The Hated Son

Why do good people suffer? This is the question Honoré de Balzac poses in 'The Hated Son', set in Normandy during the eighth war of religion between Catholics and Protestant Huguenots. The kind and gentle Jeanne de Saint-Savin loves her Huguenot cousin but has to marry the old and cruel Royalist count d'Herouville in order to save her lover's life. The couple has a son, who promises to be a ray of light in Jeanne's unhappy life. But darkness descends when the count accuses her of infidelity and banishes Etienne from his castle, to be brought up by fishermen. When the count's older son and sole heir dies, the rejected son is the only one alive to continue the family line and inherit the title. Etienne is back in the game. But will he play by the rules set by his father who rejected him? Other great reads that feature the theme of rejection are Jane Austen's 'Persuasion' and 'Much Ado About Nothing' by William Shakespeare.