Poor Relations
''Poor Relations'' is a novel by Honoré de Balzac, written in the mid-19th century, that explores themes of jealousy, familial relationships, and social status in Parisian society. The story follows Cousin Bette, also known as Lisbeth Fischer, who feels overshadowed by her beautiful cousin Adeline Hulot and becomes consumed by resentment and a desire for revenge against the Hulot family. As tensions rise, Balzac provides a vivid portrayal of the struggles between wealth and poverty, making this work a significant part of his larger series, the Comédie humaine.
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“Life cannot go on without a great deal of forgetting.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“If the artist does not fling himself, without reflecting, into his work, as Curtis flung himself into the yawning gulf, as the soldier flings himself into the enemy's trenches, and if, once in this crater, he does not work like a miner on whom the walls of his gallery have fallen in; if he contemplates difficulties instead of overcoming them one by one ... he is simply looking on at the suicide of his own talent.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Hortense was a wife; Valerie a mistress.Many men desire to have these two editions of the same work, although it is proof of deep inferiority in a man if he cannot make his wife his mistress. Seeking variety is a sign of impotence.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“for she was invaded by a kind of love which every girl has gone through”
— Honoré de Balzac
“Virtue will cut your head off, vice will only cut your hair.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Women always persuade men they have made into sheep that they are lions with a will of iron.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Parent may hinder their children's marriage; but children cannot interfere with the insane acts of their parents in their second childhood.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“A ignorância é a mãe de todos os crimes, porque um crime é, antes de mais, uma falta de raciocínio.””
— Honoré de Balzac
“Beauty is the greatest of human powers. All autocratic, unbridled power, with nothing to counterbalance it, leads to abuse, to mad excess. Despotism is power gone mad. In women, despotism takes the form of satisfying their whims.””
— Honoré de Balzac
