The Black Sheep

Honoré de Balzac · 1842 CE · Novel · French · Romantic

Agathe Bridau adores her elder son Philippe, a swaggering officer of Napoleon's disbanded army who bleeds her dry, and barely notices Joseph, the painter keeping the household alive. In provincial Issoudun an uncle's fortune sits in the hands of his mistress, and Philippe goes down to take it off her. Balzac's cold ledger of family.

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• ↓ Germinal
  Émile Zola · 1885 CE · Novel — influenced by this

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