Colonel Chabert

by Honore de Balzac

Overview

Balzac's character Chabert--thought killed in the Napoleonic wars-- returns to find his wife remarried, his pension gone, and everything changed. Chabert employs a young lawyer named Derville to negotiate recompense, but, unknown to Chabert, Derville also represents Chabert's former wife. As Derville plays the game of law and intrigue, we see why Balzac himself saw post-Revolutionary politics as plagued with corruption. 128 pp.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783734084713
Publisher:	Outlook Verlag
Publication date:	09/25/2019
Pages:	62
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), born in Tours, ranks among the great masters of the novel. In 1816, he began studying law at the Sorbonne, but after receiving his license in 1819 he decided to abandon it for literature. By the time of his death, he had written over one hundred novels, novellas, and plays, many of them part of his greatest work, La Comedie humaine –– a reproduction of the French society of his time, picturing in precise detail more than 2,000 characters from every class and every profession.

Carol Cosman has translated works by Albert Camus and René Daumal, among others.

What People are Saying About This

Stephan

"Balzac...worked out in his mind to the last detail, his vast structural design of the multifarious forms of human society."

Sommerset Maughan

"I suppose Balzac is the greatest novelist who ever lived."

Editorial Reviews

Reading Balzac is not a reassuring experience. It challenges our humanism, if we have any, but it ultimately does not destroy it.” —A.N. Wilson

From the Publisher

Part of Balzac's COMÉDIE HUMAINE, this novella comes to an ending that either is or is not a happy one, depending on how you think about it. Narrator Bill Homewood's deep, resonant voice—suitably lightened for female characters—carries us along as Chabert, a Napoleonic hero mistakenly listed as having been killed in battle, returns to Paris and tries to reclaim his life. Balzac did not much admire the upper classes, but Homewood only occasionally uses voices and accents to caricature them. The text makes them seem awful enough without his help. The author drew on a wide range of emotions, and this narrator brings them all out evocatively but without unnecessary exaggeration. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile

Part of Balzac's COMÉDIE HUMAINE, this novella comes to an ending that either is or is not a happy one, depending on how you think about it. Narrator Bill Homewood's deep, resonant voice—suitably lightened for female characters—carries us along as Chabert, a Napoleonic hero mistakenly listed as having been killed in battle, returns to Paris and tries to reclaim his life. Balzac did not much admire the upper classes, but Homewood only occasionally uses voices and accents to caricature them. The text makes them seem awful enough without his help. The author drew on a wide range of emotions, and this narrator brings them all out evocatively but without unnecessary exaggeration. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

OCTOBER 2021 - AudioFile