his transparent Madame and not suffer a lifetime of pointless martyrdom that makes no one the better. And Victorin pulls his family together in their time of "disgrace," proving to be the only thing standing between Lisbeth and her vengeance. So I feel that mine and Balzac's definitions of vice and virtue differ markedly, and not in ways that can be accounted for simply by the passage of 150 years.(less)

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Dec 30, 2008

Louise rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Read in November, 2008

Envy. Raging envy. The story of a woman (Bette) who has lived bitterly in the shadow of her successful, beautiful cousin, Adeline. Till the opening of the story, she has been content to be the fifth wheel in the Hulot family, accepting their kindness grudgingly. However, when her niece Hortense sets her sights on the man that Bette believes to be her own, she becomes a formidable foe, obsessed with bringing down the entire Hulot family.
Interesting, a bit predictable, evil is evil and go...more

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Jan 20, 2010

Pamela rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Read in January, 2010

Oh, my. What melodrama. A quite enjoyable read, but occasionally preposterous. It was hard to feel that the characters were full flesh-and-blood beings, but they had a vitality that kept me reading. Cousin Bette, poor relation to the aristocratic Hulot family, watches helplessly as the young man she's fallen for is stolen from her by the beautiful Hulot daughter. Afterwards, she says Enough. The rest of the book details her ingenious plotting, aided by M. Hulot's almost diabolical mistress, to b...more

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Sep 02, 2007

Mary Harju rated it:

(review of isbn 0192836684)

Read in April, 2003

My first read by Balzac. I fell in love with his writing and with Paris.

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Jun 02, 2007

Geoffrey rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Balzac can be so poisonous. In the best way possible.

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Nov 24, 2009

Margaret rated it:

(review of isbn 0192836684)

bookshelves: french-literature

Read in November, 2006

This tale of family passions and intrigue, set in Paris in the 1830s and 1840s, was the first Balzac I've read, and I liked it quite a lot. I found that I enjoyed his sardonic cynicism greatly, even though I disagree with many of his opinions (not myself being quite so cynical as he was, perhaps). To give you a flavor of his writing, here's one of the chapter titles, which are often wry: "Chapter 24. In which chance, which often brings about true romances, makes things go so well that they ...more

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Mar 07, 2009

A rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Read in March, 2009

Having just read Balibar's "Elements for a Theory of Transition," I couldn't help but read Balzac's novel as an allegory for the triumph of capital over the old world. The old world reproduces itself through the weight of nepotism, custom, "honor." Capital turns everybody into saving, scrimping, prevaricating whores. Before, the aristocracy didn't have to play the game, but Capital makes everybody play the same game the same way. For much of the book, Cousin Bette retreats in...more

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Jun 26, 2008

Stacy Milacek rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Read in May, 2008

This is a tale of revenge during the 1840s in France. A poor cousin decides her more beautiful and well-married cousin, Adeline, has done her wrong and she carefully plots her revenge.

However, upon closer reading (or just reading every line) one quickly realizes that this story is about the fall of the old French Empire and its nobility and the rise of the (classless) middle class. A little French history makes this story of revenge and its moral more clear. The newly rich little ta...more

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Apr 24, 2008

Ehren Clark rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Read in January, 2009

recommends it for: those interested in French Nineteenth Century Literature and history

I read Nana by Zola prior to reading Cousin Bette. They both deal with the life of the libertine and how they are swollowed by the lure of the courtesan, something very different than a prostitute. These are historic novels contemporary to their day and deal with a movement known as Naturalism, especially Zola. What baffled me were the binds that these women had over these men, and the lengths these libertines would go to hold on to their courtesan who they thought were, amazingly naive on th...more

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Jan 03, 2008

Quinn rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

At the end of his Human Comedy, Balzac takes the governor off his twenty-sixer of cynicism and lets it glug over everything. On the one hand, this book made me start to think seriously about the misogynist charge Honoré has suffered. Its central characters are two shades of feminine evil, working mole-like from within a family to chew out its roots and breathe mole halitosis in every utterance of love while dousing the stink in "devious-womanly" perfume. They get theirs in the end,...more

