page_title: Les Chouans
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Les Chouans / Background
context_page_description: Les Chouans is an 1829 novel by French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac and included in the Scènes de la vie militaire section of his novel sequence La Comédie humaine. Set in the French region of Brittany, the novel combines military history with a love story between the aristocratic Marie de Verneuil and the Chouan royalist Alphonse de Montauran. It takes place during the 1799 post-war uprising in Fougères.
  Balzac conceived the idea for the novel during a trip to Brittany arranged by a family friend in 1828. Intrigued by the people and atmosphere of the region, he began collecting notes and descriptions for later use. After publishing an Avertissement for the novel, he released three editions – each of them revised significantly. The first novel Balzac published without a pseudonym, he used many titles as he wrote and published, including Le Gars, Les Chouans ou la Bretagne il y a trente ans, and Le Dernier Chouan ou la Bretagne en 1800.
  Following closely in the footsteps of Sir Walter Scott, the novel uses its truthful historical backdrop to tell a fictional story of people who sculpted the past.
context_section_description: In the wake of the French Revolution, groups of royalists loyal to the House of Bourbon rose up against the new government. One group was the Chouans of Brittany, led by Jean Chouan. They allied themselves with counter-revolutionary forces in Vendée and by 1793 the Revolt in the Vendée had begun. The insurrection was put down by the republic, and within two years the royalist forces had been routed.
  Royalist sentiment did not evaporate, however, and in Brittany, violence between the two sides – "Blue" Revolutionaries against "White" Chouans – continued as the Chouannerie, even when Napoleon took power in 1799. The Bonaparte forces responded as the republic had, and the Chouans were defeated – although political divisions and resentment lingered for more than a century.
  At the start of the nineteenth century, the works of Sir Walter Scott were best-sellers in France. His novels captured the ebb and flow of society, and he demonstrated the far-reaching impact of major historical changes. A slew of authors in France attempted to replicate Scott's success, but their works were isolated from one another and divorced from their surroundings.
  Honoré de Balzac was profoundly influenced by Scott (as well as Irish writer Maria Edgeworth), and decided to write novels using France's turbulent history as a literary backdrop in the same way they had used the history of Scotland and Ireland. Balzac had previously only published potboiler novels under a variety of pseudonyms, books designed to excite readers and sell copies. He had also engaged in a series of ill-fated speculative investments, which left him in considerable debt. Nevertheless, he believed in his skills as a writer, and awaited success around every corner.
caption: A series of insurrections took place in the Brittany region (highlighted) after the French Revolution.
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