Riassunto
Riassunto di Il colonnello Chabert
A chi è rivolto
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.
Che cos’è questo libro
Colonel Chabert is a short novel by Honoré de Balzac, first printed in 1832 and reworked later into the great cycle of linked books he called The Human Comedy. It is set in Paris in the years after Napoleon's fall, when the Bourbon kings are back on the throne and old soldiers of the Empire are out of fashion. The question at its centre is simple and strange. What happens to a man who has been declared dead when he turns up alive and asks for his life back?
Balzac wrote it as a study of money, law and marriage in a society that was quickly forgetting its recent past. In about a hundred pages you meet a lawyer's busy office, a ruined war hero, a rich and clever countess, and a legal problem that is also a moral one. You get a sharp portrait of Paris at work, and a story that asks what a name is worth and who gets to keep it. It begins in a cramped law office, where a clerk's joke brings a very odd visitor to the door.
In questo riassunto
- 1A strange client haunts a lawyer's officeFree
- 2A dead soldier tells his own story
- 3Derville agrees to take the case
- 4A countess with everything to lose
- 5What the story says about names and money
- 6How Balzac tells it
Punto chiave 1 di 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.
The old man waits patiently, and that patience says something about him. He has been waiting a long time for many things, and a few more hours in a cold office do not trouble him. When the clerks pass him a sneering remark about his story, he answers with a dignity that does not fit his clothes. The reader senses at once that the joke is on the young men.
The man gives his name as Chabert, and he says he is a colonel of the Empire who died at the battle of Eylau. The clerks laugh at that too. Derville, who comes in late at night after the court, is the only person in the office who listens without laughing. Balzac sets up the problem with great economy. Everyone in the room knows what a dead man is, and none of them is ready for one who sits in a chair and asks for help.
That’s 1 of 6 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Who’s who
- Colonel Chabert
- A cavalry officer believed dead at Eylau, he asks Derville to recover his name, marriage, and legal rights.
- Derville
- A careful Paris lawyer, he takes Chabert seriously and investigates his claim while seeking a settlement.
- The Countess Ferraud
- Chabert's wife, now married to Count Ferraud, seeks to protect her children, wealth, and social position.
- Count Ferraud
- The countess's ambitious second husband seeks political advancement and fears scandal that could threaten his standing.
- Boucard
- Derville's practical head clerk manages the office's business and knows the habits of its clients.
- The clerks
- The young men working in Derville's office mock Chabert before understanding the stranger's history and claim.
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 25,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 1 h 40 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 12 other languages
Questions about Il colonnello Chabert
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.
Is Colonel Chabert hard to read?
No, it is short and clear. The plot is simple and the story moves quickly.
What is the main message of Colonel Chabert?
The book suggests that identity depends on legal and social recognition, and that money and ambition can outweigh love, honor and gratitude. It also mourns the loss of the Napoleonic age's ideals.