وصف الكتاب | A pessimistic work, a black novel where a cruel universe unfurls in their hideousness, a jungle haunted by disturbing wild beasts, Le Cousin Pons presents us with a criminal world, up and down, from the living room to the concierge's lodge. In the middle of this sordid century, Sylvain Pons ranks among the ignorant martyrs whose La Comedie Humaine depicts unknown sufferings, the tortures inflicted "on soft souls by hard souls, torments to which so many innocent creatures succumb." But our angelic esthete, as good and naive as "cousin Bette" is embittered and harmful, is also a ridiculous gourmand and the farce often interferes in the drama of the pitiful monomane; Balzac's latest major work turns out to be a deep reflection on energy: the collection, like gluttony, is a double compensation, material and passionate, for the lack of money and love. As in The Skin of Sorrow, the problem is to be wary of desire if the we want to last and build |