Mild, harmless and ugly to behold, the impoverished Pons is an ageing musician whose brief fame has fallen to nothing. Living a placid Parisian life as a bachelor in a shared apartment with his friend Schmucke, he maintains only two passions: a devotion to fine dining in the company of wealthy but disdainful relatives, and a dedication to the collection of antiques. When the relatives become aware of the true value of his art collection, however their sneering contempt for the parasitic Pons rapidly falls away as they struggle to obtain a piece of the weakening man’s inheritance...

Mild, harmless and ugly to behold, the impoverished Pons is an ageing musician whose brief fame has fallen to nothing. Living a placid Parisian life as a bachelor in a shared apartment with his friend Schmucke, he maintains only two passions: a devotion to fine dining in the company of wealthy but disdainful relatives, and a dedication to the collection of antiques. When the relatives become aware of the true value of his art collection, however their sneering contempt for the parasitic Pons rapidly falls away as they struggle to obtain a piece of the weakening man’s inheritance. Taking its place in the Human Comedy as a companion to Cousin Bette, the darkly humorous Cousin Pons is among the last and the greatest of Balzac’s novels concerning French urban society, and a cynical, pessimistic but never despairing consideration of human nature.

Herbert J. Hunt’s translation brings Balzac’s writing vividly to life in clear, contemporary English. This edition also includes an introduction exploring Balzac’s literary aims as chronicler of his country and his times.

Introduction

A glorious relic of Imperial times

Decline and fall of a prize-winner

Tbe two’ Nutcrackers’

One of a collector’s thousand thrills

One of the thousand insults a parasite has to swallow

The Concierge Species - male and female

’The Two Pigeons’: a fable come true

Prodigal sons from Frankfurt-am-Main don’t always end up with the husks of the swine

Pons brings the Presidente something better than a fan

A German whimsy

Pons under a landslide of gravel

’Why, what a god is goldl’

A treatise on the occult sciences

A character from Hoffman’s Talcs

Tittle-tattle and.tactics - elderly concierge style

Corruption in conference

How all careers begin in Paris

A ’man of law’

Fraisier makes things clear

La Cibot at the theatre

The Fraisier blossoms forth

A warning to old bachelors

Schmucke dimbs to the mercy-seat of God

A testator’s cunning

The spurious will

Re-enter Madame Sauvagc

Death’s gloomy portals

Schmucke’s Via Dolorosa

When wills arc opened all doors arc scaled

The Fraisier bears fruit

Conclusion