--- product_id: 201505234 title: "Cousin Bette" price: "£13.81" currency: GBP in_stock: true reviews_count: 11 url: https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/201505234-cousin-bette store_origin: GB region: Great Britain --- # Cousin Bette **Price:** £13.81 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Cousin Bette - **How much does it cost?** £13.81 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.co.uk](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/201505234-cousin-bette) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description Buy Cousin Bette Reissue by Balzac, Honoré de, Bellos, David, Raphael, Sylvia (ISBN: 9780199553945) from desertcart's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders. Review: Classic novel - Great copy of a classic Review: A rich, jewelled, flawed, dashed-off masterpiece - A remarkably bitter tale of patient malice from the pen of a master realist. Dashed off in a mere two months in 1946, Balzac drew on the extensive cast of his La Comédie Humaine opus of novels to pepper into this battle between classes and sexes in mid 19th century Paris. The title character, Lisbeth Fisher, bitterly resents the successes of her relatives, the Hulot family, who were ardent Bonapartistes under the ancien régime. Now the venerable Hulots are enmeshed in the materialistic machinations of a craven bourgeoisie, whose ambitions, embodied in the immoral person of Valerie Marneffe, will stop at nothing to achieve fortune and status. The novel is remarkable for being almost obsessively concerned with money. Personal bank accounts and sums of cash are mentioned on almost every page. At one point, the virtuous Baroness Hulot (a problematic symbol of wifely self-sacrifice by today's scruples) asks her doctor: ''What has caused this widespread social evil?' 'Lack of religion,' replied the doctor, 'and the encroachment on everything of finance, which is just another name for organized self-seeking.'" Here we have the distillation of the novelist's portrait. Honoré de Balzac was a huge influence on later nineteenth century English novelists like Charles Dickens and Henry James who took up his baton to explore the interrelationships between character and environment in different ways. Cousin Bette, written four years before Balzac's death at fifty one, is a rich, jewelled, flawed, dashed-off masterpiece. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | ASIN | 0199553947 | | Best Sellers Rank | 88,649 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 3,475 in Fiction Classics (Books) 9,051 in Literary Fiction (Books) | | Customer reviews | 4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars (83) | | Dimensions | 19.66 x 2.44 x 12.85 cm | | Edition | Reissue | | ISBN-10 | 9780199553945 | | ISBN-13 | 978-0199553945 | | Item weight | 1.05 kg | | Language | English | | Print length | 528 pages | | Publication date | 14 Aug. 2008 | | Publisher | OUP Oxford | ## Images ![Cousin Bette - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/711rjLiWTrL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Classic novel *by G***Y on 11 October 2025* Great copy of a classic ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A rich, jewelled, flawed, dashed-off masterpiece *by C***N on 8 April 2025* A remarkably bitter tale of patient malice from the pen of a master realist. Dashed off in a mere two months in 1946, Balzac drew on the extensive cast of his La Comédie Humaine opus of novels to pepper into this battle between classes and sexes in mid 19th century Paris. The title character, Lisbeth Fisher, bitterly resents the successes of her relatives, the Hulot family, who were ardent Bonapartistes under the ancien régime. Now the venerable Hulots are enmeshed in the materialistic machinations of a craven bourgeoisie, whose ambitions, embodied in the immoral person of Valerie Marneffe, will stop at nothing to achieve fortune and status. The novel is remarkable for being almost obsessively concerned with money. Personal bank accounts and sums of cash are mentioned on almost every page. At one point, the virtuous Baroness Hulot (a problematic symbol of wifely self-sacrifice by today's scruples) asks her doctor: ''What has caused this widespread social evil?' 'Lack of religion,' replied the doctor, 'and the encroachment on everything of finance, which is just another name for organized self-seeking.'" Here we have the distillation of the novelist's portrait. Honoré de Balzac was a huge influence on later nineteenth century English novelists like Charles Dickens and Henry James who took up his baton to explore the interrelationships between character and environment in different ways. Cousin Bette, written four years before Balzac's death at fifty one, is a rich, jewelled, flawed, dashed-off masterpiece. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ What a period of French history! *by D***T on 27 December 2021* Or was it really as bad as Balzac depicts? The book has much remarkable prose, but the characters are uniformly less than lovable. Cousin Bette is not really the only villain. I was plunged into the milieu for better or worse, but certainly it was immersive! --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/201505234-cousin-bette](https://www.desertcart.co.uk/products/201505234-cousin-bette) --- *Product available on Desertcart Great Britain* *Store origin: GB* *Last updated: 2026-05-01*