Colonel Chabert

Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.1

Word count: 151K words
Chapters: 16

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Eversti Chabert by Honoré de BalzacAuthor: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850,Language: Finnish, Class: PQ: Language and Literatures: Romance literatures: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Release Date: Aug 28, 2016

Editor's review

Colonel Chabert is a gem among Balzac's novellas and belongs to the "Scenes of Private Life" in La Comédie Humaine. The story revolves around a colonel who was wrongly reported dead, returns after ten years of hardship, and is denied by his wife, profoundly revealing the complex entanglement of money, identity, and human nature. With a calm and incisive touch, Balzac depicts the law and the warmth and coldness of human relations in Restoration-era France; Colonel Chabert's tragedy is both personal and of its time. This edition is a Finnish translation, released free by Project Gutenberg. It serves as an entry point to Balzac's shorter fiction and is also suitable for readers studying French realist literature and translated texts. When reading, pay attention to the pacing of the narrative and the social critique hidden in the characters' dialogue. It is not long but leaves a deep aftertaste, suitable for reading in one or two quiet afternoons.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who like Balzac and French realist literature
Readers who want to understand La Comédie Humaine in a shorter format
Those interested in issues of law, identity, and human nature
Those who need a Finnish literary translation for reading or research

Not a good fit for

Readers unaccustomed to reading translations or non-Chinese texts
Readers who prefer light, entertaining fiction
Readers expecting a long, epic narrative

Reading tips

First learn about the social background of Restoration-era France; the main text will be easier to understand.
Pay attention to the dialogue between Colonel Chabert, his wife, and the lawyer; much of the social critique lies there.
After reading, compare with other works in La Comédie Humaine to appreciate Balzac's overall design.
If Finnish is an obstacle, read alongside a Chinese or French translation.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book the Chinese edition?

No. This version is a Finnish translation released by Project Gutenberg, in Finnish, suitable for readers who can read Finnish or for translation studies.

What is the relationship between Colonel Chabert and La Comédie Humaine?

Colonel Chabert is a novella in Balzac's La Comédie Humaine, usually classified under "Scenes of Private Life" and, together with Old Goriot and Eugénie Grandet, part of Balzac's panoramic social writing.

Is it long? How long does it take to finish?

It is a novella, not long; it can be finished in one or two concentrated afternoons, suitable as an introduction to Balzac or as a book to dip into.

Comments

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About the author

Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850 Author

Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850) was a French novelist best known for his vast series La Comédie humaine. The library holds 143 of his works, including Father Goriot, Lost Illusions, Eugénie Grandet, and several volumes of La Comédie humaine. His writing is distinguished by dense detail, a large cast of characters, and an intricate social network, often linking separate works through recurring figures to portray nineteenth-century French society. He excelled at depicting the power of desire, ambition, and money through precise settings and strong narrative tension, and he exerted a lasting influence on later realist fiction. Beyond the broad outline of his life, public information is limited, so this note focuses on the themes and style of his works.