Cousin Pons Analysis
by Honoré Balzac

Marville’s house

Marville’s house (marh-VEEL). Home on Paris’s rue de Honoré of Monsieur Camusot de Marville, Sylvain Pons’s cousin-in-law and a presiding judge of the Royal Court of Justice. This house is described in scant detail. Although it faces north and presents a gloomy aspect to the street, it has a south-facing inner courtyard and an attractive garden. The novel emphasizes the house’s tranquillity and respectability, as befits the home of an important magistrate, and this is reflected in its furnishings—imposing green draperies, tapestries, thick carpets, and sober furniture. It is, however, an uncomfortable house to Pons, an elderly musician and amateur art collector, because it lacks works of art.

An upper floor of the house is rented to an old woman, but later Marville and his wife move there, leaving the lower floor to their daughter now married at last, with the mansion as part of her wedding dowry.

Pillerault’s house

Pillerault’s house. Home of Monsieur Pillerault on rue de Normandie in the Marais district of Paris. The building is a former town house, described as a lodge, an upper floor of which is rented to Pons and his friend and fellow musician Pons Schmucke. The building, in two parts, consists of three double-depth flats, plus three smaller flats, one of which Pons and Schmucke occupy. The house also contains a shop belonging to the ironmonger-turned-bric-a-brac dealer Remonencq.

The lodge is run by Madame Cibot and her husband, who are systematically defrauding its residents in numerous small ways in order to supplement their incomes. As the lodge keeper, Madame Cibot controls other people’s access to Pons when he becomes ill; she is also well placed to allow people to enter his rooms without his knowledge.

Remonencq’s shop

Remonencq’s shop (reh-moh-NANK). Curio shop of the rascally Remonencq, who is Madame Cibot’s accomplice. Originally a coffeehouse, the shop has not been altered since Remonencq took it over as a bare shell, with a kitchen, back premises, and a small bedroom, the attached flat being rented separately. After starting out as an ironmonger, Remonencq gradually changes trades. After initially filling his shop with cheap goods, he gradually stocks it with better quality antiques as he moves up in the world.

The shop’s location enables Remonencq to overhear information about the quality and worth of Pons’s art collection. After Madame Cibot becomes widowed, she marries Remonencq, who then accidentally poisons himself, leaving her to inherit the shop.

Magus’s house

Magus’s house. Home of the art collector Elias Magus on Paris’s Chaussée des Minimes. The house is an old mansion, in which an entire floor has been lavishly restored to accommodate Magus’s collection, with brocade curtains at the windows and expensive carpets on the floors. The ground floor is used as storage for works of art and contains an art restorer’s workshop. Magus’s daughter, Noémi, also has a suite of rooms in the house and is, like the treasures, closely guarded. Magus himself lives in two shabby, poorly furnished, and ill-kept rooms on an upper floor.

Pons’s flat

Pons’s flat. Rooms of Sylvain Pons in Marville’s house. Although the novel mentions bedrooms, a dining room, and a drawing room, it does not describe them. The only room described in any detail is the one housing Pons’s art collection. Originally panelled in white and gold, this room has colors that have softened to yellow and red. Its upper walls are covered with paintings, and its lower walls are lined with ebony sideboards containing many curios. Tables in the middle of the room display other valuable objects.

Poulain’s flat

Poulain’s flat (poo-LAN). Home on rue d’Orleans of Dr. Poulain. This is a small flat, consisting of two rooms and two bedrooms, plus a kitchen and a servant’s bedroom, part of a much larger building, a mansion during the time of the French Empire. It has remained untouched for forty years,...