An Historical Mystery

In autumn 1803, Balzac opens in a country estate where beauty and menace coexist: Gondreville's tranquil park, old pavilion, and aristocratic grandeur are shadowed by political suspicion, hidden enemies, and the looming threat of violence. At the center stands Michu, the estate's formidable bailiff, a peasant orphan raised by the noble Simeuse family and hardened by the Revolution into a secretive man who inspires fear in neighbors, officials, and even his own household. His marriage to Marthe, daughter of a fervent revolutionary, binds him to the era's contradictions, while the fate of the Simeuse lands and the rise of the powerful Malin reveal how ambition, betrayal, and shifting loyalties have remade post-Revolutionary France. As Corentin investigates a wounded gendarme, rope traps, furtive bargains, and suspicious visitors tighten the net around Michu's family. Marthe's quiet devotion, François's brief freedom in the woods, and the hidden protection of fugitive gentlemen deepen the sense of a household living under surveillance. With Napoleon's rise, the execution of the Duc d'Enghien, and the cautious maneuvering of old noble families, the novel becomes a tense provincial drama of class conflict, political intrigue, and dangerous allegiance. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.

Honoré de Balzac : Tour à tour dramaturge, journaliste et écrivain, il est considéré comme l'une des figures majeures du monde des lettres françaises.
Créateur du roman réaliste moderne, il conçut dès 1833 le grand cycle de la Comédie humaine. Dépensier et excentrique, il vécut criblé de dettes ; amoureux de la vie et des femmes, il se fit remarquer dans les salons mondains et littéraires, et connut de tumultueuses et rocambolesques liaisons. Voyageur infatigable et collectionneur, habité par des projets extravagants, il s'aventura dans des contrées lointaines et souvent inhospitalières.
Il laissera à sa mort, à 51 ans, l'une des plus grandes oeuvres de la littérature mondiale. " Il entre le même jour, dans la gloire et dans le tombeau ", dira Victor Hugo dans l'éloge funèbre qu'il prononça au cimetière du Père-Lachaise.