Finished: A Daughter of Eve (de Balzac) Another good de Balzac story! This is yet another book from his La Comedie Humaine opus that has the character Eugene de Rastignac in it...though his role is very minor. Eugene is becoming less of a likable character as he gets more and more embroiled in high society, politics, etc. However, I will still probably read at least one more de Balzac story that centers more on de Rastignac. In A Daughter of Eve, though, the story starts off with naive, young upper-society sisters, Marie Angelique and Marie Eugenie who are raised by a strict, pious mother. At 18 and 20, the sisters marry the first respectable men to ask for their hands in marriage to escape their stifling upbringing. Marie Angelique, known as just Marie, marries a good man in high society, Felix de Vandenesse. Marie Eugenie, known as Eugenie, marries a scheming, harsher man, banker Ferdinand du Tillet. Though the sisters are as close as sisters can be, the two husbands, now inlaws, are competitors in society and on the opposite side of the "political issues". After a few years, both of the sisters have children, and both are miserable for different reasons. Eugenie is constantly monitored and bullied by her husband, yet for outward appearances, she's got all the riches she could ask for, to keep her in the manner that du Tillet would expect his wife to be kept. Marie, on the other hand, is married to a kind, understanding, yet somewhat boring young man. De Vandenesse has taken his young wife under his wing and continued her education, brought her out into society, and surrounded her with everything she could want. The problem is...he's too nice and predictable....Marie needs a challenge! Into her life comes the artist/journalist/"bad boy", Nathan Raoul. Though Nathan has had a long-term love affair with a beautiful local actress, Florine, he falls hard for Marie de Vandenesse, and she for him. Marie and Nathan never physically consummate their affair, but they meet quite often for about a year and declare their feelings for each other. Meanwhile, all the upper-crust men like du Tillet, de Rastignac and the Baron Nucingen, conspire to make Nathan fail at the new newspaper he has started up in hopes of making a success and being offered a position in the local parliament. Du Tillet himself wants that position, and the men all pretend to be supporters and friends of Nathan's, lending him money...all the while planning to call in the notes right when they're due and force Nathan into debtor's prison before he can make a success of things. When Nathan's 40,000 pound note comes due and payment is demanded, Nathan realizes he will go to prison, so he attempts suicide. Marie finds him in time and saves his life, and then proceeds to try and borrow the money from whoever she can to keep Nathan from prison. She goes to her beloved sister, and together they come up with a plan to get the money, but the plan would end up eventually compromising both of them. Eugenie begins to worry that her sister is headed for a huge mistake and actually goes and confides in Marie's husband....honestly, one of the most understanding men I've encountered in a novel. He ends up letting Marie know that he knows all about her affair, and he doesn't blame her for feeling like she fell in love with the artist, scoundrel, Nathan. He feels like she was seduced by the excitement of it all, and realizes he had not provided her with enough interest right in their own backyard. Rather than chastise her and throw her out, he understands her and forgives her. He tells her they must get back the letters she has written to Nathan so that nothing can get out and ruin her reputation. He concocts a scheme at a masquerade ball to let the actress Florine know that Nathan had been two-timing her with Marie, and Florine hands over all the letters. Marie now sees the duplicitous behavior of Nathan, since she had no idea that he had another lover. Poor Nathan, though, had really fallen in love with Marie and would have dumped Florine in a heartbeat, but it was all too little too late. Nathan spends the next few years in the poverty known to many artists back in France of those days, and still on the arm of Florine. Marie's husband whisks her off to Italy, etc., and they have a grand adventure, rekindling their marriage which is now stronger for all the missteps. And, Eugenie actually finally stands up to her bullying husband and says she will do as she pleases, which actually pleases her husband more than he'd like to admit. In all, I was happy with the ending of this story and hope that Marie and her husband stay happily ever after married. :-) Nathan Raoul appears in something like 19 of the books in La Comedie Humaine, so he must bounce back and have his ups and downs, lol.