A Second Home

LibriVox recording of A Second Home by Honoré de Balzac. (Translated by Clara Bell.) Read in English by Bruce Pirie. This novella was first published in French in 1830, with the title “La femme vertueuse” (“The virtuous woman”). In an 1842 edition, the title was changed to “Une double famille” (“A double family”). For Balzac, success in marital relations depended on partners being well matched both in temperament and in social class. In this story, a young lawyer marries a childhood friend, only to discover too late that she has become narrow-mindedly religious. She is described as a “bigot.”