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Seven more excursions into the Napoleonic world through the pen of a master Honore de Balzac was quite literally a child of the Napoleonic age. Born in 1799 he grew to be one of the most highly regarded French writers of any age and his works are acknowledged influences on several authors of renown who followed him including Zola, Flaubert, Henry James and even Jack Kerouac! His most frequently referenced writer in the English language was, however, Charles Dickens. Those who are familiar with Balzac’s work need no introduction to it here, but for those less familiar with it, this favourable comparison reveals that here was one who knew how to tell a good story filled with real, well crafted, rounded characters who are authentic to their age. This collection of Balzac’s fiction contains only those stories which are set in the Napoleonic era itself. Having grown up in this period and having about him a plethora of living reference sources in the form of those who took an active part in it, these highly entertaining tales, combined with Balzac’s own genius can be nothing other than pure reading pleasure. Several of Balzac’s pieces have been filmed including some of those collected here.
This second volume of Balzac’s Napoleonic stories begins with ‘An Historical Mystery, ’ beginning in1806 it is a satisfying tale of the abduction of a senator of the Empire, of detection, trial and punishment. The second tale, ‘Farewell, ’ draws the reader to the disastrous Russian campaign, its retreat through winter and the crossing of the Berezina by the shattered remnants of the Grand Army. ‘A Second Home’ is followed by ‘The Recruit’ and ‘A Passion in the Desert, ’ a brilliantly memorable story of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. ‘El Verdugo’ moves the scene back to Europe and the war in the Iberian peninsula before the volume concludes with ‘Colonel Chabert, ’ the bizarre account of brave soldier’s return from among the dead of the Battle of Eylau.
Available in soft cover and good quality hard back with dust jacket for collectors
