Fate robs a man of the woman he loves & his fortune, During the intervening period his wife has legally re-married (a man with strong ambitions to enter the Peerage (périe de France), and borne him two children. The husband's ambitions are thwarted, however; his wife is closely linked with the Bonapartist era but now the political climate has changed and she is considered suspect.
Chabert's re-appearance upsets everything; his wife's re-marriage could be annuled and her children declared illegitimate.
Both Chabert and his wife want to do right by each other; Chabert wants the restoration of his name and fortune, but his wife naturally fears the annulment of her present marriage and its consequences to her children.
Enter the lawyer, Maître Derville, with his "protocol susceptible de réunir l'adhésion des deux parties". Some readers have interpreted Derville's role as crooked. This is not so. Derville, too, wants to be fair to both sides and, under the circumstances, does what he can.
A poignant tale of how fate conspires to rob humans of the people and things they cherish most.
Surely, one of Balzac's best.
Colonel Chabert
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