Dufour, Philippe <br/><br/>
A Tocqueville reading of Le Cousin Pons 

 -  2020.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> Balzac’s La Comédie humaine examines the principles and values of the democratic society that emerged from the French Revolution, around the same time as Tocqueville wrote De la démocratie en Amérique. In this article, a dialog between the novel and the essay is established around key notions such as mobility, mediocrity and humanity. Balzac’s last novel, Le Cousin Pons, offers a pessimistic conclusion: the world of possibilities outlined in Tocqueville’s essay makes way for a closed-off and disenchanted one.