Portal:Literature
Introduction
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include oral literature, much of which has been transcribed. Literature is a method of recording, preserving, and transmitting knowledge and entertainment. It can also have a social, psychological, spiritual, or political role.
The term is sometimes used synonymously with literary fiction, which encompasses fiction written with the goal of literary merit.Literature, as an art form, can also include works in various non-fiction genres, such as biography, diaries, memoirs, letters, and essays. Within its broad definition, literature includes non-fictional books, articles, or other written information on a particular subject. (Full article...)
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La Cousine Bette is an 1846 novel by French author Honoré de Balzac. Set in mid-19th century Paris, it tells the story of an unmarried middle-aged woman who plots the destruction of her extended family. Bette works with Valérie Marneffe, an unhappily married young lady, to seduce and torment a series of men. One of these is Baron Hector Hulot, husband to Bette's cousin Adeline. He sacrifices his family's fortune and good name to please Valérie, who leaves him for a tradesman named Crevel. The book is part of the Scènes de la vie parisienne section of Balzac's novel sequence La Comédie humaine ("The Human Comedy").
The novel's characters represent polarities of contrasting morality. The vengeful Bette and disingenuous Valérie stand on one side, with the merciful Adeline and her patient daughter Hortense on the other. The patriarch of the Hulot family, meanwhile, is consumed by his own sexual desire. Hortense's husband, the Polish exile Wenceslas Steinbock, represents artistic genius, though he succumbs to uncertainty and lack of motivation. Balzac based the character of Bette in part on his mother and the poet Marceline Desbordes-Valmore. At least one scene involving Baron Hulot was likely based on an event in the life of Balzac's friend, the novelist Victor Hugo.
Selected excerpt
A recitation of "O frondens", from Ordo Virtutum, an allegorical morality play, or liturgical drama, by Hildegard of Bingen
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Today in literature
- 1711 - Jupiter Hammon, American writer born
- 1719 - Jacques Cazotte, French writer born
- 1813 - Georg Büchner, German playwright born
- 1898 - Simon Vestdijk, Dutch writer born
- 1903 - Nathanael West, American writer born
- 1915 - Arthur Miller, American playwright born
- 1917 - Sumner Locke Elliott, Australian novelist born
- 1930 - Jimmy Breslin, American writer born
- 1931 - Ernst Hinterberger, Austrian writer born
- 1973 - Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian writer died
- 1979 - S. J. Perelman, American writer died
- 1981 - Albert Cohen, Swiss author died
- 2005 - Ba Jin, Chinese writer died
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