France Books

Let me start by saying I just came home from Paris where Ipicked up this book in French at Versailles and read it late everysingle night! If you want it in English, amazon.uk will special order it. I first saw this as a movie on PBS, "Mrs. Morison's Ghosts," about 20 years ago and never forgot it. At the time I didnt know if it was fiction or nonfiction and couldn't find the book because the title was different and the authors did not use their real names for the first edition. This book, published first in 1911 and many times since, was a best seller in England and France. "les Fantomes de Trianon" or "Ghosts of the Trianon" not only includes the original story, but the painstakingly detailed research the authors did to track down and authenticate everything they had seen, their three subsequent visits to Versailles, and various analyses of their experience, which amounted to stepping across a time warp. As my version points out, mankind has conquered the speed of sound and the speed of light, so why shouldn't we someday be able to break through the barrier of time? I found both the book and the movie thrilling and thought-provoking. This story has not had the publicity it deserves.

By the way, I've hung out in the gardens of Versailles on two occasions so far, and both times there were repairs in the area of the Petit Trianon, so I wasn't able to see if I could duplicate their experience. If I ever do, I'll let you all know!

This fall (10/5, I believe) it will be one hundred years to the day that Moberly and Jourdain saw the Ghosts of Versailles. I expect to be there around then and if I get a chance to lurk around the Petit Trianon and see anything, I'll add to this review. I thought I'd point this out to anyone else planning to be in Paris at the time. Ghosts seem to like me, the chances are good. Watch for my next review on The Days of the French Revolution, another 5-star.

A magical walk in the castle's park, where two English spinsters, schoolmistresses, discovered an incredible view of what Versailles was before the French Revolution. Amazingly authentic and truthful. I loved it and I think everyone who loves France should read it, if you can find it!

A thorough and absorbing re-examination of the curious story of two proper English ladies - Miss Moberly and Miss Jordaine - who went for a stroll one hot summer day in 1900 and came back convinced that they had traveled through time and seen Marie Antoinette. This is one of the world's great, unresolved ghost stories, and this slim volume does a very in-depth examination of exactly what these ladies may have seen and exactly how their story has been dealt with down through the decades. Thought provoking and very satisfying for the reader of true life ghost stories. I literally searched for this book for years and finally finding it was well worth my long, long anticipation. Highly recommended.

I totally agree with all the reviews below. What a pity this book is dropping out of print. It is an excellent general introduction to the Greeks that is funny, lively, and never takes itself too seriously. My one issue with Mr. France is that the translations of Homer, Sophocles, and Aeschylus he recommends are good (Hammond, Rieu, Vellacott, Watling), but what about Fagles? Maybe it is a British thing; but after Fagles' translations, those others simply won't do.

I started to read this book expecting a dry and labourious list of past events in ancient Greece and such like. From the first line of the introduction it was clearly not going to be like any other book on the classics I had ever read.
It is funny, factual - I loved the bit about Parson's Pleasure -,engaging, thoroughly entertaining and very informative. You've just got to buy this book.....

As a retired computer industry executive, I have spent seventeen serious years both formally a la carte at Oxford and elsewhere as well as informally studying classical Greek culture, have amassed a library of over four thousand books on this subject, and I only regret that I didn't have Peter France's book as my course outline before I started. The respect that Sir Kenneth Dover and other eminent scholars (and in Dover's case, formerly Oxford) lent Mr. France certainly attests with more authority than I to its value. Its thoroughness, breadth and accuracy of representation of a very complex culture is truly admirable and would have saved me from many lower priority lower yield "roads less traveled".

I read this book to get a general feel for ancient greece after reading the Odyssey in the summer. The book was an excellent walk though of ancient greek culture and philosophy, though in places it can be difficult without an academic background of sorts. I particularly liked how straight forward the authors analogies were, and how the information was portrayed in section, in particular the snippits from actual greek plays give a taste of some of the greats that is certain to leave one wanting for more. An Excellent book.

I've been saving for this book for so long. It deserved it! It is great. Lovely. The photos are amazing because of their quality. I hadn't time to read the text but I know the writter is a very good one to do it.

Simply great.

