COMPLETE: Colonel Chabert by Balzac -jo

Solo or group recordings that are finished and fully available for listeners
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Colonel Chabert, by Honoré de Balzac (1799 - 1850), translated by Clara Bell (1835 - 1927) and Ellen Marriage (1865 - 1946)

This project is now complete. All audio files can be found on our catalog page here:

https://librivox.org/colonel-chabert-by-honore-de-balzac-2/

The short novel “Colonel Chabert” (1832) is part of Balzac’s great life work, the sprawling novel series titled “The Human Comedy.”

Chabert, an officer in Napoleon’s army, is pronounced dead on the battlefield. His wife then inherits his estate and remarries. It turns out, however, that Chabert has in fact survived the war. When he regains his health, he returns to Paris and tries to take legal action to restore his position. This sets up a conflict between the old military virtues of honor and principle versus the avarice and amorality of society in post-Napoleonic France. (Summary by Bruce Pirie)
Source text (please read only from this text!): https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1954

Target completion date: 2023-09-30

Prooflistening level: Standard
Prospective PLs, please see the Guide for Proof-listeners.

IMPORTANT - soloist, please note: in order to limit the number of languishing projects on our server, we ask that you post an update at least once a month in your project thread, even if you haven't recorded anything. If we don't hear from you for three months, your project may be opened up to a group project if a Book Coordinator is found. Files you have completed will be used in this project. If you haven't recorded anything yet, your project will be removed from the forum (contact any admin to see if it can be re-instated).

Please don't download or listen to files belonging to projects in process unless you are the BC or PL. Our servers are not set up to handle the greater volume of traffic. Please wait until the project has been completed. Thanks!

Magic Window:



BC Admin

Genres for the project: Literary Fiction; General Fiction/Published 1800 -1900

Keywords that describe the book: greed, realism, avarice, bourgeois, middle class, post-napoleonic france, military honor, faithfulness

========================================

LibriVox recording settings: mono (1 channel), 44100 Hz sample rate, 128 kbps constant bit rate MP3. See the Tech Specs

Intro to recording:
Leave 0.5 to 1 second of silence at the beginning.

For the first section, say:
Section # of Colonel Chabert. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit librivox.org. Read by Bruce Pirie. Colonel Chabert, by Honoré de Balzac, translated by Clara Bell and Ellen Marriage.
For the second and subsequent sections, you may use the shortened intro if you wish:
Section # of Colonel Chabert, by Honoré de Balzac, translated by Clara Bell and Ellen Marriage. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Read by Bruce Pirie.
End of recording:
Say:
End of section #.
If you are recording the final section of the book, add:
End of Colonel Chabert, by Honoré de Balzac, translated by Clara Bell and Ellen Marriage.
Leave 5 seconds of silence at the end.

Filename: colonelchabert_##_balzac_128kb.mp3 where ## is the section number. (e.g. colonelchabert_01_balzac_128kb.mp3)

Upload to the LibriVox Uploader: https://librivox.org/login/uploader

MC to select: knotyouraveragejo

Copy and paste the file link generated by the uploader into the relevant Listen URL field in the Section Compiler, enter the duration in the Notes field, and post in this thread to let your PL and MC know that you have uploaded a file. You may also post the file link in the thread.
Last edited by beeber on June 2nd, 2023, 5:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Winnifred
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Post by Winnifred »

May I put myself forward as DPL?

Thanks,
Winnifred

Away from my computer March 30 to April 6.

Readers Wanted:
The Powder of Sympathy by Christopher Morley (humorous short essays on a wide range of topics including literature, Buddha, cars, New York, Oxford, recipes, and a dog named Gissing)
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Winnifred wrote: June 2nd, 2023, 2:45 pm May I put myself forward as DPL?
Yes, that would be great, Winnifred. Now we'll just wait for an Admin MC to make us official.
Thanks,
Bruce
knotyouraveragejo
LibriVox Admin Team
Posts: 22080
Joined: November 18th, 2006, 4:37 pm

Post by knotyouraveragejo »

I can do that...:) Be back shortly with your MW.
Jo
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Thank you, Jo!

Bruce
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

And Section 1 is ready for PL.

Bruce
Winnifred
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Joined: February 4th, 2022, 4:50 pm
Location: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Contact:

Post by Winnifred »

beeber wrote: June 4th, 2023, 12:37 pm And Section 1 is ready for PL.

Bruce
Section 1 is PL OK! This is going to be fun. :9:

Cheers,
Winnifred

Away from my computer March 30 to April 6.

Readers Wanted:
The Powder of Sympathy by Christopher Morley (humorous short essays on a wide range of topics including literature, Buddha, cars, New York, Oxford, recipes, and a dog named Gissing)
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

I'm glad you're looking forward to this project. Of course, it's an old, old story-line — the soldier who returns home many years after the war, hoping that his wife is still faithful. I guess that's the basic story of Homer's Odyssey.

Section 2 is ready for PL.

Bruce
Winnifred
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Contact:

Post by Winnifred »

beeber wrote: June 8th, 2023, 5:21 pm I'm glad you're looking forward to this project. Of course, it's an old, old story-line — the soldier who returns home many years after the war, hoping that his wife is still faithful. I guess that's the basic story of Homer's Odyssey.

Section 2 is ready for PL.

Bruce
Ah, but Penelope had more integrity than Madame Chabert and held out against her suitors as much as she could.

Section 2 is PL OK and very well read!

