EPISODE 19: Honoré de Balzac, "Cousin Bette" (1846), Part Three

Chapters 84-91: 0:00—Honor & ruin. 5:35—The majesty of virtue. 8:31—Big darling & Little lovey-dovey. 13:54—Interlude.

Chapters 92-102:  14:40--Male honor. 24:24—Hulot leaves home. 25:29—Jews in France. 32:53—Recurring characters. 33:18—Crazy about women. 34:15—Olympe Bijou and the claws of sensuality. 36:22—A worthy son. 38:21—Rue de la Paix. 39:39—Valerie’s miscarriage and marriage. 40:38—Interlude.

Chapters 103-112: 41:23—Situating ourselves. 42:49—Boulevard of crime. 44:28—Adeline & Josepha. 46:56—Judith & Holofernes. 51:40—Madonna & Mistress. 52:57—Class privilege & sex education. 54:33—Madonna worship. 59:38—Bette warns the Baron. 1:01:49—Rue de Charonne. 1:04:12—Rightful manias. 1:06:37—Crevel and Valérie. 1:09:00—Criminal underground & secret police.  1:15:25—Interlude.

Chapters 113-132: 1:16:00—The world of the courtesan. 1:17:11—Combabus. 1:18:31—Montès & Cydalise. 1:23:04—Slaves & poison. 1:25:30—Paradise lost.  1:29:31—Valérie & Crevel & Montès. 1:30:57—A curse of ugliness. 1:35:33—Infinite compassion. 1:36:38—A child of Voltaire & Rosseau. 1:39:20—Reactionary politics.  1:42:29—Haute bourgeois arrivisite.1:45:44—Poor neighborhoods & charity. 1:51:41—Monsieur Vyder & Atala Judici. 1:52:59—Faubourgs. 1:55:03—Attala & Adeline. 1:56:39—A kind of monster. 1:59:15—Passages. 2:00:19—Adeline & Baron Hulot reunited. 2:03:03—Bitter Bette. 2:04:40—Conventional closing. 2:06:30—An appalling ending.

Text: Honoré de Balzac, Cousin Bette. Translated by Sylvia Raphael. Oxford Univ. Press, 1992.

Interludes: Giachino Rossini, String Sonata No. 3 in C Major (1804), performed by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, 1953.

Illustration: Caricature of Balzac, by Nadar, 1850, Wikimedia.

Click here for transcript Contact: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Thanks to Professor Steven Vincent and the students of History 530: Modern France, NCSU Spring 2023.