“The Two Brothers” (1842) is part of Balzac’s great life work, the novel series known as “The Human Comedy.” Balzac’s French title was “La Rabouilleuse”; other English translations have been variously titled “The Black Sheep” and “A Bachelor’s Establishment”. 

After initially detailing the backstories of his characters, Balzac launches into an engaging and searing portrait of family relationships: parental, filial, and sibling relations are all tested to the breaking point.

In small town in post-Napoleonic France, a father mistakenly believes that his daughter is not his legitimate offspring, and hustles her off to be raised by his in-laws in Paris. This girl grows up, marries, and becomes the mother of two boys. Mistakenly, she dotes on only one of these sons, unable to see that the lad is in fact a selfish, cruel scoundrel.

Meanwhile, back in the provinces, her brother, still ensconced in the family home, has grown up to be a feckless non-entity, vulnerable to the manipulations of those around him, including an attractive servant girl (“La Rabouilleuse”) who has been taken into the household.

Things get complicated when the Paris branch of the family returns to the small town, hoping to carve out for themselves a share of the late father’s inheritance.

Translated by Katherine Prescott Wormeley.

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