France Books

First: Balzac, even in translation, is a literary giant. He paints vivid, often dark pictures of 'society' and adds no detail in jest. There is meaning everywhere.

You can read Colonel Chabert in a couple hours, dwell on it for several days after, and be done. This is a wonderful translation from the French; with it, you can mine most of Balzac's intentions without having to consult a companion piece or Balzac guru.

The story is all about life, death, and "social" identity. Others have summarized the story well, but I will refrain. For this one, all you need is a solid literary mind and a few hours. In this edition, Balzac is direct and beautiful; from the dead rising to gateways between worlds to the lamentable futility of morality for its own sake, there is no want for vivid description.

"Colonel Chabert" is one of Honore de Balzac's volumes from his omnibus work, "The Human Comedy." The Colonel is a comic figure in and old military great coat and a wig who is ridiculed by young legal workers at the beginning of the novel. But, the joke is on the clerks, because Chabert is a war hero of the Napoleonic era who was given up for dead on a battlefield at Eylau. This translation from the French by Carol Grosman tells the story of the old soldier's resurrection in contemporary jargon. The novel is relevant today considering the service of soldiers in many wars continuing in our world. What happens to these heroes when wars end, or more accurately, shift to new fronts? Balzac paints the portrait of one old colonel who remains honorable and as a consequence seals his fate. The translation is very readable and the short novel is brief "scene from private life." The work will stimulate further interest in the monumental work of Balzac who had a relatively short life (1799-1850).

...of a great Balzac novella. Ms. Cosman captures the rigorous, logical quality of Balzac's prose - most translators get lost in unidiomatic wordiness. This 100 page novella showcases the Master's comfort with legal matters, his profound understanding of "the fang and the claw" and features at its center the incomparable Derville, Balzac's great, recurring lawyer character. I usually recommend Pere Goriot for first-time Balzac readers because of the rich connections between that novel and many other Balzac works - but I am hard pressed to imagine a better one-course meal than this rendering of Colonel Chabert by Ms. Cosman. I certainly plan to read her version of The Girl with the Golden Eyes.

One of the greatest novelists of all time, Balzac was most at home in the Paris of Post-Napoleonic Paris. In a time when the middle class was showing its strength and starting to reach towards the aristocracy, Balzac shows just how selfish and grubby and greedy humans can be in attaining and how treacherous they can be in keeping their all important upward mobility.

Colonel Chabert is a man disfigured in the Napoleonic Wars who was left for dead on a battlefield. After digging his way out of a mass grave, he finds that he has no legal right to his title or his massive estate. Nobody will believe his true identity. For ten longe years he goes about trying to communicate his plight to anyone who will listen. They only see a crazy bum, and his wife rebuffs his letters. She already has a new husband and kids. Finally Chabert is able to convince a lawyer named Dervilles to accept his case, namely that of reclaiming his title, lands, and wife. The problem is that noone is really interested in his life being resurrected. Most people would rather that he remained dead. So begins the ludicrous battle of a man against the law to prove his own existence.

This short but great novel, or novella, is a tragic take on the world's thirst for social status and the judgement by visuals that our society is only too guilty of to this day. If it walks like a bum, talks like a bum, it must be a bum. Colonel Chabert has such a hard time convincing people of his identity because of how they perceive him. It sounds echoes of Frankenstein in that a good man is reduced to a monster when all he really needs is love. The fact that even his wife wishes he were dead just drives home the isolated suffering of the book. As in all Balzac novels, you feel a world moving under the mantle of the book. The Human Comedy of Balzac is one of the crowning achievements of literature and ranks right up there with Shakespeare and Thomas Hardy.

