The Chouans, the first volume in Balzac's magnificent novel sequence La Comedie Humaine, is the tale of the Royalist uprising in Brittany against the post-revolutionary republic.
Balzac tells it romantically and with passion. Yet his keen eye for documentary detail, together with his mastery of scene-painting, also give the novel authority as an expert study of guerrilla warfare. By interweaving history with adventure, past with present, comedy with tragedy, Balzac creates in The Chouans a rich and vivid portrait of the varieties and conditions of men as they are affected by dramatic social and political change.
In this skilful translation by Marion Ayton Crawford the reader will experience the mesmeric power of Balzac's prose. The detail delights, the framework fascinates and the story enthralls.