Book Description
Book II of Balzac's 'The Thirteen"

"Considering the Histoire des Treize as a whole, it is of engrossing interest. And I must confess I should not think much of any boy who, beginning Balzac with this series, failed to go rather mad over it. I know there was a time when I used to like it best of all, and thought not merely Eugenie Grandet, but Le Pere Goriot (though not the Peau de Chagrin), dull in comparison. Some attention, however, must be paid to two remarkable characters, on whom it is quite clear that Balzac expended a great deal of pains, and one of whom he seems to have 'caressed,' as the French say, with a curious admixture of dislike and admiration. . . ."

-- George Saintsbury ... Read more

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The comedié humaine. Scenes from Parisian Life. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

good examples, superficial and bad advice

I have specialized in providing professional education and therapy to typical stepfamilies since 1981. I am (a) a stepfamily researcher since 1979, (b) a stepgrandson, stepson, ex-stepfather, and stepbrother, and (c) an invited Board member of the Stepfamily Association of America.

Though 'The Second Time Around' offers useful examples of real stepfamily problems, I do not recommend it to anyone considering stepfamily re/marriage or already re/wed. (The '/' notes it may be one partner's first union.)

Neither the step-people interviewed for the book nor the author seem to understand the key points outlined below.

This well-written, well-illustrated book is peppered with vague and occasionally harmful suggestions for co-parents - e.g. '...people need to know how to communicate;' (p.65); '...be prepared to display thepatience of Job' (p. 68); '...you must modify your outward behavior.' (p. 200); '...put your own needs second, and consider those of the
children first'(p. 206). The author doesn't explore why most co-parents would agree with much of their advice, and be unable to follow it effectively because of five core hazards that typical U.S. stepfamilies face:

1) significant (unseen) psychological wounds in co-parents (including ex mates) and some kids. The author briefly acknowledge these' but offers no practical ideas about assessing or reducing them.

2) unawareness of blocked grief in some adults and kids, and what to do about it,

3) personal unawareness and adult ignorance of (a) inner-wound healing, (b) high-nurturance families and relationships, (c) healthy three-level grief, (d) effective communication skills, and (e) stepfamily identity, and what it *means*;

4) needy, love-struck partners choosing the wrong people to re/wed, for the wrong reasons, at the wrong time. The authors do acknowledge this, but offer only superficial suggestions for avoiding it; and...

5) little informed, effective stepfamily help available in most
communities and the media.

For more perspective on this review, see:

http://sfhelp.org/11/choose_bks.htm ... Read more

Book Description
The dynamics of intimate, long-term relationships can sometimes be as challenging as they are rewarding.This complete, interactive kit provides couples with useful tools and strategies for keeping their connection on track.Combining a 96-page book of advice with an audio CD, worksheets, and instructions for games and activities, it's just the thing for people who love each other but sometimes find it difficult to maintain their alliance on an even keel.Unlike so many dauntingly serious works on the subject, The Relationship Tool Kit was composed with warmth and humor, which informs the suggested activities with a sense of fun and camaraderie in working toward a mutually satisfying goal. ... Read more

Book Description
The African American slave narrative is popularly viewed as the story of a lone male's flight from slavery to freedom, best exemplified by the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (1845). On the other hand, critics have also given much attention to Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861), to indicate how the form could have been different if more women had written in it. But in stressing the narratives of Douglass and Jacobs as models for the genre, scholars have ignored the formal and thematic importance of marriage and family in the slave narrative, since neither author explores slave marriage in their works. This book examines the central role of marriage in The Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave (1849) and Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom; or the Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery (1860). Bibb's slave wife and child account for significant innovations in the form and content of his narrative, while the Crafts' mutual dependence as a married couple results in a sustained use of dramatic irony. The volume closes by offering a thoughtful consideration of the influence of Bibb and the Crafts on the later fiction of Douglass, William Wells Brown, and Martin Delany. In doing so, it invites a critical reexamination of current assumptions about slave narratives. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Family Narratives
Heglar's "Rethinking the Slave Narrative" is a scholarly and focused academic work. He rightly expands narratives beyond the classic work of Douglass, and he rightly focuses upon narratives that distill aspects of Black family life. He reminds us that numerous slave narratives have volumes to say about slave family life. And what they have to say demolishes the myth that the Black family was unable to survive enslavement. Despite horrific attempts by White masters to destroy Black family life, they not only survived, they thrived--often and ultimately by faith.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Soul Physicians, and Spiritual Friends.
... Read more

