Colonel Chabert - Honoré de Balzac

Colonel Chabert is a soldier, who goes missing during the Napoleonic wars, and then returns from the dead, most inconveniently for his wife, who has remarried and has gone up in the world. This novella by Balzac lays bare the venality of the French Restoration period. It has been filmed several times, most recently in the 1994 version, starring Gerard Depardieu. - Summary by Nicole Lee