I have not much more to add on the other reviews regarding the quality of text and reproductions. It is a real non-exhaustive "catalogue raisonné" of the most relevant Moreau's works (his "St. Sebastian" is mesmerizingly and ominously sublime) plus interesting essays.

Moreau is the flagship of French symbolist painting. Although he was a secluded artist he had interesting disciples, like Desvallières, in the circle of the so-called "peintres de l'âme" (painters of the soul). For them, he always was a reference, an idol, like his Semeles, Sphinxs and Salomés. Interestingly Moreau never took part in the Salon de la Rose-Croix (lead by "Sar" Péladan) or any other artistic movement. He was a perfect example of the Balzac's hero-painter in the famous novel "The unknown masterpiece": the never ending painting. Moreau's preciousness, craftmanship, genious, exoticism, decadence, mythological poetry, fin-de-siècle illness, all shape a world of his own, yet fanatically worshipped by his gallerists and collectors and, why not, by his contemporary academic popes.

If decadenticism, 19th century artistic atmosphere and fin de siècle appeal to you, this is your book.

The only thing I miss is more of Moreau's writings and letters. Probably you will find them in the books published by his museum-sanctuary in Paris. Remember his famous and evocative sentence: "I just believe what I cannot see".

I had very high hopes when I bought this book, though afraid the text would override the images; however I wasn't disappointed. The sheer quality of the printing is nothing less than remarkable. All the images in this book meet the highest standards of the printer's profession. Books on the symbolist genius Gustave Moreau are extremely hard to come by, so Between Epic and Dream (the book's title) is a rare art book being the only large volume in print at the moment.
The text acompanying the lush pictures is very informative, not only on Moreau's life's work, but there are notes on each item underneath. There is a good balance between text and images and this makes the enjoyment of viewing or reading a particular delight. Moreau's watercolors are beautifully presented and so are the paintings with both large and medium reproductions. There are drawings and studies as well to give this book a usefulness to those who would study Moreau's methods of work.
This book is a great buy at a very reasonable price. You will only need Joris Karl Huysman's novel, Against Nature (describing the painting Salome on the cover), to dream away into sweet decadence.

It's got all the goods: scholarly essays, dossiers on Gustave's most important works, wide historical sweep, accessibility for those who are more casual art-lovers, tons of color plates, good details (for painters like me, looking for something to steal). Moreau was a super-important figure in the decadent years of 19th Century France. Not as well known as, say, Degas or Courbet, his schtick seemed pretty far out. Anticipating Surrealism as well as the the nascent Symbolist movement, Moreau made insanely detailed, obessive, jewel-like paintings whose time is just now arriving. Make your coffee table as swanky and plush as an old New Orleans hotel. Moreau knew how to mix it up but certainly has his own flavor. Super great book.

Auschwitz seems a strange place to have a guardian angel. But Sim Kessel had one who in more than one case helps him to survive the hell of the camp.

Sim's story is perhaps one of the saddest I've ever read. The excessive torment he describes, the grisley and disgusting squallor of the camp seems so horrific that at some points I wondered if Sim wasn't expanding the truth - and then I immediately realized that he is not. He can not. Not with this.

Sim's story also is one of endurance. His beaten, starved, sickened body kept going through impossible circumstances and it's nothing short of miraculous. Yet the author does not ask your pity. He simply tells his story. I got up late yesterday and didn't have time to eat. Later I became very hungry but couldn't eat right away and started whining to myself. Then I remembered Sim. And shut up. He will be with me for a long time.

I would classify this as "a must read."

This excellent book covers the remarkable true story of Sim Kessel, a French Jew, throughout his experiences as a member of the French Resistance followed by his arrest by the Nazis and his subsequent detention at Auschwitz/Birkenau Concentration Camps.

His numerous brushes with death at the hands of the Nazis throughout his detention are covered in some detail, including the forced death march to other Concentration Camps prior to eventual liberation at the hands of the allies at the war's end.

There are many harrowing incidents throughout this book. It is extremely moving as Kessel describes the absolute enthusiasm in which his fellow French citizens and French Policemen participated, and indeed clearly enjoyed, rounding up their fellow Jews prior to handing them over to Nazi forces.

The book at times reads like a novel and grips you from beginning to end.

