Love and Obsession

Romantic love is portrayed as a powerful, often destructive force, driving characters to extreme devotion, secrecy, and manipulation, as seen in the intense attachments and rivalries that shape the plot.

Rosalie's romantic daring and evil thoughts, fanned by her desire to triumph over a rival, show an obsessive passion that drives her schemes.

Love and Obsession is one of the patterns Albert Savarus by Honoré de Balzac returns to. The chapter notes above are from this edition’s companions — open those chapters to see how the book stages the idea rather than treating the theme as a slogan.