Adding Narrative to Life
The Education of Delhomme:
Chopin, Sand, & La France
By Nancy Burkhalter
The year is 1850. Beaulieu Delhomme faces the guillotine for treason against the French government due to his part in the bloody worker uprisings in 1848.
Delhomme’s desire to marry and have a family sets the plot in motion. He eventually becomes a piano tuner but struggles to find work. Cash-strapped, he falls prey to the king’s canny spymaster, Vidocq, who offers him money if he will trade on his friendship with Paris’ much-vaunted Frédéric Chopin after becoming his piano tuner. Vidocq ultimately wants Delhomme to gain access to Chopin’s lover, George Sand, whose fiery rhetoric against the government’s oppressive laws threatens the king. Sand and Delhomme exchange barbs as they vie for Chopin’s attention.
The king’s henchmen capture Delhomme. There is a trial. He is sent to the brutal Conciergerie, where he awaits the gallows. How will he get out of this jam?
"Our judges called this work of historical fiction superb. The scenes, the characters' mannerisms and way of being in the world, the dialogue with its flavor of the past, stellar. The structure of the story, masterful. The story itself, intelligent. With prose that seems to reflect the style and rhythm of the music at the heart of the novel. A lyrical work, steeped in history and beautifully paced." -Independent Publishers of New England (IPNE)
About Nancy Burkhalter
Writing has threaded through every aspect of my career. I've been a journalist, teacher of academic writing, ghostwriter, and novelist. It has become central to my existence.
It wasn’t easy getting my first break. Fortunately, an editor found something worth publishing many years ago, and I never looked back. I invite you to check out my books, personal histories, and writing samples. In the meantime, I'm busy writing . . .