"L'homme à l'oreille cassée" by Edmond About is a novel published in 1862. When a French engineer returns from Russia with a mummified body in his luggage, he discovers it's a Napoleonic colonel preserved through experimental desiccation in 1813. A scientific accident leads to the officer's resurrection forty-six years later, still believing himself twenty-four and living in Napoleon's era. This comedic science-fiction tale explores the chaotic consequences when past collides with present.