Le Colonel Chabert (novel)

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Le Colonel Chabert (English: Colonel Chabert) is an 1832 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) and included in his series of novels (or Roman-fleuve) known as La Comédie humaine (The Human Comedy) which parodies and depicts French society in the period of the Restoration and the July Monarchy (1815-1848). This novel was adapted for six different motion pictures, including two silent films.

1 Plot summary
2 Characters
3 Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
4 See also
5 Footnotes
6 External links

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The novel opens with clerks in the Paris law office of Derville, an attorney, looking out the window and mocking a determined old man walking through the streets.

Colonel Chabert is a French cavalry officer who is held in high esteem by Napoleon Bonaparte. After being severely wounded, in the Battle of Eylau (1807), Chabert is recorded as dead and is buried with other French casualties. Though he does survive—after extracating himself from his own grave—and is nursed back to health by local peasants, it takes several years for him to recover. After he recovers, he returns to Paris and discovers his "widow" has married to Count Ferraud. Seeking to regain his name and monies that were wrongly given away as inheritance, he hires Derville, an attorney, to win back his money and his honor.