Honore de Balzac 
Colonel Chabert 

Le Colonel Chabert (English: Colonel Chabert) is an 1832 novella by French novelist and playwright Honore de Balzac (1799-1850). It is included in his series of novels (or Roman-fleuve) known as La Comedie humaine (The Human Comedy), which depicts and parodies French society in the period of the Restoration (1815-1830) and the July Monarchy (1830-1848). This novella, originally published in Le Constitutionnel, was adapted for six different motion pictures, including two silent films. (Excerpt from Wikipedia)