EPISODE 18: Honoré de Balzac, ”Cousin Bette” (1846), Part Two

2023-09-10

Chapters 38-48: 0:00—Crevel’s cravings. 4:06—Immoral French novels. 14:34—The sensation novel. 17:00—Wilde on Balzac. 19:43—Bette and Valérie’s closeness. 21:48—Sexual fluidity. 24:06—Creole? 25:15—Emasculating Hulot. 26:19—Doglike devotion. 32:28—Valérie’s lovers. 35:40—Interlude. Chapters 49-56: 36:13—Enter the Brazilian. 39:05—The rich get richer. 41:59—Valérie’s speculations. 45:46—Balzac & women. 46:34—Virginity. 47:35—The Physiology of Marriage. 50:11—Tricked like shareholders. 51:34—Interlude. Chapters 57-83...

Chapters 38-48: 0:00—Crevel’s cravings. 4:06—Immoral French novels. 14:34—The sensation novel. 17:00—Wilde on Balzac. 19:43—Bette and Valérie’s closeness. 21:48—Sexual fluidity. 24:06—Creole? 25:15—Emasculating Hulot. 26:19—Doglike devotion. 32:28—Valérie’s lovers. 35:40—Interlude.

Chapters 49-56: 36:13—Enter the Brazilian. 39:05—The rich get richer. 41:59—Valérie’s speculations. 45:46—Balzac & women. 46:34—Virginity. 47:35—The Physiology of Marriage. 50:11—Tricked like shareholders. 51:34—Interlude.

Chapters 57-83: 51:57—Enticing corruption. 59:06—Physiology. 1:01:36: A very nervous attack. 1:05:16—The five fathers. 1:07:55—More than a dagger blow. 1:10:09—Much entanglement & deceit. 1:12:07—Blackmail in the boudoir.1:14:39—The ideal & the sensual.

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

Interludes: Frederic Chopin, Impromptu No. 1, in A Major, Op. 29 (1837), performed by Robert Stahlbrand.

Illustration: Portrait of Balzac (detail), by Louis Boulanger, 1836, Wikimedia.

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Contact: jimjneilson@gmail.com

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

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