Cousin Pons

In this novel, Balzac masterfully fashions a web of deceit, subterfuge and betrayal between a network of Parisians who are of the utmost virtue until they are presented with a scheme to con their way into inheriting Pons's fortune. Once one such scheme is devised between a group of co-conspirators, one among the alliance secretly employs the service of another, intending to con the original alliance out of the money. The plot is dense with numerous methods of betrayal, and Balzac once again asserts his status as a once-living encyclopedia of any and all things French.