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Nov 06, 2007

Dana rated it:

(review of isbn 0192836684)

bookshelves: book-group-reading

Read in January, 2009

The characters in this book were so disturbing. Baron Hulot is one of the most worthless, despicable, shameless, self-centered characters that I have ever read. He is hideous. His wife Adeline, in her perpetual martyrdom is no less hideous. The book became almost hard to read as the characters sank lower and lower into the depths of a complete lack of any kind of basic human decency and self-respect. The characters that were "good" were completely one-dimensional, Victorin for exa...more

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Sep 17, 2007

Jo Ann rated it:

(review of isbn 0140441603)

While Cousin Bette is an astute, and, at times, propagandistic, analysis of French social history, the novel is also a compelling portrayal of human, ahistorical passions, particularly of desire and vengeance. Hulot is the consummate slave to Eros, responsible for all the woe his family and comrades endure. Humiliated professionally and socially, he persists like some abstract figure of desire, taking on pseudonyms (all anagrams of his real name), attaching himself to one then another teenage mi...more

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Mar 20, 2007

علی rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

bookshelves: classic-fictions

I read Balzac first, when I was very young, and I enjoyed the stories very much. The second time was when I became interested in history. That was even better. One (who?) has said that ”for better understanding France in 19. century, you’d better read Balzac”. He is the auther of ”Studies of Manners in the 19th. century”!

بار اول بی آن که به تاریخ علاقمند باشم، از خواندن بالزاک لذت بردم. سال ها بعد که تاریخ �...more

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Jan 30, 2009

Danielle rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

bookshelves: fiction, relates-to-france

Read in January, 2009

After reading and loving Old Maid I knew that I had to try more Balzac. I'm so glad that I did - his work is wonderful! Cousin Bette is clever, but not contrived. Balzac's words acknowledge basic human nature and the situation of man in such a way that the moral-lesson aspect of the storyline is interesting instead of nauseating.

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Mar 28, 2008

Katrina rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Read in April, 2008

By Balzac, but an excellent English translation by Kathleen Raine (trust me, you must get the most modern translation edition, I accidentally checked out the 1965 edition and it might have well been in the original French--it was that incomprehensible.) is excellent and almost 4 star worthy book except for the last third of the novel drags a little. Cousin Bette, a shoved aside, never married "spinster" in 19th century Paris makes the mistake of mentioning her crush on a young artist t...more

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Sep 16, 2009

Michael Todd rated it:

(review of isbn 0192836684)

Read in July, 2009

My first and last go at Balzac. A truly horrible work. A collection of flat characters striptease about each other in deceit and immorality. I got about 150 pages through it and only a application of iron self-will prevented me from ripping the book apart and throwing it out. This vapid book will add nothing to your life.

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Nov 27, 2008

Manny rated it:

(review of isbn 2070361381)

bookshelves: french

Read in September, 2001

Plain, spinsterish Lisbeth has become insanely jealous of her beautiful cousin Adeline, and decides that she will finally get even with her. She knows that Adeline's husband is unable to resist feminine charm, so she forms an alliance with the gorgeous and completely amoral Madame Marneffe. I love the following quote; a slightly adapted form even found its way into the dreadful movie version.

« Madame Marneffe était la hache, et Lisbeth était la main qui la manie, et la main démolissait à co

...more

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Jan 16, 2008

Martin rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

Read in March, 2008

This was a nice change from everything else I've read lately. Cousin Bette is a total page turner. Bette is a bitter woman who is a "have not" in a world of "haves" and she wants everything that the "haves" have. She reminds me of a child who thinks that if they can't have it then no one can. She is a wolf in sheep's clothing of the best kind.

Imagine taking the cast of Knots Landing and Dynasty and transporting them back to 19th century France. This...more

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Jan 04, 2009

Stephanie rated it:

(review of isbn 0375759077)

bookshelves: all-time-favs, classic-fiction

One of my three most favorite Balzac novels. If you are interested in the debauchery of Paris in the early nineteenth century; this is the autor for you. Cousin Bette is fascinating read about the revenge of a bitter pld maid and the heave price she pays for it.

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