Don't have a Kindle? Try the Kindle edition and experience these great reading features: Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Showing of 26 reviews. Top Reviews Most recent Top Reviews. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. But, the joke is on the clerks, because Chabert is a war hero of the Napoleonic era who was given up for dead on a battlefield at Eylau. This translation from the French by Carol Grosman tells the story of the old soldier's resurrection in contemporary jargon.
The novel is relevant today considering the service of soldiers in many wars continuing in our world. What happens to these heroes when wars end, or more accurately, shift to new fronts? Balzac paints the portrait of one old colonel who remains honorable and as a consequence seals his fate. The translation is very readable and the short novel is brief "scene from private life.
With a slow start, but for such a short story, keeps an amazing tension, around a question, "Will she, won't she? The standards of the times change, human beings remain the same, some with more honor than others. A bit of a mystery, a bit of a romantic tragedy. Once past the first 8 small pages, an easy and page turning read.
One person found this helpful. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. Il n'y a rien a ajouter. Really the ideal way to read Balzac if your French isn't quite up to it. English translation is very dated, probably a century old, but adequate to the job most of the time. This is a beautifully written old piece that still works. The story of a battlefield hero given up for dead and returning to find his place taken. Not a long book, but with old-style grammer and vocabulary, a bit of work for a non-native French reader like me.
I read this after viewing the film. The two have very different endings, but both shed interesting light on the French mind.
- Self-Publishing Fiction: From Manuscript to Bookstore and Beyond.
- Paths of the Norseman (The Norseman Chronicles Book 2).
- Colonel Chabert (novel) - Wikipedia.
- Principios, valores y virtudes en las Empresas Altamente Productivas (Spanish Edition).
- Murder on Campus (Mrs. Malory Mysteries series Book 5).
See all 26 reviews. Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway.
Set up a giveaway. Customers who viewed this item also viewed.
Customers who bought this item also bought
Le Colonel Chabert French Edition. A Life of Her Own: The Transformation of a Countrywoman in 20th-Century France. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Is it an Inspiring Journey.. See 1 question about Le Colonel Chabert…. Lists with This Book. Jul 12, Kalliope rated it really liked it Shelves: Reading makes you read more. Le Colonel Chabert expanded from my recent read of Berta Isla , since the latter presents a variation of the theme treated earlier by Balzac. Tumultuous years those were, providing plenty of opportunities and dangers for the social animal that is a human being.
Orphans could rise to the very top of a society through their military valour, noblemen could be exiled and their fortunes expropriated, prostitutes could metamorphose into the most exquisite of ladies, financiers could concoct up bloated fortunes out of just a couple of transactions,.. The story is gripping and the analysis of human behaviour, character and emotions, is, as usual in Balzac, sublime. For me it was also interesting to meet again Joachim Murat the Admiral who propped up recently in my reading of El 19 de Marzo y el 2 de Mayo.
Similarly, it is anticlimactic to be reading a work that praises and vilifies Napoleon at the time when I am reading about his invasion of Spain and in particular now on the battle of Zaragoza.
You can now manage your CreateSpace content on Amazon's improved publishing services.
But such is the magic of reading, it resuscitates heroes and makes our imagination fly to different worlds where opposites meet. Now I plan to watch the film with Depardieu and Fanny Ardent. View all 14 comments. Nov 27, Manny rated it really liked it Shelves: Being brought up in England, I was used to thinking of him as an evil megalomaniac, who nearly destroyed Europe and was only stopped by the heroic efforts of Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. How wrong I was!
Of course, I now saw that he represented all that was good and heroic about France; after him, it just descended into pathetic bickering and intriguing. Poor Colonel Chabert fights gallantly in the Napoleonic Wars, and is left for dead on the battlefield. Somehow, he survives, and eventually finds his way back to France. Then he discovers that his wife has remarried and wants nothing to do with him; he's just an embarrassment. She even goes so far as to hire a fancy lawyer to try and work out a financial settlement so that he'll leave her alone.
It took a couple of chapters to finish moving all my mental furniture around, but by the end I was suitably disgusted, and nostalgically looking back to the great days of the Empire. That's just typical of what's wrong with France these days! I was quite surprised to see how quickly I accepted all the necessary premises, even at an emotional level.
The movie is good too. View all 8 comments. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
Le Colonel Chabert (french Edition) by Honoré De Balzac
Una prosa davvero intensa e commovente, gustata appieno in lingua originale, sebbene il francese di Balzac mi sia apparso meno semplice rispetto a quello di altri autori letti durante i mesi scorsi Maupassant e Verne, per esempio. View all 20 comments. Feb 24, Lili rated it really liked it. Colonelul Chabert, unul din eroi luptei de la Eylau, fiind crezut mort , este aruncat intr-o groapa comuna, de unde reuseste in cele din urma sa scape.
