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Audiobook edition · 13 h 9 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if the love you defend most fiercely is the very thing that blinds you?
In the damp, granite town of Guérande, Calyste du Guénic grows up within an old Breton family, proud but poor. He knows little of the world and is ready to give his whole heart. Then Beatrix, Marquise de Rochefide, arrives from Paris: a noblewoman who has left her husband and her place in society.
Nearby lives Félicité des Touches, the clever, generous writer known as Camille Maupin, who feels deep tenderness for Calyste. Against her wisdom stands his consuming ideal of love. In Beatrix, Honoré de Balzac brings provincial pride into contact with Parisian vanity, asking what happens when desire refuses to see the person before it.
What you’ll discover
- A house holding firm Enter the crumbling Guénic home, where old rank and stubborn habits outlast wealth.
- A heart without experience Follow Calyste as his readiness to love leaves him exposed to obsession.
- A woman beyond convention Meet Camille Maupin, whose independence, wisdom and tenderness offer a counterpoint to Calyste's passion.
- The need for admiration Look closely at Beatrix, a proud, wounded woman who wants admiration as much as freedom.
- Love among worldly interests Step into Parisian salons and back rooms, where money, rank and desire shape relationships.
Who will love it
Readers who love nineteenth century fiction with rich settings, strong women, family loyalty and love that goes wrong. It suits anyone curious about Brittany or Paris society.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An ancient name cannot stop change
- An education unsettles the family
- Camille understands more than she controls
- Generosity becomes a strategy
- Rejection turns passion into violence
- Duty binds an unhealed heart
- Sabine faces an inherited passion
- Sincere feelings can still serve vanity
Who’s who
- Calyste du GuenicA pious, handsome young Breton baron, raised on prayer and hunting, who wants a love as great as the ones in the books Camille has given him.
- Beatrix de RochefideA proud, clever marquise who has left her husband for a singer and wants to be admired while keeping her pride.
- Camille MaupinThe pen name of Felicite des Touches, a wealthy woman novelist who loves Calyste and tries to protect him and guide his heart.
- Fanny du GuenicCalyste's Irish mother, gentle and devoted, who dreads that her son will be lost to a woman she has never met.
- Baron du GuenicThe old royalist warrior of Guerande, who wants only to see his line continue and his son safe.
- Zephirine du GuenicThe baron's blind, frugal sister, who rules the household purse and hides gold in her petticoat for her nephew.
- ContiA charming Neapolitan composer with a famous voice, loved by two women, who acts a sincerity he does not feel.
- Sabine de GrandlieuA young Parisian duchess's daughter who marries Calyste and hopes to win a heart still given to another.
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Beatrix
by Honoré de Balzac · 1839
A pious young Breton falls for a marquise who has left her husband for a singer, and his whole family trembles.
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“A writer of the 20th century may also, on occasion, feel imprisoned by his time, and reading the great 19th century novelists – Balzac, Dickens, Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky – may bring on a certain nostalgia.”
In short
What happens to a young man raised on prayer, hunting and a card game played for farthings when a witty woman novelist opens a new world to him, and a beautiful marquise walks into it? Beatrix, by Honoré de Balzac, begins in the sleepy Breton town of Guerande and follows Calyste du Guenic toward the most dangerous thing he has met, which is love.
Beatrix at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 40 min6 h 5 min fast, 9 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 109,100 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1839by Honoré de Balzac
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Guerande keeps the Middle Ages alive
Balzac opens with a town, not a person. Guerande, in Brittany, stands behind its walls, moats and three gates as if the Middle Ages had never ended. He argues that places shape the people who live in them, so he draws the frame before he paints the portraits.
Near the church stands the mansion of the du Guenics, the noblest family in the province. Their motto is Fac, which means do, yet they live on two thousand francs a year, because their lands have been mortgaged to farmers for two hundred years. The barons retain ownership but receive none of the lands’ income. A town that refuses the present will meet it all the harder when it finally arrives.
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Details
- First published
- 1839
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 8 h 30 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Balzac, Honoré de. Beatrix. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/beatrix.
Balzac, H. de. (2026). Beatrix. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/beatrix (Original work published 1839)
Balzac, Honoré de. Beatrix. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/beatrix.
@book{balzac2026beatrix,
author = {Balzac, Honoré de},
title = {Beatrix},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/beatrix},
note = {First published 1839}
}
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What is Beatrix by Balzac about?
It follows Calyste du Guenic, a young Breton noble, who falls for the Marquise de Rochefide. A woman writer named Camille Maupin tries to guide him, and the story moves from Brittany to Paris, where love meets pride, money and scheming.
Who is Camille Maupin in Beatrix?
Camille Maupin is the pen name of Felicite des Touches, a rich, learned woman from Brittany who writes plays and novels under a man's name. She keeps a salon, loves Calyste and becomes both his teacher and his protector.
Is Beatrix part of the Human Comedy?
Yes. Balzac placed it in his large cycle of novels about French society, and characters such as Maxime de Trailles and the Grandlieu family appear in other volumes. You can read it on its own, because the story explains each person.
The author
Honoré de Balzac
1799–1850 · French novelist
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright born in Tours in 1799. He lived and worked in Paris, where he died in 1850. He wrote The Magic Skin in 1831, Eugénie Grandet in 1833, and Father Goriot in 1835. Many of his works belong to La Comédie humaine.
“Not all the barons did their duty.”
More by Honoré de Balzac
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