Le Cousin Pons

Of the 94 works of Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie humaine, which are in both novel and short story form, Le Cousin Pons is virtually the last. Begun in 1846 as a novella, or long-short story, it was envisaged as one part of a diptych, Les Parents pauvres (The Poor Relations), the other part of which was La Cousine Bette (Cousin Bette). The novella grew in 1847 into a full-length novel with a male poor relation, Pons, as its subject, whereas La Cousin... more

Of the 94 works of Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie humaine, which are in both novel and short story form, Le Cousin Pons is virtually the last. Begun in 1846 as a novella, or long-short story, it was envisaged as one part of a diptych, Les Parents pauvres (The Poor Relations), the other part of which was La Cousine Bette (Cousin Bette). The novella grew in 1847 into a full-length novel with a male poor relation, Pons, as its subject, whereas La Cousine Bette describes the female aspect of that subordinate relationship. The two novels were thus similar yet diametrically different. They were complementary, forming two parts of a whole. Le Cousin Pons has been classified by Balzac as the second Episode of Les Parents pauvres, the first Episode being La Cousine Bette. Especially admired by Paul Bourget, it is one of the very greatest of his novels. Plot summary The novella was based on a short story by an acquaintance of Balzac, Albéric Second, as Tim Farrant has demonstrated. Its original... less