Honoré de Balzac ou l’éternel retour des morts

Honoré de Balzac stands among the most influential novelists in French literature. His prolific output includes Le Colonel Chabert (1832), a work that explores social mores and delves into themes such as war, identity, betrayal, death, and the notion of eternal return. The narrative follows Hyacinthe Chabert, a colonel in Napoleon I’s Grand Army who, presumed dead and buried, reemerges to challenge the social order and reclaim his former identity. This article seeks to examine the motif of the dead returning in Balzac’s novel, as embodied by Colonel Chabert, and to illustrate how the character’s fate is shaped by a persistent and tragic misfortune. Specifically, it investigates the recurring patterns and symbolic structures that underpin Chabert’s resurrection, drawing on the theoretical framework of ethnocriticism developed by Jean-Marie Privat and Marie Scarpa.