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Description edit
From Poor Relations. Scenes From Parisian Life from The Human Comedy (La Comedie Humaine). By the French author, who, along with Flaubert, is generally regarded as a founding-father of realism in European fiction. His large output of works, collectively entitled The Human Comedy (La Comedie... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Summary edit
The novella was based on a short story by an acquaintance of Balzac, Albéric Second,<1> as Tim Farrant has demonstrated. Its original title was to have been “Le Parasite”. Sylvain Pons, a musician in a Parisian boulevard orchestra, has a close friend in another musician from that same... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)
Characters/People edit
- Monsieur Pons: Add a description of this character.
- Madame Cibot
- Cecile
- Monsieur Brunner
- La Cibot
- Monsieur Poulain
- Remonencq
- Madame Cantinet
- Gaudissart
- Fritz
- Madame Fontaine
- Madame De Marville
- Madame Camusot
- Madame Sauvage
- Villemot
- Madeleine
- Schwab
- Monsieur Fraisier
- Elias Magus
- Monsieur Schmucke
- Monsieur Pillerault
- Wilhelm
- Raphael
- Madame La Presidente
- Monsieur Magus
- Monsieur Trognon
- Comte Popinot
- Madame Poulain
- Matame Cipot
- Duplanty
- Itemonencq
- Heloise
- Cousin Pons
- Graff
- Monsieur De Marville
- Monsieur Tabareau
- Mamma
- Monsieur Vitel
- Greuze
- Normandie
Setting & Locations edit
Show all 12 settingsFirst Sentence edit
ABOUT three o'clock in the afternoon, one day in October 1844, an old man of some sixty years (though anyone who saw him would have thought him older) was walking along the Boulevard des Italiens, with his nose thrust forward and a smug expression on his lips, like a merchant who has just made an excellent deal, or a bachelor emerging from a lady's boudoir, pleased with his prowess - in Paris the expression of male self-satisfaction can go no further.
Themes & Symbolism edit
- Le Cousin Pons is Paris Reflection: Le Cousin Pons is set entirely in Paris, where, as Balzac informs us in his Avant-propos (Foreword) to the Comédie humaine, “the extremes of good and evil are to be found”. However, Le Cousin Pons is not exclusively about the clash of extremes. Some characters, even the eponymous hero himself, are presented in a nuanced way.
- Greedy Money-Obsessed: Balzac’s hatred of the bourgeoisie is epitomized by the greedy, money-obsessed M. and Mme Camusot de Marville who put up with the weekly visits of their poor relation Sylvain Pons until they realize he is a very wealthy art collector, whereupon their sole concern is to exploit him. Balzac also presents the lawyer Fraisier and the doctor Poulain in an ambivalent light.
- The Morals of the Working-Class Characters: La Cibot and Rémonencq, are scarcely any better than those of the bourgeoisie. As in Balzac’s novel of the countryside, Les Paysans, the proletarian world is displayed in a fiercely aggressive, acquisitive light – almost to the extent of engaging in bitter class conflict.
- The values of art are contrasted with those of money: As Balzac says in Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes, “la Charte ( Charter of 1814 ) a proclamé le règne de l’argent, le succès devient alors la raison suprême d’une époque athée”. Artistic values aside, Balzac displays the reification or materialization of the world.
- The law: The law is seen by Balzac as a (totally illegal!) way of depriving people of their rightful property. Harassed by Fraisier, Schmucke renounces his property rights. Pons’s second will is more vulnerable than the first.
- Social Values: Balzac subverts conventional social values as social norms are revealed to be a fiction. The values of the Camusot de Marville family are materialistic. It is not the personality of Cécile Camusot herself but Pons’s art collection which is “the heroine of this story”; it is that, not her value as a person, which secures her marriage. The union of the Topinards, who are not strictly married, is the kindest, most affectionate relationship of man and woman in the novel. The friendship of Pons and Schmucke is true love but not love within marriage. The two men are poor and physically ugly but their relationship is golden and pure. Their Platonic friendship runs parallel to the idealizing function of art.
- The Passion for Artistic Beauty: Though not a lover in the human physical sense, Pons is a man with an overriding passion, the passion for artistic beauty. In its etymological sense passion equates to suffering. Pons is a Christ-like figure, like some other characters in Balzac's novels (e.g., Joseph Bridau in La Rabouilleuse, and Goriot). He is a man with a mania or idee fixe, and this passion is the cause of his suffering and death.
Series & Lists edit
This is book 21 of 22 in Comedie Humaine: Scenes from Parisian Life. (standard series)
Preceded by Cousin Bette, and followed by The Lesser Bourgeoisie.
Authors & Contributors edit
- Honoré de Balzac (Author)
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813
Subjects edit
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