Landscape, Ideology, and Plot in Balzac's Les Chouans

The relation between events and the detailed landscapes in Balzac's Les Chouans can best be understood through a study that treats the topics of geography, military strategy, and visual perception while focusing on readers' reactions rather than referential concerns. Such a study reveals the ways in which Balzac's landscapes strengthen the reader's adherence to a Republican, ideological outlook. The reader is like the Republican soldiers in seeing Bretagne as a place that is geographically confusing and militarily treacherous. The reader is also like the Republican heroine whose ambivalent political sentiments are suggested through unusual effects in the visual perception of nature. (DYK)