French Literature Reviews - 2026
Balzac, The Last Chouan, or Brittany in 1800
Novel and Narrative Prose
Honoré de Balzac, THE LAST CHOUAN, OR BRITTANY IN 1800
(new edition faithful to the text of the original edition, published in the chronological order of its initial release in volume form; edited and introduced by Andrew Oliver, including a CD-ROM containing the critical apparatus of the edition)
Éditions de l'originale Trinity College, “The Novels of Balzac” series, vol. I
ISSN 1712-9605
ISBN 0-9735547-0-3
29 €
The Last Chouan, or Brittany in 1800, the first novel Balzac agreed to publish under his own name, marks a crucial turning point in the writer's career. For even though the author does not yet sign as DE BALZAC and lacks the confident mastery that characterizes many of the works from the pen of the future author of The Human Comedy, he assumes, for the very first time, full public and moral responsibility for his writing. This edition reproduces the text of the original edition published by Urbain Canel in 1829. Indeed, this is the first time since that date that The Last Chouan, or Brittany in 1800 has been republished in this form, as Balzac radically altered the novel's text for the second edition and made further revisions for the third. This is the text Balzac's earliest readers would have read, the one found in bookstores and lending libraries, and, above all, the one that embodies the genius of the work in its initial conception and realization.
Éditions de l'originale Trinity College 6 Hoskin Ave Toronto, Canada M5S 1H8
This volume presents Honoré de Balzac's The Last Chouan, or Brittany in 1800 based strictly on the 1829 text published by Urbain Canel. The text reproduces the version known to the author's earliest readers before subsequent revisions altered the novel for later editions. The edition forms part of a series dedicated to Balzac's novels and includes a CD-ROM containing the critical apparatus accompanying the publication.
Readers interested in nineteenth-century French literature and the evolution of Balzac's authorship may find this volume relevant. The publication marks a crucial turning point in the writer's career as the first novel he agreed to publish under his own name, assuming full public and moral responsibility for his writing before the later development of The Human Comedy.