It is considered Part Two of Poor Relations, Part One being La Cousine Bette and, of course, is part of La Comédie Humaine.
The principal character in this novel is Monsieur Sylvain Pons. At the start of the novel Monsieur Sylvain Pons was an old man of some sixty years who had enjoyed early success as a musician, having been awarded the Grand Prix for the first cantata to be awarded by the Institut of the re-established Académie de France à Rome. While Monsieur Pons early success as a musician was short-lived, his tenure in Italy resulting from the Grand Prix fostered an eye for art and antiquities that would serve him well. It was this singular success that will provide the dramatic milieu of the novel.
