2 h 44 minAudiobook9 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if you return alive, but everyone who benefits from your death wants you to stay dead?
In Paris after Napoleon’s fall, Colonel Chabert enters a busy law office with an extraordinary claim. Thought dead at Eylau, the former cavalry officer wants his name, his marriage and his rights restored. The clerks laugh at the stranger, but the careful lawyer Derville listens—and begins to weigh his story.
Chabert’s wife, now the Countess Ferraud, has wealth, children and a place in society to protect. Her new husband fears scandal as he seeks high office. In Honoré de Balzac’s short novel, a claim for justice becomes a struggle over money, memory and whether a man’s past still belongs to him.
What you’ll discover
- A soldier without a name Meet a ruined war hero whose memories and scars cannot simply restore his rights.
- A lawyer who listens Follow Derville as he weighs an unlikely claim and seeks justice through a quiet settlement.
- A countess under pressure Encounter a woman whose desire for security puts her against the husband who returns.
- Paris behind the paperwork Step into a cramped office where quick jokes reveal how casually strangers face cruelty.
- The cost of identity Explore what a name is worth when money and marriage depend on denying it.
Who will love it
For readers who love stories with real moral weight, courtroom and inheritance dramas, and struggles over identity, justice and betrayal. It also welcomes anyone curious about Balzac’s portraits of money, law and marriage.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A strange client haunts a lawyer's office
- A dead soldier tells his own story
- Derville agrees to take the case
- A countess with everything to lose
- What the story says about names and money
- How Balzac tells it
Who’s who
- Colonel ChabertA cavalry officer of Napoleon's army, thought dead at Eylau, who returns to Paris and wants his name, his marriage and his rights restored.
- DervilleA careful Paris lawyer who listens to Chabert when others laugh, and tries to win him justice through a quiet settlement.
- The Countess FerraudChabert's wife, now remarried to a count, who wants to protect her wealth, her children and her place in society.
- Count FerraudA rising nobleman of the Restoration who hopes for high office and fears any scandal that might damage his marriage and name.
- BoucardDerville's head clerk, a dry and practical man who knows the business of the office and the habits of its clients.
- The clerksThe young men of Derville's office, who joke about the old visitor and show how lightly Paris treats a stranger.
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- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
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- Large print hardcover
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El coronel Chabert
by Honoré de Balzac · 1832
Declared dead, Colonel Chabert returns to Paris to reclaim his name, his marriage and his rights.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1 of 6
A strange client haunts a lawyer's office
The story opens in the busy office of Derville, a Paris lawyer, among his clerks. The talk is quick, cruel and funny. The young men trade jokes, tease the office boy, and make bets about the clients who come and go. Balzac uses this noisy room to show the world of Restoration Paris, where everything has a price and gossip is a kind of currency.
Into this room comes an old man who has called several times before. He wears a huge greatcoat with many small capes, and he looks worn, pale and strangely still. He asks for Derville and will speak only to him. The clerks mock him and give him a nickname drawn from his coat. They make jokes about his age, his manner and his claim to be a colonel.
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What is Colonel Chabert about?
It tells of a Napoleonic officer, reported dead after the battle of Eylau, who returns to Paris to find his wife remarried and his fortune in other hands. A lawyer helps him try to reclaim his identity.
Is Colonel Chabert based on a true story?
No, it is fiction, though Balzac built it on real history. The battle of Eylau took place in 1807, and the story is set in Paris after Napoleon's fall. It first appeared in 1832.
Who is Derville in Colonel Chabert?
Derville is the Paris lawyer to whom Chabert brings his case. He is careful and doubtful at first, but he comes to believe the colonel. He also appears in other books of Balzac's Human Comedy.
The author
Honoré de Balzac
1799–1850 · French novelist
Honoré de Balzac was a French novelist and playwright born in Tours in 1799. He lived and worked in Paris, where he died in 1850. He wrote The Magic Skin in 1831, Eugénie Grandet in 1833, and Father Goriot in 1835. Many of his works belong to La Comédie humaine.
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