Honore de Balzac 
Cousin Pons 

Le Cousin Pons is one of the last of the 94 novels and short stories that make up Honore de Balzac’s Comedie 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).