The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

Member of the Institute

Sylvestre Bonnard is a mild-mannered, kind-hearted book collector and antiquarian, a little tyrannized by his housekeeper maybe, but nonetheless respected and eminent in his field of research into the abbeys, abbots and monks of medieval France. He has spent his life with his books, and knows little of the ways of the world. Resigned to reaching old age and retirement without being able to complete his life's work, he suddenly comes across the one thing that would not only complete it, but that would crown it with success. He heads off on an adventure to get his hands on this treasure and finds not only the warmth of human kindness on his travels, but the deceptions and tricks of the world he has sheltered from for so long. And having once stepped out into the wider world, finding if not exactly looking for adventure, things can never go back as they were before. He yearns for human contact and love, and finds a worthy object for his affection and care in the young granddaughter of the one unrequited love of his life. But before she can be freed from a miserable subjection and returned to a life of happiness and love, the respectable Monsieur Bonnard, a Member of the Institute of France, an expert advisor of governments and scholars, finds himself involved in a serious crime that could put an end to all his hopes, leave his young charge in misery and prey to unscrupulous exploiters, and land him in prison!