Balzac, one of the greatest writers who ever lived, did not trip up with this one. I read it with great pleasure and conclude, as people so often say, that the movie based on the story did not equal the original. Ever the cynic (some might say 'the realist') Balzac portrays here the efforts of a noble-minded soldier, who rose from an orphanage to serve his country under Napoleon in Egypt and eastern Europe, only to reap the all-too-common fate of dedicated and true warriors---to be forgotten and ignored. Death (which he accepted) might have seized him, but he found a living death, a denial of his sanity and identity, as the reward of his service. Reported killed at the battle of Eylau, against the Russians, after a heroic action, the soldier literally crawls from his grave to a kind of shadowy survival. In his earlier life, Colonel Chabert had raised a woman to his own status, but now finds that she is unwilling to let others learn of her origins and does not want to recognize that he is, in fact, her long lost husband. Honestly thinking she was widowed, she married a highborn aristocrat who knew nothing of her humble beginnings.

The tale is one of greed, intrigue, loyalty and disloyalty. As usual, Balzac manages to cast a light, pitiless and bright, on every rotten corner of the human condition, while offering a few inspiring examples in contrast. Every detail of a lawyer's life in 19th century Paris is scrutinized, every glimpse of urban dairyman or elite country squirehood rings true. No wonder I admire him so much, no wonder I have no hesitation in urging you to read COLONEL CHABERT and any other volume of Balzac you can lay your hands on.

Etienne Gerrard is a delight, cocky, self important, vain as a peacock, he is also brave to a fault, resourceful, energetic and the best swordsman in all of Napoleon's cavalry. He is also a bit thick in the head. He struts through the most hair raising adventures, and almost always comes out in one piece. You will be convinced in each story that he could not possible carry out his mission successfully, but he almost always does. At a time in Great Britain when the human costs of the Napoleanic Wars were still felt and France and England had only recently mended fences, Conan Doyles "typical" Frenchman was a delight to the British reader. This is not Sherlock's cold intellect. It is the passion of a very decent, courageous man who is devoted to his sovreign, and who will take on any task from wooing a beautiful woman to a Russian Regiment of cavalry. If you enjoy the Flashman books you will love this one just as much.

These gems of action storytelling will make you laugh out loud-- they have the best of Doyle's plotting and some very witty characterization. Etienne Gerard is first-cousin to GM Fraser's Flashman: he finds himself in the thick of every battle, often playing a pivotal role that only now can be told...

Of course, Flashy is cowardly where Gerard is brave, but they both think themselves irresistable to women and are master horsemen. Bright, fast, and funny, these short stories belong on the shelf next to all the Flashman novels. Fraser himself calls Doyle a "genius" in the introduction, and they belong in the same league of inspired storytelling. Too bad Gerard and Flashy never met-- Flash would have called him a bloody crapaud and Gerard would have said Flashy was a British beef....

I knew Arthur Conan Doyle from his Sherlock Holmes series although I have not read any title from that. The "Exploits and Adventures of Birgadier Gerard" is surely one of the finest novels about the Napoleonic era and I highly recommend it to any fan of the Grand Armee and its battle hardened soldiers. The story begins with the long retired Brigadier starting to recall his war memories for the shake of his audience, over a glass of wine. And what a fascinating carreer did he have! He was a romantic lover, a proud Frenchman, an honest man, a terrific swordsman, a dashing cavalryman, and a soldier absolutely faithful to his duty: the real epitome of the French hussar who according to Colonel Lassale "should not live beyond the age of 30"! The old Brigadier explains with graphic detail and an amusing dose of egotism and pride how he lost his ear for the love of a girl in Venice, how he helped French troops to storm the spanish fortress of Saragossa, how he saved a whole army in the Peninsula, how he extricated himself from a grevious tactical mistake in Russia, how he beat the Englishmen in their national sport of fox-hunting and how Destiny prevented him from taking part in the climactic battle of Waterloo, a fact that Gerard honestly believes that doomed Napoleon! To build his story Doyle took many interesting facts and legends from real biographies of the period, like that of Baron de Marbot, but he made his story so enjoyable and colourful that is incomperable in terms of advenures and amusement.