Cheers,
Winnifred

Away from my computer March 30 to April 6.

Readers Wanted:
The Powder of Sympathy by Christopher Morley (humorous short essays on a wide range of topics including literature, Buddha, cars, New York, Oxford, recipes, and a dog named Gissing)
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Section 3 is ready for PL.

I'm always interested in the social history of France that we see in Balzac — or, at least, social history as he saw it. In this chapter, we are shown that old Napoleonic soldiers were not being treated well after the Restoration of the monarchy. Balzac admired the soldiers of the Empire (here and in other books). He saw them as models of honour and principle, often exhibiting a kind of childlike simplicity. In his eyes, those uncomplicated virtues were now being trampled in the treacherous post-Restoration scramble for money and influence.

But before we entirely accept his assessment, we should remember that Balzac himself was actually a child during the Napoleonic period. Balzac was born the same year that Napoleon was returning from the Egypt campaign and being appointed First Consul. He had just turned 16 when Napoleon met his defeat at Waterloo. So it may be that he views the soldiers of the Empire through a kind of nostalgic filter — the glamour of remembering those heroes that he heard about in his childhood.

I was struck by a line in the previous chapter: "there is often something of the child in a true soldier." I don't want to be over-subtle or Freudian, but I can't help wondering if this line unconsciously reveals more that Balzac realizes about his own admiration for the soldiers of the Empire. (Perhaps a projection of his own childhood onto those heroes? Well, I'm probably over-thinking this.)

Bruce
Winnifred
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Post by Winnifred »

Section 3 is PL OK!

I had forgotten how delightful Balzac’s language can be. The image of that little boy, dropping stones down a chimney in hopes that one will fall into a saucepan, is just so marvellously mischievous.

Your reading brings it all to vivid life.

Cheers,
Winnifred

Away from my computer March 30 to April 6.

Readers Wanted:
The Powder of Sympathy by Christopher Morley (humorous short essays on a wide range of topics including literature, Buddha, cars, New York, Oxford, recipes, and a dog named Gissing)
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Section 4 is ready for PL.

Unfortunately, this section has a significant little detail that I am afraid many modern readers will miss.

At one point the Colonel begins to tell the story of how he met his wife in the Palais Royal. At that point in history, the Palais Royal was well known as a cultural and entertainment centre, with shops, restaurants, and theatres. But it was also well known as a hang-out for prostitutes. This is the point about his wife's history that Chabert is on the point of exposing, and that's why she suddenly interrupts and storms out of the room. She wants to cut short this line of conversation.

Bruce
Winnifred
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Post by Winnifred »

beeber wrote: June 17th, 2023, 5:54 am Section 4 is ready for PL.

Unfortunately, this section has a significant little detail that I am afraid many modern readers will miss.

At one point the Colonel begins to tell the story of how he met his wife in the Palais Royal. At that point in history, the Palais Royal was well known as a cultural and entertainment centre, with shops, restaurants, and theatres. But it was also well known as a hang-out for prostitutes. This is the point about his wife's history that Chabert is on the point of exposing, and that's why she suddenly interrupts and storms out of the room. She wants to cut short this line of conversation.

Bruce
I'd have missed that too if you hadn't enlightened me. It provides an additional reason why she wants to deal with him directly rather than through Derville (the first being because she knows she can sweet-talk him more easily than she could the attorney).

Section 4 is PL OK. I'm learning so much about pacing from listening to your reading!

Cheers,
Winnifred

Away from my computer March 30 to April 6.

Readers Wanted:
The Powder of Sympathy by Christopher Morley (humorous short essays on a wide range of topics including literature, Buddha, cars, New York, Oxford, recipes, and a dog named Gissing)
beeber
Posts: 1719
Joined: March 9th, 2009, 7:46 am
Location: Mississauga, Ontario

Post by beeber »

Section 5 is ready for PL,

And that, of course, is the final section, so once Winnifred approves, the project is ready to be catalogued.

Thank you, Winnifred, for the time and attention you have put into listening to these sections. And, as always, thank you, Jo, for your admin services that make the work possible.

Best wishes, all!
Bruce
Winnifred
Posts: 2421
Joined: February 4th, 2022, 4:50 pm
Location: North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Contact:

Post by Winnifred »

beeber wrote: June 23rd, 2023, 8:20 am Section 5 is ready for PL,

And that, of course, is the final section, so once Winnifred approves, the project is ready to be catalogued.

Thank you, Winnifred, for the time and attention you have put into listening to these sections. And, as always, thank you, Jo, for your admin services that make the work possible.

Best wishes, all!
Bruce
Hi Bruce,

I can't believe I'm writing this after your first four flawless sections, but there are actually a couple of corrections you might want to make to this last one:

At 26:57, you read “In 1832, towards the end of June…” but the text reads “In 1840, towards the end of June…” You might want to correct that.

At 27:52, you read “The man had an attractive countenance.” But the text reads “The old man had an attractive countenance.” It’s not a significant change to the meaning.

These corrections are, especially the second one, at your discretion, of course.

No need to thank me; listening to your reading has been an unalloyed pleasure from start to finish. I shall look out for future opportunities to DPL your work, especially if it's more Balzac.

Cheers,
Winnifred

Away from my computer March 30 to April 6.

Readers Wanted:
The Powder of Sympathy by Christopher Morley (humorous short essays on a wide range of topics including literature, Buddha, cars, New York, Oxford, recipes, and a dog named Gissing)
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