In 1848, a wave of Revolution swept across Europe. In more than fifty countries people took to the streets demanding political and economic reform. In Germany, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto, a political document identifying class struggle as a major dilemma in society and calling upon the “forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions.” In France, that struggle was put on display during the February Uprising when thousands of working-class Parisians flooded onto the streets in response to extremely high unemployment and the government’s banning of political gatherings and demonstrations. The uprising successfully ousted French King Louis Philippe and brought about universal male suffrage, but the reformers were unorganized and incapable of leadership. After the closure of National Workshops—meant to provide work for the millions of unemployed—a new uprising arose on June 23 when hundreds of thousands of disgruntled Parisians took the streets to voice their dissatisfaction. This became known as the June Days Uprising.

It is among these conditions we find Beaulieu Delhomme, the fictional piano tuner for renowned composer Frédéric Chopin, in the novel, The Education of Delhomme: Chopin, Sand, & La France. Strapped for cash and unable to live up to his father’s expectations, Delhomme is lured away from rural Marainville-sur-Madon to Paris where, after failing to make it through medical school, he takes work in a piano shop becoming one among millions in the French working class, though he views himself as an artisan. From there Delhomme is thrust into a world of chaos and conflict, often forced to take sides without knowing who, in the end, will hold power for good. He not only witnesses the turmoil, but he experiences it, too.  

Like any good historical novel, author Nancy Burkhalter embraces the context in which her characters live. As Delhomme sinks deeper and deeper into his own personal dilemma, he finds himself gripped inextricably within the social upheaval of mid-nineteenth century France. For instance, as readers we see Delhomme at a dinner party hosted by the political activist and writer George Sand, where, among other things, social elites debate over the rights of women and the working class. Later, after Delhomme rescues his orphaned nephew from long hours of arduous, low-wage work in an English piano factory, we see Delhomme and his nephew in the Paris streets, unable to escape the political riots known as the June Days Uprising. Delhomme even meets Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte—the exiled nephew of Napoleon I—who was elected President of France following the 1848 Revolutions only to return France to a Monarchy in 1852.

These details mark only the beginning of Burkhalter’s thorough research into the people and politics of France at that time. The novel includes Auguste Blanqui, the socialist known for his revolutionary theory of Blanquism; Alphonse de Lamartine, the poet and politician who was instrumental in founding France’s Second Republic; and King Louis Philippe, the French ruler who was ousted by the February Uprisings of 1848. These historical figures are brought to life and placed nicely within the moment of turmoil in which they lived. Delhomme, as a fictional character, is merely the author’s vessel—an engaging prop that allows readers to live in a time and place they might otherwise know little about. It was a time of change, a time of Revolution, a time that looks strangely familiar to the world we live in today.