Sylvain Pons, an elderly composer fallen out of fashion, lives for two pleasures: fine dinners at the tables of rich relations and the collection of paintings and curios he has quietly amassed. When the collection’s true value comes to light, a concierge, a lawyer and his own family close in, while his devoted friend Schmucke, a German pianist, stands by him in the Paris of 1844.
One of the last novels of The Human Comedy, and among Balzac’s most piercing portraits of greed. Download the free EPUB.