Colonel Chabert by Andrew Brown
Balzac once referred to art as nature concentrated. And nowhere did his own art achieve such a rarefied state as in Colonel Chabert - one of the celebrated Scenes from Private Life from La Comedie Humaine. Chabert is among Balzac's most tragic heroes: a decorated Napoleonic War veteran believed to have been killed in battle. Severely disfigured, the Colonel, returns to Paris as if risen from the grave. There he finds his wife remarried, his pension gone, and his name linked nostalgically to the faded days of Empire. Employing a young lawyer named Derville, Chabert finds an ally to negotiate the labyrinthine system of Restoration justice; but as Derville plays the game of law and intrigue, we discover why Balzac himself thought that most post-Revolutionary politics were plagued with corruption. Chabert, despite his dignity, his history, his status as a fallen warrior, is no match for a society driven by the wiles of lawyers.
Reading Balzac is not a reassuring experienceIt challenges our humanism, if we have any, but it ultimately does not destroy it. -- A.N. Wilson
The French author and journalist Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850), best known for his La Comédie humaine, his vast series of novels and other prose pieces, is considered one of the most influential writers of the nineteenth century.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781847497734 |
| ISBN 10 | 184749773X |
| Title | Colonel Chabert |
| Author | Honor De Balzac |
| Series | Alma Classics 101 Pages |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Alma Books Ltd |
| Year published | 2018-10-25 |
| Number of pages | 128 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |