Ursule Mirouet: An Inheritance Plot

In the quiet town of Nemours, the wealthy old doctor Denis Minoret asks only to live out his days in peace with his godchild, the gentle, music-loving orphan Ursule Mirouët. But all around him, three grasping families of distant relatives are already sharpening their knives, certain that his substantial fortune will one day be theirs. When the handsome but ruined young nobleman Savinien de Portenduère returns home and falls for Ursule, the doctor must decide what he truly values: the cold arithmetic of inheritance or the warmth of love and loyalty. To protect the girl he loves, he sets in motion a secret plan meant to outwit the heirs — until a theft, a contested will, and a haunting, impossible dream bring the truth to light. Balzac's sharp-eyed story of greed, faith, and devotion is reimagined here in vivid present-day English, faithful in every twist of plot and turn of character. Part of Timeless Classics.