Colonel Chabert

"Le Colonel Chabert" is a novella by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac, first published in 1832. It is a part of his series of novels known as La Comédie Humaine (, which depicts and parodies French society during the Restoration and the July Monarchy. It tells the story of a Buonaparte soldier buried alive after being wrongfully recorded as dead. After extricating himself from his grave and taking a long rehabilitation period, he returns home to learn that all his property has vanished and his good name has been forgotten. He now has to win his money and life back.