Cousin Bette by Honore de Balzac

Cousin Bette (1847) vividly brings to life the rift between the old world and the new and is, among other things, a serious study of the Paris demimonde. Compelled to live in the condescending patronage of her socially superior relatives, the Hulot family, Cousin Bette's energies are directed wholly towards their destruction. The bitter conflict which ensues embodies the struggle for survival of the old values against the rising tide of the new. In its brutal confrontation with human nature and in its technical virtuosity, Cousin Bette is a book in which Balzac is most characteristically and triumphantly himself.

'Classic; many standard editions and translations. The story of a neurotic spinster’s half-realised passion for a woman friend.' ~ Marion Zimmer Bradley