Abstract:
Mr. Prudhomme has taken his son on the carousel. His son complains that his heart hurts because of it. Mr. Prudhomme is an artificial figure created by Henri Bonaventure Monnier. The figure appeared already before the existence of the Charivari in publications like “Magasin des Visages” and “La Galerie des Grotesques”. Prudhomme impersonated the complacent, corpulent bourgeois of that period. Monnier described him to the point when he called him “nullité magistrale” (pompous nothingness), entirely self-satisfied with himself and his insignificance.
