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The Black Sheep
The Black Sheep
Feb 25, 2026 10:25 AM

Author:Honoré de Balzac,Donald Adamson

The Black Sheep

Philippe and Joseph Bridau are two extremely different brothers. The elder, Philippe, is a superficially heroic soldier and adored by their mother Agathe. He is nonetheless a bitter figure, secretly gambling away her savings after a brief but glorious career in Napoleon's army. His younger brother Joseph, meanwhile, is fundamentally virtuous - but their mother is blinded to his kindness by her disapproval of his life as an artist. Foolish and prejudiced, Agathe lives on unaware that she is being cynically manipulated by her own favourite child, but will she ever discover which of her sons is truly the black sheep of the family? A dazzling depiction of the power of money and the cruelty of life in nineteenth-century France, The Black Sheep compellingly explores is a compelling exploration of the nature of deceit.

Reviews

Celebrate Adrian Mole's 50th Birthday with this new edition of the seventh book in his diaries where Adrian falls in love, is inconvenienced by the war and faces his new nemesis: a swan from the local canal

—— from the publisher's description

As funny as anything Townsend has written, in which the loft-dwelling Mole wrestles with credit-card debt, WMD and where to find a dentist

—— Sunday Times

The funniest book of the year. I can think of no more comical read

—— Jeremy Paxman , Sunday Telegraph

He will be remembered some day as one of England's great diarists

—— Evening Standard

The funniest person in the world

—— Caitlin Moran

"A handsome, collectable hardback edition"

—— Lynne Truss , THE TIMES

In a literary world which is so often either relaxed into the flabby indifference of review-speak, or corseted into position with the strings and eyelets of critical jargon, James Wood's tone is invaluable

—— Robert MacFarlane , Times Literary Supplement

He is one of literature's true lovers, and his deeply felt, contentious essays are thrilling in their reach and moral seriousness

—— Susan Sontag

James Wood is an authentic literary critic, very rare in this bad time. One can dissent gently from his judgements but he is always urgent, lucid, and interesting

—— Harold Bloom

The mysteries are never tainted by explanation, merely beautifully described, delivering a hypnotic read

—— Times Higher Education Supplement

'For sheer love of a thumping narrative, the novel delivers gloriously-Inventive, alluring' David Mitchell

—— Guardian

'Murakami's most addictive fix to date'

—— Independent

'Engrossing and wildly inventive'

—— Times Literary Supplement

Top marks. Fantastic

—— Heat

Lovely

—— Daily Telegraph

Moving and intelligent

—— Independent

Magnetic, unpretentious and bursting with one-liners

—— Cosmopolitan

Fans of chick-lit will understand when I say that this is a book you simply disappear into

—— Sunday Telegraph
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