In the little town of Nemours, Doctor Minoret, a retired Paris physician with a fortune, has raised his orphaned ward Ursula Mirouet. His grasping relatives watch in alarm as his affection for her grows, and their schemes to secure the inheritance draw in mesmerism, a religious conversion and a penniless young nobleman, Savinien de Portenduère.
One of the gentler novels of The Human Comedy, mixing provincial greed with Balzac’s fascination with the occult. Download the free EPUB.