Dupa ce este ingrijit de o familie de oameni inimosi, ajunge intr-un azil de nebuni, din cauza afirmatiilor cum ca el ar fi colonelul Chabert. Intors la Paris, total schimbat din cauza ranilor , nu reuseste sa devina mai credibil in fata oamenilor, care aflasera de moartea colonelului pe campul de lupta. Pana la urma, un tanar avocat ii asculta pove Colonelul Chabert, unul din eroi luptei de la Eylau, fiind crezut mort , este aruncat intr-o groapa comuna, de unde reuseste in cele din urma sa scape. Pana la urma, un tanar avocat ii asculta povestea si se hotaraste sa-l sprijine in demersurile lui de a-si recapata numele, averea si sotia.
Dar sotia lui, casatorita intre timp cu contele Ferraud, cu care avea si doi copii, desi aflase ca Chabert traieste, nu dorea ca acesta sa ii incurce viata. Cand Chabert si sotia sa, acum versata doamna Ferraud, se intalnesc, aceasta incearca sa intoarca situatia in avantajul sau, profitand de sentimentele pe care batranul Chabert inca i le mai purta. Manipularea ei este atat de marsava, incat am avut o adevarata satisfactie, cand colonelul o descopera.
El ajunge in cele din urma la un azil de batrani. Derville, avocatul care pe vremuri se ocupase de cazul lui Chabert, il intalneste pe acesta peste ani, in toata mizeria lui, si il caracterizeaza succesorului sau ca fiind un adevarat poem, o drama. Cartea asta mi-a lasat un gust amar, vazand ca pana la urma, ca de multe ori in viata reala, au triumfat nerusinarea si oportunismul, in defavoarea bunului simt si a altruismului.
View all 3 comments. Proviamo a scoprire il suo e a chiudere la partita al primo colpo. Ma questo breve romanzo ha il merito di rendere indimenticabile la figura di Chabert, con le sue scelte e il suo destino. La coscienza dei miei diritti mi sconforta. Se la malattia mi avesse fatto dimenticare la mia vita trascorsa, quanto sarei stato e sarei tuttora felice!
Le Colonel Chabert (french Edition) by Honoré De Balzac | eBay
La luce del giorno attraversava a stento i vetri luridi. View all 4 comments. Apr 04, George K. When the bedraggled Colonel finally falls in with some solicitors who help his case, he hopes for once and for all he can reclaim his wife and fortune. Esiste un equilibrio tra apparenza e aspirazione? Ora che sei fresca di lettura, potresti apprezzarla. Edera Grazie per il consiglio! Como se sentiria o "defunto" termo frequentemente utilizado por Balzac para designar o militar. Apr 27, Bruce rated it really liked it.
In this instance, Colonel Chabert, a favorite of Napoleon, had been seen to receive a grievous and presumably lethal wound on the battlefield and was subsequently buried in a mass grave from which local farmers rescued him. Amnesiac for several years, he was cared for in an asylum.
Finally recovering his memories, he sets out for Paris to search for his wife who had been a prostitute before he married her. In fact he discovers that she has made a fashionable marriage to an aristocrat — she is now the Countess Ferraud - and has had a couple of children. Chabert puts his case into the hands of the attorney Derville, and the story explores the path by which the conundrum is resolved. In this story Balzac is psychologically perceptive and acutely descriptive of personalities and settings, making vivid the Parisian landscape and the social and cultural milieu in which his characters operate.
He draws a sharp contrast between the Napoleonic values of military heroism and personal rectitude and the Restoration emphasis on wealth and social rank. English translations are readily available for those who prefer. View all 10 comments. Recommended to Wanda by: Dagny and 19th Century Literature Group. These ladies read the absolute best books. I am enjoying the words right off the page with this one.
Free download at Project Gutenberg - http: The ending brought tears to my eyes. I must read more of Balzac. View all 5 comments. Una menzione onorevole va fatta ad il libro " Un episodio durante il terrore" che ho letto insieme al Colonnello Chabert in un edizione Garzanti dell' qua comprensibilmente assente , racconto immenso della Francia sotto Robespierre e di un gruppo costituito da un abate e da due suore fuggite dopo la distruzione dei loro conventi, fedeli al re appena decapitato sono costretti a nascondersi ma verranno intercettati da un pentito che dice di essere la causa minore dell' omicidio del re.
Finale a dir poco spettacolare, libro che merita assolutamente le cinque stelle piene Tja, was soll ich sagen. Ich will aufs Land, dort will ich mit meiner Frau leben. Paris ist ein Ort des Schreckens. A war hero returns from the dead to haunt the living. The struggle of the forgotten and dispossessed to reclaim lost property is a favorite premise for novelists, revolutionaries, and postwar French philosophers alike.
There are a lot of Vietnam veteran movies that used this story as well. A figure pulled from the history of illusions, projected onto some unacceptable present fact to turn it ghastly, gothic, etc.
Interesting how Chabert's ultimate renunciation, an extreme taken for the very abstract reason of preserving personal dignity, resembles in its effect the ideal of Epicurus. La cual forma parte de La Comedia Humana. Fiel reflejo de la sociedad de su tiempo y que transciende a la actual. May 19, A-Ile Self-hallucination rated it it was amazing Shelves: Dec 30, Laura rated it liked it Shelves: Colonel Chabert marries Rose Chapotel, a prostitute.