Brigadier Gerard is everything that a Briton of Conan Doyle's time thought was an exemplar of the Napoleonic officer - and to a certain extent a charicature of the French themselves. Hopelessly and ridiculously brave, completely lacking in appreciation of the fine British virtues of sportsmanship, a devotion to L'Empereur, rather dim, obsessed with his honor and the honor of La France, and yet rather admirable too in his prickly way.

In this fine book the Brigadier regales us with stories of his youth, when most of Europe was part of the French Empire and opportunities abounded for young men who looked good in cavalry uniform. Gerard tells the story with no irony, but the reader laughs a good deal at the absurdities of the hero. When attempting to shoot the ash off a cigar he destroys the whole cigar instead to the dismay of its smoker who is smoking it at the time. Clearly, Gerard maintains, the pistol is at fault. On a few occasions he succeeds when all expect him to fail and as a result his success is actually a failure. The stories encompass many of the great events of the Napoleonic wars: the horrors of partisan fighting in Spain, the invasion of Russia, war in the German states and Prussia, even capture by the British. Always the stories are superbly told with a very fine eye for realistic detail and they are often quite gripping. Again this is one of those books I am amazed has never been made into a film or a TV series.

George MacDonald Fraser has taken a good deal of the Gerard style for his Flashman series, although of course the two characters are poles apart in morality.

I recommend this book to all lovers of history novels and also to anyone who just likes to read superb stories in the grand old manner, where manly men are engaged in "honest" combat, and where evil enemies, treacherous peasants, and duplicitous politicos usually meet their doom under Gerard's cavalry saber.

The success of the Sherlock Holmes stories has overshadowed the fact that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote many other stories of entirely different character. The New York Review of Books Classics has brought the `Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard' back to life. The Gerard character is said to be Conan Doyle's second best fictional invention.

The eight `Exploits' stories were published between 1894 and 1895 while the ten `Adventures' were published after a five year hiatus between 1900 and 1903. Like the Holmes tales, these pieces were published as serials in The Strand Magazine. Once again we owe a debt of happy gratitude to the NYRB for reviving this quirky, funny, heroic series of adventure tales.

The eponymous Gerard is one Etienne Gerard, a Hussar (a light cavalryman) in the French Army during the Napoleonic Wars. In other words, a character about as far removed from the dyspeptic intellectual detective of Baker Street as one can imagine. In the excellent introduction (one of the hallmarks of the NYRB Classics series), George Macdonald Fraser remarks on the courage Conan Doyle showed in showcasing a French hero fighting against the British less than 80 years after Napoleon was finally defeated (As Fraser notes "even today [the French ] are not notably popular north of the Channel"). Quite a feat of imagination.

Like Harry Flashman (Flashman: A Novel (Flashman)) and the lesser known Otto Prohaska (A Sailor of Austria: In Which, Without Really Intending to, Otto Prohaska Becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire (The Otto Prohaska Novels)), Gerard is in his old age when he spins his stories to the reader. Gerard boasts that he is the greatest swordsman, horseman, and lover as well as the most loyal servant of Napoleon in the entire French army. And Conan Doyle permits Gerard to excel in all these measures and yet his excessive pride makes him obtuse. As Fraser put it Gerard is "vain, touchy, obstinate, reckless, boastful, and none too bright." He is entirely ingenuous, which repeatedly leads him to trouble and then he must slash his sword and dash away on his horse to escape. Gerard is charmingly unaware that he is a strutting French peacock; he assumes that others should and do recognize his exceptional qualities. Coming from a more self-aware man such cocksureness would be intolerable conceit.

I titled this review "What Would Harry Flashman Make of Etienne Gerard?" That's a fun question to speculate about. It would take a new Sir Arthur Conan Doyle or Sir George MacDonald Fraser to do it justice. My guess is Harry would laugh up his sleeve at Gerard until he saw Etienne's sword swinging dangerously toward his head. For his part, I expect Gerard would be blissfully unaware of Flashman's disdain, but might he also detect Harry's certain 'shyness'?

The `Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard' are wonderful entertainments. Like the Sherlock Holmes stories, the pity is there are so few of them. Highest recommendation.

