Бедные родственники

by Honoré de Balzac

В книгу вошли два романа выдающего французского писателя-реалиста XIX века Оноре де Бальзака "Кузина Бетта" (1846) и "Кузен Понс" (1847), объединенные общим названием "Бедные родственники".
В романах писатель создает широкую панораму жизни Парижа, рисует характеры, нравы, быт представителей всех слоев французского общества, с особой художественной силой и глубиной раскрывая бесчеловечность буржуазных отношений.

Genres: Fiction, French Literature, France, Classics

720 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

French writer Honoré de Balzac (born Honoré Balzac), a founder of the realist school of fiction, portrayed the panorama of society in a body of works, known collectively as La comédie humaine .

Honoré de Balzac authored 19th-century novels and plays. After the fall of Napoléon in 1815, his magnum opus, a sequence of almost a hundred novels and plays, entitled, presents life in the years.

Due to keen observation of fine detail and unfiltered representation, European literature regards Balzac. He features renowned multifaceted, even complex, morally ambiguous, full lesser characters. Character well imbues inanimate objects; the city of Paris, a backdrop, takes on many qualities. He influenced many famous authors, including the novelists Marcel Proust, Émile Zola, Charles John Huffam Dickens, Gustave Flaubert, Henry James, and Jack Kerouac as well as important philosophers, such as Friedrich Engels. Many works of Balzac, made into films, continue to inspire.

An enthusiastic reader and independent thinker as a child, Balzac adapted with trouble to the teaching style of his grammar. His willful nature caused trouble throughout his life and frustrated his ambitions to succeed in the world of business. Balzac finished, and people then apprenticed him as a legal clerk, but after wearying of banal routine, he turned his back on law. He attempted a publisher, printer, businessman, critic, and politician before and during his career. He failed in these efforts From his own experience, he reflects life difficulties and includes scenes.

Possibly due to his intense schedule and from health problems, Balzac suffered throughout his life. Financial and personal drama often strained his relationship with his family, and he lost more than one friend over critical reviews. In 1850, he married Ewelina Hańska, his longtime paramour; five months later, he passed away.

Reviews

[David C Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cousin Pons: Mme Cibot, surely one of the most malignant creatures in modern literature. It's her greed and malevolence that sets in motion the plot to defraud - and essentially kill - Pons and his friend Schmuke (appropriately named). The novel is essentially the torture of Pons by the greedy and covetous. If any of the conspirators suffer it is only because they are outwitted by the more malevolent. The unctuousness of the wealthy families is amazing. My only slight quibble is that Balzac is always inclined to excess. The ending could have been wrapped up much more powerfully if he resisted his temptation to over describe.

[David C Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

For Cousin Bette. Tremendous. Sex and finance ruin a man and then his family. The unctuous and duplicitous Cousin Bette turns herself into the engine of the destruction of her relatives, the Hulots. Her instrument is the wicked Valerie who plays all the men off against themselves. Balzac keeps his eye on the plot and doesn't over write or over describe for once, although the ending is protracted. The bad guys get a horrible come upance but baron Hulot remains as horny as ever, killing his wife.
Balzac is probably more interested in money than sex. He has some sharp things to say about artists who don't work hard.

[Francine Jewett · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one sees into the human heart like Balzac.