Places Discussed
(Critical Guide to Settings and Places in Literature)
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...
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