" ... Cousin Bette is the story of a Vosges peasant who rebels against her scornful upper-class relatives, skillfully turning their selfish obsessions against them. The novel exemplifies what Henry James described as Balzac's 'huge, all-compassing, all-desiring, all-devouring love of reality'"--Page 4 of cover. "'Bette is a wronged soul; and when her passion does break, it is, as Balzac says, sublime and terrifying,' wrote V. S. Pritchett. A late...

When an aspiring poet joins a cynical team of journalists in nineteenth-century Paris, he agrees to write positive reviews for bribes, and finds success at the expense of his conscience.