The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, and La France
Book Feature - The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, and La France by Nancy Burkhalter
HBL Note: You all know how much I love historical fiction. So imagine my excitement when History Through Fiction, a new independent press, reached out and asked if I’d like to feature one of their titles. Their name alone describes what it is I love so much about the historical fiction genre, that it teaches us about history through the more approachable medium/genre of fiction. Readers who wouldn’t pick up a biography may be more likely to pick up a fictionalized version of someone’s life and then maybe, just maybe, be inspired to research a bit more on their own. This is exactly what intrigued me about The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, and La France by Nancy Burkhalter. Scroll down to read more about it.
Book Feature - The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, and La France by Nancy Burkhalter
From the publisher:
Beaulieu Delhomme, a piano tuner, faces the guillotine for committing treason against the newly elected French president due to his part in the bloody worker uprisings in 1848. The one person who could save him from this fate is his former arch-rival, the celebrated author, George Sand. The plot leading to his imprisonment revolves around the triangle of composer Frédéric Chopin, his lover George Sand, and Delhomme, Chopin’s loyal piano tuner. Both Sand and Delhomme compete for the attention of Chopin, who fights a losing battle with tuberculosis. The president’s spymaster uses this triangle to lure cash-strapped Delhomme into exploiting his friendship with Chopin to spy on George Sand, whose fiery rhetoric threatens the new president.
At first, before the uprisings that marked a tumultuous period out of which France’s Second Republic grew, Delhomme favors preserving the status quo because any policy changes might jeopardize his (and Chopin’s) wealthy client base. Sand wields her pen against the oppressive laws and ridicules Delhomme for his views.
Delhomme changes his opinion of the monarchy when he sees how his nephew is abused as an orphan working in a piano factory in industrial London. Delhomme becomes a double agent, paid to spy for the president while secretly working for the resistance. Sand softens her contempt when she discovers that he has switched allegiances and now promotes workers’ rights.
Delhomme is caught working for the resistance, jailed in Paris’ infamous Conciergerie prison, and faces a trial for treason. Even Sand’s testimony is not enough to trump that of the vaunted spymaster, but her fame may be enough to persuade the new president to pardon him.
