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Cousin Bette
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 18 hrs and 52 mins
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Publisher's summary
Honore de Balzac's classic book of revenge and passion in which the title character Bette plots the destruction of various men including her cousin-in-law, Baron Hector Hulot. Bette enlists the help of Valérie, an unhappily married young woman, to seduce Hulot, destroy his life, and take his family's fortune.
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Story
Frederic Moreau is a law student returning home to Normandy from Paris when he first notices Mme Arnoux, a slender, dark woman several years older than himself. It is the beginning of an infatuation that will last a lifetime. He befriends her husband, an influential businessman, and their paths cross and re-cross over the years. Through financial upheaval, political turmoil, and countless affairs, Mme Arnoux remains the constant, unattainable love of Moreau’s life.
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When Crimes of Passion Were All the Fashion
- By W Perry Hall on 03-12-17
By: Gustave Flaubert
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The American
- By: Henry James
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 14 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Self-made American millionaire Christopher Newman arrives in Paris brimming with hope and optimism, excited to experience the culture and, hopefully, find the perfect woman to become his wife. After a chance encounter with American expatriate friends, his attention is drawn to Madame de Cintré, 25-year-old widowed daughter of the late Marquis de Bellegarde. Having fallen on hard times, the centuries-old aristocratic family permits Newman's courtship to proceed; however, they later persuade the widow to break off her engagement to the nouveau-riche businessman.
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excellent reading
- By Andorboth on 12-03-22
By: Henry James
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The Age of Innocence
- By: Edith Wharton
- Narrated by: David Horovitch
- Length: 12 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Countess Ellen Olenska, separated from her European husband, returns to old New York society. She bears with her an independence and an awareness of life which stirs the educated sensitivity of the charming Newland Archer, engaged to be married to her cousin, May Welland. Though he accepts the society's standards and rules he is acutely aware of their limitations. He knows May will assure him a conventional future but Ellen, scandalously separated from her husband, forces Archer to question his values and beliefs.
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Narrated to Perfection
- By Ilana on 09-18-12
By: Edith Wharton
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Nicholas Nickleby
- By: Charles Dickens
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 31 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The most gorgeously theatrical of all Dickens's novels, Nicholas Nickleby follows the delightful adventures of a hearty young hero in 19th-century England. Nicholas, a gentleman's son fallen upon hard times, must set out to make his way in the world. His journey is accompanied by some of the most swaggering scoundrels and unforgettable eccentrics in Dickens's pantheon.
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Amazing
- By Terie on 07-12-07
By: Charles Dickens
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The Red and the Black
- By: Stendhal
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 20 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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So what would Al Gore choose if he had a book club? Gore named Stendhal's The Red and the Black, a 19th century classic chock full of adultery, betrayal, and moral vacuity, as his favorite book on a recent broadcast of Oprah. It's a bit shocking of a choice, given his wife and running mate's position on clean, wholesome literature. Listen and decide for yourself the merit of this presidential pick.
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Almost perfect
- By Erez on 05-29-08
By: Stendhal
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My Lady Ludlow
- By: Elizabeth Gaskell
- Narrated by: Susannah York
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Lady Ludlow's appalling snobbery, prejudice and bred-in-the-bone conviction as to the superiority of the English aristocracy and their feudal way of life are deliciously tested, and found wanting, in this gently radical tale of the collapse of a social system. Elizabeth Gaskell's My Lady Ludlow is a brilliant picture of the shift in power in a rural northern village, from the velvety feudal Ludlows to the glitter of the new money rattling through the system courtesy of the brazen baker from Birmingham.
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A treat
- By Tad Davis on 03-04-20
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Where Angels Fear to Tread
- Penguin English Library
- By: E. M. Forster
- Narrated by: Stephen Fry
- Length: 2 hrs and 51 mins
- Abridged
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E. M. Forster's first novel is a witty comedy of manners that is tinged with tragedy. It tells the story of Lilia Herriton, who proves to be an embarrassment to her late husband's family as, in the small Tuscan town of Monteriano, she begins a relationship with a much younger Italian man - classless, uncouth, and highly unsuitable. A subtle attack on Edwardian values and a humanely sympathetic portrayal of the clash of two cultures, Where Angels Fear to Tread is also a profound exploration of character and virtue.