The horrifying experiences of Kessel includes his shocking execution for his part in a failed (almost successful) escape attempt. Kessel was publicly hung together with his four co-escapers on a gallows in front of an audience of some 25,000 prisoners who forced to watch the execution as a deterrent to other would be escapees.

Each prisoner was hung one at a time, with Kessel last. Viewing the deaths of his comrades, Kessel closed his eyes and awaited his own death. The trap door sprung and he fell to his death.... but the rope broke. Unaware of this due to a loss of consciousness, Kessel was then dragged away to be shot in the back of the head by another prisoner named Jacob, whose forced employment was to execute many individual prisoners in this way. Pre-war Jacob having been the trainer to former world heavyweight boxing champion Max Schmeling.

Again awaiting his death, Kessel, himself a former professional boxer, befriended Jacob through their involvement in boxing. The latter subsequently providing Kessel with the identity of an already slain prisoner which he retained throughout the remainder of his detention.

This is a very moving testimony, not only to Sim Kessel, but to the many millions who did not survive. A highly recommended read.

I have been studying the Holocaust in depth for a few years now, when I came across this autobiography. This novel opened my eyes to the torture techniques the Nazis used to gather information. Every appalling detail ground into my mind, until I had to openly share this novel with my colleagues and students. Sam's fight to survive with all the odds stacked against him shows the true battle between good and the most horrifying evil the world has ever seen. I highly reccomend this book to anyone who wants a good look at what life was like in a concentration camp and under the gallows.

Hanged at Auschwitz, by Sim Kessel, is the story of the author's horrific but incredible journey through the horror that was Auschwitz. Starting off with an arrest, and two weeks of torture at the hands of the Gestapo, Kessel then spends the next nine months in a French transit camp waiting to be sent to his final destination, and in the world that he lived in, final most times meant final. After the transit camp, and the infamous train rides where people were treated worse than animals, he ends up at Auschwitz. It was only due to his experience as a boxer, his athleticism, and a lot of luck that he was able to survive this "living hell." Three times he was marked for death and three times he miraculously survived. Despite the intense subject matter the book is a quick read. This is an amazing story of courage and I highly recommend it.

A fascinating look at a way of life that was drastically changed by the time
the author returned 10 years later.

This delightful book presents life in a village in Southern France in the 1950's. Author and former Harvard Sociologist Laurence Wylie traveled to ¨Peyrane¨ (Rousillon) France to write this book about the culture and lifestyles of village residents. Readers see how the men worked and relaxed at the local cafe, how women tended their homes (most were housewives), and how adolescents were reminded to ¨have fun¨ before entering adulthood. We also get the views and attitudes of residents, which included loyalty towards their village and annoyance with the national government. The author captures the sights, sounds, and feel of this charming village in a simpler time. This book was written shortly after Nazi occupation ended and as the economic miracle was starting to lift living standards in Europe. Wylie returned later to write a follow-up, and shows the changes wrought by increased prosperity and television. This delightful book reads more like a novel than a sociological study.

For those interested in a thoughtful, genuine look at day-to-day life in rural France in the post-World War II 1950's era, this is a delightful book. It is the story and reflections of a noted Harvard sociologist whose family spent a year in the small village of Rousillon in Provence (in the book, he gives it another name to protect the locals' privacy), observing and commenting on village life. It is not a glib, quick laugh -- rather the lively reflection of a thoughtful participant and talented writer. It may be an eye opener to realize just how rural life was not all that long ago in this part of France. There are delightful pictures as well, with scenes that can be recognized by the modern visitor to Rousillon. The end of the book includes the author's reflections on subsequent visits in later years.

Laurence Wiley,a former professor of sociology at Harvard,wrote this wonderful little book in the 1950's. This charming examination of life in the town of Rousillon(which he calls Peyrane to protect it's privacy)captures the the character of French life in the postwar recovery period.As a reader you will be transported back in time to a simpler life among the hill towns of Provence.Laurence gives us the facts about the history of the town,and from where the people came (surprisingly it was a transient population).He tells us about how they are brought up,educated,their adolescent times,their whole lives.There are many delightful personalities in this book-you will enjoy it.I just hope someone will use it for a movie one day.