Book Description
Classic novel.According to Wikipedia: "Honoré de Balzac (IPA: [?n??e d? bal?zak]) (May 20, 1799 – August 18, 1850) was a nineteenth-century French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.

Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities."

... Read more

Book Description
The comedié humaine. Scenes from Parisian Life.Download Description
In the sitting-room La Cibot explained her position with regard to the pair of nutcrackers at very considerable length. She repeated the history of her loan with added embellishments, and gave a full account of the immense services rendered during the past ten years to MM. Pons and Schmucke. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

great work, painful to read
This work, like all of Balzac's works, possesses his style, namely his perceptive insights into a Parisian's sole and the fabric of society during that time.Had these observations been relevent only to Paris of that time (the book takes place 1844-46) this book would not have the impact it does.I can almost imagine any one of these characters existing today, and wouldn't be surprised to open up the newspaper and reading a column with a similar story as this book.

It's a great look at what moves people to get ahead and step over other's who are more vulnerable. It is as if Balzac is saying that society is an extension of the apt phrase "survival of the fittest".The characters that ultimately succeed in this novel are the one's not with the most talent, but with the drive to get ahead in society.There are limits however, as a character who oversteps the laws of society is ultimately punished.

It is a painful novel to read as the characters who are the most sensitive and least versed in the ways of society suffer the most .Even a relatively minor character who is noble becomes withdrawn and pessimistic as a result of his inability to be charitable.It's definetely not an uplifting read, but it is very well written nontheless.

For Love of Food: the Monomaniac made Sympathetic
*Cousin Bette* and *Cousin Pons*, Part One and Two of 'Poor Relations', are generally considered to be the last great gasp of French genius Honore de Balzac, inspired simultaneously and written in a fury to capitalize on the recent market for novel serializations.I'm not sure about this "last gasp" claim yet - *The Wrong Side of Paris*, Balzac's last novel (recently republished!) is on my reading list - but they certainly are great in and of themselves, *Bette* more than *Pons*, in my opinion.Not to degenerate this work in the slightest: being within the shadow of a masterpiece is close enough for posterity.

'Poor Relations' tackles the subject of the individual and its family; but where in *Bette* the poor relation was the spinster cousin, surrounded and revered by her family while she secretly schemed to destroy them, in this novel Pons is the outcast and victim, humiliated by his wealthy relations for his eccentric behavior and mooching ways.For Pons loves food - sumptuous feasts, where he can indulge the demands of his gastronomical addiction - and when his lack of social grace irritates his relatives to the point of banishment, he always wheedles his way back into their hearts with exquisite presents: Pons' monomania extends to collecting the great masterpieces of art, hoarding them away in his private salon where he can bask in the glory of oil and gold.After a scheme intended to permanently set his place at the dinner-table goes awry, however, the old man finds himself an exile, snubbed and refused at the homes of his relatives.The heartbreak - and the stomach-ache - drives the poor man to his deathbed, one hounded by prospective vultures seeking to profit on his jealously-kept collection.

