Colonel Chabert

A vital part of Balzac's "La comedie humaine," this radiant novel recounts the story of a disenfranchised hero of the Napoleonic wars. Left for dead on the battlefield of Eylau, Colonel Chabert has spent years in an asylum as an amnesiac. The novel begins as he returns to the life he left behind only to discover that, in his absence, his entire life-family, society, identity-has changed. With Napoleon deposed, France's aristocracy has returned to power as if the Revolution never occurred.