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Stephen Fry + E.M. Forster = Audio Kismet
- By Megasaurus on 08-20-12
By: E. M. Forster
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Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas
- A Novel
- By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Jull Costa Margaret - translator, Robin Patterson - translator
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Machado de Assis’ classic novel, the precursor of Latin American fiction, is finally rendered as a stunningly relevant work for 21st-century audiences. In eloquent, contemporary prose, Costa and Patterson breathe new life into the dynamic character of Brás Cubas and reveal the vivid, tempestuous Rio de Janeiro of his time. The recently deceased Cubas narrates his life story, admitting glibly: “I am not so much a writer who has died, as a dead man who has decided to write.”
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Incredible story from an incredible author
- By Anonymous User on 01-01-21
By: Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, and others
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El conde de Montecristo [The Count of Monte Cristo]
- By: Alejandro Dumas
- Narrated by: Joan M Martinez
- Length: 46 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Ésta es sin duda, la novela de aventuras más famosa de la historia de la literatura. El joven Edmundo Dantés llega al puerto de Marsella, feliz por poder ver a Mercedes, de la que está enamorado. Pero otros pretendientes de Mercedes, van a hacerle la vida imposible, consiguiendo que el mismo día de la boda sea detenido, acusado de traición al rey y enviado directamente a la terrible prisión del castillo de If.
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Qué bonita historia y que gran narración.
- By Luis Enrique Cuevas Hernández on 02-14-21
By: Alejandro Dumas
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balzac rocks
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What listeners say about Cousin Bette
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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- Jenny Jenkins
- 09-12-13
Loved this in college, but now...?
What did you like best about Cousin Bette? What did you like least?
The window into Parisian society of the mid-1800s -- corrupt, licentious -- was what I found interesting and then was ultimately bored by.
How did the narrator detract from the book?
I don't want to be unkind, but he should not have agreed to narrate this. The great narrators on Audible create voices for each of the characters that capture the essence of each "person" and help you find the wit and poignancy that you might not have noticed. This narration seemed stentorian and with so many female characters, he was very unsuited for representing the women. I don't know how other narrators manage to play women so incredibly well without seeming ridiculous or unmanly, but they do! This narrator, alas, seemed to march through the text with a heavy tread. He should probably stick to nonfiction.
Did Cousin Bette inspire you to do anything?
Yes, revisit my other college favorites and make sure I don't reflexively say I love a book if I haven't read it in the past 20 years!
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Overall
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Performance
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- W Perry Hall
- 02-02-14
Sweat Land of Libertine (Hell Hath No Fury....)
If you are squeamish or prudish, do not read this novel published in 1847 in France at the height of the "libertine" philosophy/movement that one need not be restrained by the morals of society, including monogamy and the institution of marriage, but should instead seek life's pleasures with no regard to others, particularly the pleasures of multiple sexual partners (Note: this is an uneducated synopsis of Libertinism).
Honore de Balzac paints a reality in which money and sex are bartering and blackmail chips, and where honor, love, loyalty and guilt take second seat to instant gratification and ego-boosting debauchery. And regret is non-existent.
The name is somewhat misleading. Cousin Bette is the old maid who is jilted by her infatuation Wenceslas in favor of her adorable, angelic cousin Hortense Hurlot. She schemes to ruin the Hurlot family through a temptress named Madame Marneffe. Madame Marneffe is as easy as an old shoe. Daddy Hurlot and the Mayor are also sleeping with Madame Marneffe. I cannot start describing the rest of the story without going down a path littered with raunch and degradation.
The story involves cruelty, sexual blackmail, revenge, prostitution, unconscionable adultery, selfishness, the irresistibility of the female sexual allure, poisons, passion-filled murder and just about every other sin and demoralizing defect of character.
I read and listened to this novel last summer, but am just now writing a review. I wanted to read a Balzac novel. As I write this, I am convinced this novel is a playbook for today's soap operas. I give it a 4 stars for the story because there is something to be said for keeping all this straight, being one of the trailblazers of realism for so many great authors to follow, and because it's part of a larger sequence of novels and short stories, La Comedie humaine, presenting a panoramic view of life in France after Napoleon's downfall in 1815.
The narrator seems a bit too full of himself and, as such, distracts from the story instead of enhancing it.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Laura G. Marcantoni
- 07-13-21
Surprisingly enjoyable
I didn't expect to have so much fun listening to this book.
I didn't enjoy the story as much as Balzac's reflections and asides. Spanning from biased to moralistic and often offensive to modern ears the commentary is interesting and entertaining.
As it often happens, also in this novel, the more interesting characters are the evil ones as they are more nuanced have more of a spark and consequently are more appealing then the saintly ones.
The descriptions of the society and of Paris are very interesting too, sketched in a unsentimental and often barbed way.
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1 person found this helpful