*Cousin Pons*, on reflection, is perhaps one of Balzac's bitterest and unrelentingly tragic novels, sharing similarities to *Pere Goirot* in its plot, structure and sharp denouncement of the materialistic bourgeois society that had come in fashion after the July Revolution.Greed, avarice, selfishness, poisonous coveting (literally), corruption, hypocrisy and blackmail all raise their heads in this novel, a gaggle of vipers ranging from the highest of society (the infuriating Presidente) to the lowest dregs (the despicable La Cibot), and all those that scheme in between (the ghoulish Fraisier).Pons and his roommate Schmucke, gentle failures in the game of life, haven't a chance among these beasts: and it is heartache to see the villainous deeds done to these two men for the glitter of lucre and the whiff of prestige.Balzac was never much of one for happily-ever-after, but most of his tragedies have some sort of uplifting resolution, some cosmic vengeance dealt upon at least a few of the miscreants (and *Bette* was probably the most satisfying in this regard); *Pons* refutes this technique, leaving the reader shaken and upset at the circumstances of the conclusion...at the _reality_ of it.

This volume is not quite within Balzac's creative pantheon: it's too slim (!), lacking the complexity and the captivating digressions of a *Lost Illusions*; but man o man does that ending work - for the novel, and as a conclusion to one of the most ambitious artistic statements of the past two centuries.

Four and a half stars, rounded down.

One of the Balzac's best novels
I'm a Balzac's french fan.
"Cousin Pons" is one of my favourites Balzac's novels.
This novels speaks about art (music, paintings, ...), social relationships in a family and in a flat, and over there of FRIENDSHIP.
The friendship between Pons and Schmücke is the most facinating aspect of this novel (may be it's more than a frienship : a platonic love ?). ... Read more

Book Description
Classic novel. According to Wikipedia: "Honoré de Balzac (IPA: [?n??e d? bal?zak]) (May 20, 1799 – August 18, 1850) was a nineteenth-century French novelist and playwright. His magnum opus was a sequence of almost 100 novels and plays collectively entitled La Comédie humaine, which presents a panorama of French life in the years after the fall of Napoléon Bonaparte in 1815.

Due to his keen observation of detail and unfiltered representation of society, Balzac is regarded as one of the founders of realism in European literature. He is renowned for his multi-faceted characters; even his lesser characters are complex, morally ambiguous and fully human. Inanimate objects are imbued with character as well; the city of Paris, a backdrop for much of his writing, takes on many human qualities."

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These absurd practices were beginning to shed a monastic tint over the face of Rose Cormon, who now saw with something like despair her white skin assuming the yellow tones which proclaim maturity. A slight down on her upper lip, about the corners, began to spread and darken like a trail of smoke; her temples grew shiny; decadence was beginning! It was authentic in Alencon that Mademoiselle Cormon suffered from rush of blood to the head. She confided her ills to the Chevalier de Valois, enumerating her foot-baths, and consulting him as to refrigerants. ... Read more

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My emotion came from the sight of his face convulsed with madness, his haggard eyes, and also his words, broken by some violent inward emotion. I thought him mad. That is all that took place. Now, I should be less than a woman if I had not perceived that for over a year I have become, as they call it, the passion of Monsieur de Maulincour. He has never seen me except at a ball; and our intercourse has been most insignificant,--merely that which every one shares at a ball. Perhaps he wants to disunite us, so that he may find me at some future time alone and unprotected. There, see! already you are frowning! Oh, how cordially I hate society! We were so happy without him; why take any notice of him? Jules, I entreat you, forget all this! To-morrow we shall, no doubt, hear that Monsieur de Maulincour has gone mad."Download Description
My emotion came from the sight of his face convulsed with madness, his haggard eyes, and also his words, broken by some violent inward emotion. I thought him mad. That is all that took place. Now, I should be less than a woman if I had not perceived that for over a year I have become, as they call it, the passion of Monsieur de Maulincour. He has never seen me except at a ball; and our intercourse has been most insignificant,--merely that which every one shares at a ball. Perhaps he wants to disunite us, so that he may find me at some future time alone and unprotected. There, see! already you are frowning! Oh, how cordially I hate society! We were so happy without him; why take any notice of him? Jules, I entreat you, forget all this! To-morrow we shall, no doubt, hear that Monsieur de Maulincour has gone mad." ... Read more

Book Description
The comedié humaine.. Scenes from provincial life. ... Read more