Le Cousin Pons is one of the last of the 94 works of Honoré de Balzac’s Comédie humaine, which are in both novel and short story form. 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 book was originally published as a serial in Le Constitutionnel.
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.
Read more about Le Cousin Pons: Plot Summary, Fundamental Themes of The Work, Narrative Strategies, Bibliography
Famous quotes containing the word cousin:
“I against my brother
I and my brother against our cousin
I, my brother and our cousin against the neighbors
All of us against the foreigner.”
—Bedouin Proverb. Quoted by Bruce Chatwin in “From the Notebooks,” ch. 30, The Songlines (1987)