{"product_id":"2026200015510-secondhand-a-bachelors-establishment","title":"A Bachelor's Establishment","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eCondition remarks:\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBook: Good\u003cbr\u003eJacket: N\/A\u003cbr\u003ePages: Tanning and foxing\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBeneath the gilded surface of post-Napoleonic French society, obsession and ruin lurk in the most respectable drawing rooms — and Honoré de Balzac knew exactly where to look. A Bachelor's Establishment (also known as La Rabouilleuse) chronicles the story of the Bridau family, whose fortunes are slowly devoured by the dissolute Philippe Bridau and the scheming ne'er-do-well Max Gilet, as they battle for control of a wealthy provincial inheritance in the Berry region of France. A searing portrait of greed, manipulation, and moral decay, the novel unfolds with Balzac's trademark precision, mapping the social and financial currents that determined a person's fate in early 19th-century France.\n\nPart of his monumental La Comédie Humaine sequence, this work stands as one of Balzac's most psychologically acute achievements, presenting a cast of characters whose appetites and weaknesses illuminate the darker mechanisms of bourgeois ambition. His narrative style — at once forensic and compassionate — dissects human motivation with the authority of a scientist and the passion of a moralist. This edition, illustrated by Phyllis Illiani and introduced by Sir Duff Cooper, adds a further layer of cultural richness to a novel that continues to ask whether virtue can ever truly triumph over vice.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Secondhand Stock","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49203212157147,"sku":"2026200015510-SECONDHAND","price":12.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0523\/7646\/9701\/files\/e0e0e6f5-1a5a-43c9-a474-5fc024586955.png?v=1788145886","url":"https:\/\/bookgrocer.com\/products\/2026200015510-secondhand-a-bachelors-establishment","provider":"Book Grocer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}