What is the author's style in Cousin Bette: Part One of Poor Relations by Honore de Balzac?

Honoré de Balzac's novel has been translated into English from French. It is impossible to translate such a work into another language with any degree of perfection. First of all, there are French words and phrases which do not have any corresponding terms in English. Secondly, the novel presupposes a reader's more than cursory knowledge of French socio-political and cultural customs and familiarity with European fine art and history. Quite often, the narrator mentions a historical figure or an artist of the time and it is not unreasonable to assume that a nineteenth-century French reader would have felt comfortable with such information.