The Pons Cousin

the Cousin Pons is a Romance of Honore de Balzac, published in serial in 1847 in Constitutional the , the work is published in volume the same year. This novel belongs to the Scènes of Parisian life in the section the Poor relations , where the Cousin Pons close with the Cousin White beet , of which it is exact symmetry. The cousin is as good and naive as the cousin is turned sour and harmful.

Synopsis

The description of the Pons catch states already that it is ridiculous:

By preserving in some details of its setting a fidelity nevertheless at the modes of the year 1806, this passer by pointed out the Empire without being by too caricatures. For the observers, this smoothness returns these kinds of extremely invaluable evocations. But this whole of small things wanted the attention analytical whose the experts in dawdling are gifted; and, to excite the remote laughter, the passer by was to offer one of these hugenesses to burst the eyes, like one says, and that the actors seek to ensure the success of their entries. This old man, dryness and thin, carried a spencer color hazel nut on a greenish dress to white metal buttons! … A man in spencer, in 1844, it is, see you, as if Napoleon had condescended ressusciter for two hours.

The spencer of the cousin already classifies it in obsolete people. Maurice Ménard places it in the same category as the Séchard father of the lost Illusions , the father Grandet, or the Father Goriot : they are men of another time mislaid in one century which is not theirs.

The Pons cousin has, moreover, two other manias which will make of him a victim: he is greedy and he has a passion of collector of invaluable objects. Alive poor man with his faithful friend, the Schmuke German, under almost sordid conditions, it is ready to undergo all humiliations to be invited with a good meal in his family (Camusot de Marville) which, in addition mistakes it.

The day when one realizes that its collection is worth a fortune, then it will be a wild battle between the Camusot cousin and the landlady, Mrs Cibot, to adapt the treasure. Supported only by the tender friendship of his Schmuke old man who tries to comfort it with small dishes, the Pons cousin sadly finishes his life and its “treasure” (the collection), whose value was finally recognized, is stolen.

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