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The Bette referred to in this magnificent novel's title is Lisbeth Fischer, an excruciatingly
cunning poor relation who both depends upon and nurses a terrible grudge against the family of her
beautiful cousin, Adeline. That family is slowly being ruined by the uncontrollable sexual appetites of
Adeline's husband, Baron Hulotappetites that will, in time, give Cousin Bette opportunity to exact
her vengeance.

Balzac described Cousin Bette as one of his "scenes of Parisian life," and it is certainly that. It
offers us a hypnotic vision of that infinitely varied city during the bright, vital, scandalous, and sexually
untrammeled era of King Louis-Philippe. The courtesans, swindlers, bankers, artists, murderers, detectives,
and saints populating this world pass before us invested with a verve and vividness unsurpassed in the
history of the novel.