The Healthy Thai cookbook is great for someone like myself-I can cook but not as familiar with Thai cuisine. Also I am interested in keeping the dishes as healthy as possible. This cookbook was a good choice. The pictures were detailed. Many dishes had ingredients that were not only seasonal or regional. The sections were varied enough to find at least two or three dishes from each food category that would appeal to picky eaters.

I am Balinese, have a restaurant and love food. I especially love Thai food.

The recipes in this book are excellent and have obviously all been tested by the author. Follow them and you will not be disappointed.

The presentation is clear at all times and the photographs are superb.

Partcularly helpful are a couple of pages on which wines best accompany Thai food - and they are not those that you would immediately think of. The explanations are interesting and illuminating.

I would recommend this book to restaurant owners, as well as people cooking at home for a few friends.

very tasty. quite healthy. many recipes are quick and easy, too. some ingredients are a little tough to get, but easily substituted. gorgeous pictures.

This book has delicous recipes which are easy to follow (with color pictures of most dishes). The dishes taste like delicous restaurant-grade food and are healthy and easy to prepare.

Not a typical survivor book filled with hate, but more an accounting of the many good people who step up in horrific situations. An easy entertaining read, the chapters seem to flow, hard to put down until finished. Very easy to get involved and caught up in the events that happened. The author has a good memory for details of a traumatic time in his and the world's life.

Simon Jeruchim, the author of this memoir,was twelve years old when his secure world came to an end. With amazing recall,he relates how he came to hide in a small hamlet in Normandy. He worked on a farm, a harsh life for a small Parisian boy. Hardest of all was not knowing about his parents and small brother. He went dutifully to church and hid his identity from everyone. By nature optimist, he was looking forward to the end of the war and reunion with his family. He was reunited with his brother and sister, but his parents did not survive, unfortunately. This book is a beautiful example of a boy's courage and determination to stay alive.

this book was given to me as gift. i have a deep interest in matters pertaining to the holocust, and i was told that the book held a different perspective from other publications regarding the nazi era. and it surely did.....the author made no attempt to judge the nazi and the french in that era. all he did was relate this fascinating story, and i drew my own conclusions.

the book traces his journey, as a parentless jewish boy,keeping a step ahead of the nazi and french, and extermination..a brave human being. . mr. jeruchim is a talented artist, as evidenced by the wonderful pictures which he drew, and are included in the book.

...

Simon Jeruchim takes you into the horrible world of escaping and hiding from french collaboraters and the Nazis during the second world war. His narrative is so compelling that you practically relive his day to day existence. His recount of the compassionate gentile families who hid him and his siblings is written staight from his heart.

This is truly a masterpiece of editing. The author has truly done an outstanding job. This is a MUST book for any serious Higgins collector as well as anyone who enjoys beautiful glass. The author is certainly to be commended for this one of a kind work.

A "Must Have" for any serious Higgins collector. There is an almost overwhelming amount of information presented in a most organized manner. So many wonderful color photographs that I went into sensory overload. Loads of great, historical information and imagery. The only down side of the book is that the price guide is not representative of current market values but if looked at properly will still give you a good idea of how one pattern will relate to another in value. I wish other collectable genres had reference guides of this caliber.

this book starts to do justice to the wonderful inventive genius of michael and francis higgins, craftsmen and artistis, and the developers of advanced fused glass techniques. The book is steep at $60, but it's worth it for the great number of color plates. . . and if you know higgins glass, you'll know that a great many photographs were needed!

the only downside might be that the authors focussed too much on the dearborn years of mass-produced fused glass goods. This neglects somewhat the great variety and depth of studio work done by the higgins. But perhaps this is an apt subject for "adventures in glass, volume II".

If you want to collect Higgins glass, this book is an absolute must-have. The prices are outdated; with the recent death of Michael Higgins, I have seen pieces sell for double or triple the book's values. This is much more than a price guide, though. This book details the history of Higgins glass, their techniques, and how to identify what is and is not Higgins glass. There are several beautiful color pictures on almost every page, and I enjoy looking at them almost as much as I enjoy looking at the pieces in my collection.

