# Colomban — Penguin Island character guide

> Colomban in Penguin Island by Anatole France.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** IV Colomban, Cornemuse Colomban, Duck Colomban, M. Colomban, VIII The Colomban

**First appearance:** 0052-iv-colomban

## Snapshot

A stubborn, bespectacled truth-teller who proves the army never received its hay — and is chased through the sewers by a patriotic mob for it.

## Who they are

Colomban is the man who dares to demonstrate that Pyrot could not have stolen eighty thousand trusses of hay, because Maubec never delivered them. For this he is pelted with groceries, knocked from a ladder, and forced to spend a night among the rats of a sewer, muttering that the fight will be a stiff one. His lonely, methodical courage against a howling crowd makes him the moral center of the Colomban affair — and the target of a nation that prefers its scandals to its arithmetic.

## In the story

### [Book VI: The Affair of the Eighty Thousand Trusses of Hay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/book-vi-the-affair-of-the-eighty-thousand-trusses-of-hay)

Supporter of Pyrot, involved in the legal and political fallout.

### [IV: Colomban](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/iv-colomban)

A prolific author of sixty volumes on Penguin sociology who bravely posts placards declaring Pyrot's innocence and Maubec's guilt, enduring mob violence and fleeing into a sewer.

### [V: The Reverend Fathers Agaric and Cornemuse](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/v-the-reverend-fathers-agaric-and-cornemuse)

Bears public reprobation with meekness, writes memoranda defending Pyrot, and is stoned when he goes out.

### [VI: The Seven Hundred Pyrotists](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/vi-the-seven-hundred-pyrotists)

Mentioned as the person for whom M. Bazile is mistaken.

### [VII: Bidault-Coquille and Maniflore, the Socialists](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/vii-bidault-coquille-and-maniflore-the-socialists)

Mentioned as the author of a memorandum in favor of Pyrot that inspires Bidault-Coquille.

### [VIII: The Colomban Trial](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/viii-the-colomban-trial)

The defendant on trial, perceived as a Pyrotist; he is condemned despite lack of evidence and later rescued, only to flee with a lame horse.

### [IX: Father Douillard](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/ix-father-douillard)

Mentioned in Douillard's sermon as a proud and crime-stained figure.

### [Mr. Justice Chaussepied](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/chapters/x-mr-justice-chaussepied)

Mentioned as one of those condemned in connection with the Pyrot affair.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters/colomban
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/penguin_island_se/characters