Rođaka Beta

This novel is about the licentious life of Parisians. The novel shows us what the life of an old man who lives a harlot's life looks like. He sleeps with Valeria, and betrays Adelina, whom, later, he convinces that he still loves; but treason is treason. She can't whitewash it, and yet, like some women, she still loves him; it is a woman's instinct to love the man with whom she has been married for so long.

But Valeria also lives a licentious life, only in a slightly different way. She tells many people, among other things, and one Brazilian, a certain count, that she is in love with them; she beats everyone, she treats everyone like her future husband. How is it possible? It is possible to. That woman skillfully controlled four men with her beauty and cunning, whose fate depended on her. That's why Balzac is a comprehensive writer.

The family that Balzac writes about ends up falling apart completely. It is neither financial decay nor overly spiritual. It is decay due to betrayal, lies, fraud. Such a life was led by many high personalities of Paris, and Balzac brilliantly portrayed it. Cousin Beth, who was a bit vindictive at first, was really sorry for all this: she wanted to help, with all her heart, even though she came from a not so rich background.

Balzac, with this novel, depicted false love, and on the other hand, in order to achieve the effect of a more tragic story, he introduced into the novel people full of duplicity, imperiousness and selfishness. The writer himself says: "The lechers, those gold diggers, are as guilty as other criminals who are punished more severely than they." This means that he considers lechers to be robbers who persistently rob people of human morality, dignity and honesty. These are people for whom love, true love, which includes mutual tolerance and respect, means nothing. Through characters who have love in them, but undiscovered and therefore neglected, Balzac shows that the licentious life was and always will be. That is why this novel, among other things, is a message to people to get to know themselves and their personality, their needs and pleasures, and to discover themselves.