In the initial account of the apparitions Dr. McEachern uses the method of drawing lines from various different accounts given by the Saint over several different years in order to present one comprehensive report. If you accept this methodology as valid, you will draw much from this book. I felt a bit uncomfortable realizing I was reading a mosaic of shards shattered and shorn from so many different sources and presented as her complete account, but perhaps such textual criticism does not present a problem to other readers. I would prefer to read the accounts in their entirety, including to the various ecclesial and legal authorities who questioned her, in chronological order, and piece together a conclusive report from that entirety. Here this work has been done for us, leaving only the golden threads from among the whole cloth. I would hope one day to see the fullest tapestry.

After that opening, the compiler of this volume does leave us a fairly representative collection of the Saint's letters, translated. Again I hope one day to see them in the original, including the regional dialect, and in chronological order, as here we find the intriguing and often difficult and treacherous work of translation done for us.

I also found the opening introduction touched by a persistent trait of other reports on this Saint, the disparagement of her family and conditions and education and mind, rather than a charitable embracing and comprehension. I am always uncomfortable to read such judgmental emphasis, yet here find it more balanced and contextualized than in earlier standard texts. The Saint herself suffered this from the first moments she reported the Visions, and for the rest of her life on earth, and accepted this suffering, for reasons she examines in this book, including unmentioned yet infinitely consoling comments by Our Lady herself, who was of similar age and education and conditions. I am not so holy and so feel deeply uncomfortable for the Saint suffering such mistreatment both during and after life, but I must resolve to convert by her very wise and holy and compassionate example, and by her own exhortations shared here in her own, translated hand.

A necessary addition to any Catholic spiritual library, and probably the best we can get for this Saint.

In developing my own book on the famous apparitions at Massabielle (Lourdes: Font of Faith, Hope, & Charity, Paulist Press, Sept. 2007), I researched a great number of titles. None of them, however, gave me better insight into the real person of Bernadette Soubirous than A Holy Life. Thanks to Patricia McEachern's careful translation, English-speaking readers can appreciate the oftentimes difficult journey to sainthood through Bernadette's candid letters and journal entries as she lived out her sanctity in the motherhouse at Nevers. A true treasure -- it was like meeting the visionary in person!

This book is a wonderful resource for all who want to know Bernadette better. From her writtings one can see the depth of her faith. She saw all that occurred in her life as the will of GOD and she accepted everything that came her way. One learns that Bernadette carried her cross in life with acceptance and love. She suffered greatly and wanted to unite her suffering with Jesus' for the sake of all sinners.

This book is very revealing. I had thought it likely that I would find out more about Bernadette's life as a nun from her writings; but she was little concerned with her material life, and almost completely concerned with her spiritual life. She constantly sought to be as saintly as possible, making a conscious attempt to be worthy of the sainthood which she suspected was her destiny. She cultivated within herself humility, altruism, patience, and love for and dedication to God. She also turned out to be very sensitive, and sought emotional support by corresponding frequently with her family. In her letters, she was very loving toward them. After reading the book, I believe that Bernadette achieved her goal of being worthy of sainthood.

At this point, given the reviews, it is clear that Anne Atik has written a fine memoir. What I would like to comment on in particular is the role she herself plays as both writer and actor. She manages to be remarkably self-effacing, something not at all easy for a writer who was a close friend of a famous artist. There is no tone of bragging, there are no self-serving anecdotes, and there are minimal details about the memoirist herself. In fact, if anything, I found myself wanting to know a bit more about her. But her discretion is admirable.

This is a revealing, insightful portrayal of the great Irish writer, by a close friend of his, the poet Anne Atik, wife of the painter Avigdor Arikha, whose striking portraits of Beckett are reproduced here. The book is unique for its descriptions of, and insights into the springs of artistic creation, for the refined 'table talk' it lovingly and discretely recounts, for the details that only a friend could know and see so well - all told by a poet. This is definitely a must for Beckett fans and lovers of literature.

This memoir is what we hope for. Lots of new information, inside anecdotes, and pictures.

If you love Beckett you must have this book. I would've gone without meals to buy it, if necessary.

Also be sure to buy Why Beckett, by Enoch Brater. It is magical.

This book ( How it was)

well,... it was amazing.

I am so glad I bought it.

I was in cafes with Beckett....

( no other book can do that)

I wondered for a long time whether I should buy it...

I'm glad I did..


What a wonderful book!

if you love Beckett