"As early as the 1840s the vocabulary of art begins to appear in literary depictions of eclectic home interiors. Many writers presume a straight- forward homology between aesthetic status and social status. The relationship between antique furnishings, the myth of the artist, and social hierarchies is made clear in many texts by Balzac, such as La Muse du département, Le Cousin Pons, and La Cousine Bette. "

Watson, Janell. Literature and Material Culture from Balzac to Proust : The Collection and Consumption of Curiosities. Cambridge University Press, 2000. p.58-59.