Read Online Colonel Chabert French Edition Honoré de 17991850 Balzac 9781245862394 Books

Product details Paperback 116 pages Publisher Nabu Press (September 17, 2011) Language French ISBN-10 1245862391

Colonel Chabert French Edition Honoré de 17991850 Balzac 9781245862394 Books Reviews

• "Colonel Chabert" is one of Honore de Balzac's volumes from his omnibus work, "The Human Comedy." The Colonel is a comic figure in and old military great coat and a wig who is ridiculed by young legal workers at the beginning of the novel. 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." The work will stimulate further interest in the monumental work of Balzac who had a relatively short life (1799-1850).
• With a slow start, but for such a short story, keeps an amazing tension, around a question, "Will she, won't she?" and makes one wonder why it turns out as it does. 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.
• Ceci est un livre écrit par Balzac. 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.
• L'histoire d'un être noble, porté au désespoir par la méchanceté d'une femme abjecte.
  C'est interéssant, vers la fin du roman la description de l'approche que l'avocat fait des misères humaines, face à celle du médecin ou du prêtre.
• 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. EXTREMELY DIFFICULT READ (even for a French person at times, I'm told)!!
• well written and an interesting story
  deep insight of human behaviour
  19th century society vices remaincunchanged in the 21st century