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In this novel, Balzac searchingly probes the psychology and motivations of his characters: his work influenced the development of literary realism, as practised by writers such as Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Proust, and Henry James. - Summary by Bruce Pirie]]></description><atom:link href="https://www.spreaker.com/show/7088430/episodes/feed" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><language>en</language><category>Books</category><copyright>Copyright Literary Fiction Genre</copyright><image><url>https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/41e26bf38fa073eb794a7996fff19f29.jpg</url><title>Cousin Betty</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/cousin-betty--7088430</link></image><lastBuildDate>Sun, 07 Jun 2026 09:18:03 +0000</lastBuildDate><itunes:author>Honoré de Balzac</itunes:author><itunes:owner><itunes:name>Literary Fiction Genre</itunes:name><itunes:email>spreaker64@podcastlibrary.org</itunes:email></itunes:owner><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/41e26bf38fa073eb794a7996fff19f29.jpg"/><itunes:subtitle>Cousin Betty (La Cousine Bette), published in serial format in 1846, was one of the last and greatest of Balzac's works. 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Set in mid-19th-century France, it tells the story of a woman who resents her position as a "poor relation." As we follow her schemes to bring ruin upon the more privileged members of her family, we see a society in transition. The stability and idealism of the old order give way to a new bourgeois world in which virtue is strangled in the struggle for power and money. 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In this novel, Balzac searchingly probes the psychology and motivations of his characters: his work influenced the development of literary realism, as practised by writers such as Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Proust, and Henry James. - Summary by Bruce Pirie]]></itunes:summary><itunes:duration>26420</itunes:duration><itunes:keywords>balzac,bette,betty,cousin,cousine,literary,practised,resents,searchingly,strangled</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>false</itunes:explicit><itunes:image href="https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/41e26bf38fa073eb794a7996fff19f29.jpg"/><itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType></item><item><title>Cousin Betty - Honore de Balzac - Part 1</title><link>https://www.spreaker.com/episode/cousin-betty-honore-de-balzac-part-1--72389391</link><description><![CDATA[Cousin Betty (La Cousine Bette), published in serial format in 1846, was one of the last and greatest of Balzac's works. 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