Le Cousin Pons is one of the last of the 94 novels and short stories that make up Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie humaine. Begun in 1846 as a novella, it was envisaged as one part of a diptych, Les Parents pauvres (The Poor Relations), along with La Cousine Bette (Cousin Bette). The book was originally published as a serial in Le Constitutionnel, but during 1847 it grew into a full-length novel, with a male poor relation, Pons, as its subject, (La Cousine Bette describes a female poor relation)

Plot summary

The novella was based on a short story by an acquaintance of Balzac, Albéric Second, 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 the orchestra, the German pianist Wilhelm Schmucke. They lodge with Mme Cibot but Pons – unlike Schmucke – has two failings: his passion (which is almost a mania) for collecting works of art and his passion for good food. Schmucke, on the other hand, has only one passion, his affection for Pons. Pons, being a gourmet, much enjoys dining regularly with his wealthy lawyer cousins M. and Mme Camusot de Marville, for their food is more interesting than Mme Cibot's and full of gastronomic surprises. To remain on good terms with the Camusots and to repay their favour, he tries to find a bridegroom for their unappealing only child Cécile. When this ill-considered marriage project falls through, Pons is banished from the house. The novella becomes a novel as Mme Camusot learns of the value of Pons's art collection and strives to obtain possession of it as the basis of a dowry for her daughter. In this new development of the plot a bitter struggle ensues between various vulture-like figures, all of whom are keen to lay their hands on the collection: Rémonencq, Élie Magus, Mme Camusot – and Mme Cibot. Betraying his client Mme Cibot's interests, the unsavoury barrister Fraisier acts for the Camusots. Mme Cibot sells Rémonencq eight of Pons's choicest paintings, deceitfully stating in the receipt that they are works of lesser value. She also steals one for herself. Horrified to discover his betrayal by Mme Cibot and the plots that are raging around him, Pons dies, bequeathing all his worldly possessions to Schmucke. The latter is browbeaten out of them by Fraisier. He in turn dies a broken-hearted man, for in Pons he has lost all that he valued in the world. The art collection comes to the Camusot de Marville family and the vultures profit from their ill-gotten gains.

Fundamental themes of the work

Narrative strategies