Located in a fashionable area of Paris (on the rue de l’Universite on the Left Bank of the Seine River.) Baron Hulot’s mistress leaves him and he becomes invoved with Madame Marneffe, the wife of one of his employees. Got it! Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac is more the story of an entire family rather than that of one person. Lisbeth Fischer (“Bette”) is Madame Hulot’s cousin. Lisbeth Fischer, known to her family and friends as Bette, has harbored a resentment against her cousin Adeline Hulot since childhood. When she hears about Hortense’s engagement to her friend Steinbock, she determines to destroy the whole family. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Bette also anonymously has Steinbock imprisoned for his unpaid debts. In the mid-nineteenth century, as in the twenty-first, Parisians’ social status was often indicated by the location of their homes. Bette is a poor spinster, a frequent visitor at her cousin Hulot’s household. Paris slum in which Baroness Hulot finds her fallen husband. Peasant woman, possessing no beauty compared of her cousins, 42-year-old Bette has rejected several offers of marriage from men of the middle class, and is still single. While the Baroness remains virtuous, her husband throws his money away on loose women. Political, social, and cultural center of France, even more so in the nineteenth century than in the twenty-first. In Cousin Bette, a change in living quarters represents a character’s move, deliberately or not, from one social or moral level to another. She gains entry to the Marshal’s home, in the prestigious rue du Montparnasse, as his resident housekeeper, and eventually coerces him into marrying her. Bette's father and Adeline's father were two of the Fischer brothers. © 2020 eNotes.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Cousin Bette is set entirely in central Paris—indeed, the claustrophobic settings of the characters’ scheming change only to the extent that the characters visit one another or move from one dwelling to another. The first third of the book is devoted to the history of the main characters. *Paris. Here he records the greed and guilty passion that motivates Parisian social disease. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Later, when Bette moves to more respectable quarters, in the rue Vanneau, Baron Hulot arranges for Valerie to live there as well. Cousin Bette is a poor and lonely seamstress, who, after the death of her prominent and wealthy sister, tries to ingratiate herself into lives of her brother-in-law, Baron Hulot, and her niece, Hortense Hulot. Cousin Bette is a ‘family parasite’ who remains stubbornly unfashionable. Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac, or La Cousine Bette in French, was written and published in 1846. The Seine literally and figuratively divides Paris. Hulot home (ew-LOH). Adeline then dies, her emotional reserves exhausted. Baron Hulot’s future mistress, Valerie Marneffe, also lives here. She secretly has under her protection Count Steinbock, a young sculptor, but as his patroness, not his lover. When the story opens, the Hulot family fortune has been decimated by Baron Hulot’s mistress. Failing to do so, she instead finds solace and company in … Josepha Mirah’s home. She falls in love with one of her fellow tenants, a young artist. The lesson is, then, that money buys status, immorality prospers in the Paris of King Louis-Philippe, and goodness and Christian conduct meet with pain and humiliation. Hortense decides she must meet Steinbock and the two fall in love at first sight. Though Steinbock has little money, Adeline agrees to their marriage, but the engagement is kept from Bette. Bette's father and Adeline's father were two of the Fischer brothers. Her ultimate personal target of material and social success is Baron Hulot’s brother, Marshal Hulot—a hero of the Napoleonic Wars and one of the novel’s few admirable characters. He comes home, but soon seduces the maid. Oscars Best Picture Winners Best Picture Winners Golden Globes Emmys STARmeter Awards San Diego Comic-Con New York Comic-Con Sundance Film Festival Toronto Int'l Film Festival Awards Central Festival Central All Events Cousin Bette is a poor and lonely seamstress, who, after the death of her prominent and wealthy sister, tries to ingratiate herself into lives of her brother-in-law, Baron Hulot, and her... See full summary » She plans to seduce God. Madame Marneffe and Crevel also meet miserable ends. He spends all his money on her, leaving his wife, Adeline, and daughter, Hortense, to struggle meagerly along. In Cousin Bette, a change in living quarters represents a character’s move, deliberately or not, from one social or moral level to another. With her dying breath, however, Madame Marneffe still plays the seductress. Madame Khulo’s cousin Bette (also called Lizabeth), held in her heart envy to her successful relatives. Having changed his name more than once and fled the authorities because of acts of political corruption, Hulot has purchased a young girl (something he has done more than once). Hortense, whose dowry is shrinking daily, mindlessly amuses herself by teasing Bette about her "lover", the sculptor, Count Steinbock, who lives above Bette’s apartment. Hulot’s brother dies of grief and Hulot himself goes off to live with a seamstress in the slums. Balzac considered himself a diagnostician of French social life. Madame Marneffe and Crevel die miserably in what seems divine retribution for their sins. eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. (Critical Guide to Settings and Places in Literature). Cousin Bette is the old maid of the family, and her lover is a sculptor and Polish refugee named Count Steinbock. Adeline and Hulot’s brother seem to die of fatigue and grief. Balzac’s description of the neighborhood offers an interesting version of nineteenth century Parisian urban renewal.... Start your 48-hour free trial to unlock this Cousin Bette study guide and get instant access to the following: You'll also get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and 300,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts. Meanwhile, Madame Marneffe seduces Steinbock. Bette's father and Adeline's father were two of the Fischer brothers. Bette introduces Crevel (whose mistress Hulot once stole) to Madame Marneffe and he becomes a rival lover. Cousin Bette is bitter towards the Baron and his family because they treat her like a servant. The luxury of her home near the Palais Royal, on the Right Bank of the Seine, stuns Baroness Hulot. Passage du Soleil (pah-saj dew soh-lay). 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