Not sure of how I came upon this author, but I had put this on my Amazon "wish-list" and was given this book and "House of Brede" for Christmas. I just dusted the book off last week (only took me 5 months) and am now having a hard time putting it down. Wonderfully written, although it took a bit to understand the writing style, it is now an easy read. Highly recommend and now looking forward to reading more books written by this Rumer Godden.

Having read "In This House of Brede" by Rumer Godden I was expecting a fine quality novel out of this book. I was totally blown away.This may be the most powerful novel Ihave ever read. This book is not for everyone and some material may not be suitable for younger readers, as the main characters and some secondary characters are prostitutes.
Basically this book deals with the human condition and our need for redemption, and abov all Christ's mercy and love for the least in society (prostitutes).
The main character is Lise,a former prostitute who, as the novel begins is being released from prison for murdering the man who was her pimp. There are two secondary characters that are important to the story, one who becomes redeemed by Love and one who seems to be corrupted to the point of perdition. The realism with which the author portrays the less pleasant characters is sometimes shocking and slightly graphic but not terribly so. I found this to be an inspriational and uplifting book and I recommend it to anyone interested in genuine Catholic literature.
My estimation of Ms. Godden's rank as an author was immensely improved after reading this novel. Also, her portrayal of religious life is one of the most accurate that I've read, and to me, this added greatly to the book.

This story touched my heart and held my attention throughout. It reveals a unique side of a special ministry, in a very personal way. I have already recommended it to several friends and will continue to do so.

This is a beautifully written account of one woman's journey to the fulfillment for which she has always been searching.The descriptions of France and the French countryside are evocative and lyrical. I detected many echoes of "In this House of Brede", her earlier work, and her subsequent comments on that and the opinions voiced by various religious sisters on it. To some extent I found the ending anti-climactic ; although hints of evil are cleverly suggested,I regretted a final confrontation between Vivi and Lise. Perhaps the author wanted to say that we are never completely free from fear and danger. But a good read, nevertheless.

Often I give away a book, especially fiction, once I've read it. Not this book. I have bought aeveral to give to my friends and without exception, each of my friends had to get the book to give to their friends. This is a story packed with reality, mercy and new beginnings - it overflows with hope even when things for the central character seem at the worst. I so appreciate Godden's sensitivity in conveying the truth about human nature and, as I am a member of a monastic community, amazed at her ability to portray life in a convent without romance and with great regard. Powerful read.

I saw this book while window shopping in Anthropology - flipping through and finding the pictures tempting. After getting it from Amazon, I've made 3 dishes from the book, all received wild welcomes from my friends.

This is a wonderful source for dinner parties. Even though it doesn't have a lot of pictures for each recipe, the descriptions are very concise, clear, and easy to follow. Having zero experience cooking western food prior to this book, I did not expect to cook anything descent on the first try at all. I was very surprised to see how well these dishes turned out. A must-have if you love cooking.

After a recent trip to France I decided that I would like to prepare some of the local fare. I had heard about this book from a friend of mine and decided to try it. I have prepared many of the recipes that I had tried in France and am really pleased with their authenticity. The book is easy to use and understand.

There are a great many cookbooks featuring french food. My problem with most of them is that they seem to feature ingredients and equipment that I can't find locally. So often these ingredients are simply standard things that I can find but called by a French name. I realize they are proud of their language, but it makes the book fairly useless. The advantage of this book is that the ingredients seem to have been Americanized so that I can find what they use. It also seems that this book has gone to some effort to make the instructions reasonably simple to follow.

I suppose that these simplified ingredients and instructions mean that the resulting dishes are slightly different than the originator might have prepared, but the resulting dishes are a lot better to eat than something that can't be made due to the way the cookbook is written.

As for the book itself, it is profusely illustrated, and contains a huge number of recipies that I find myself ready to try the next time people come over. What more can you ask of a cookbook?

I ordered this book from Amazon, thinking that I can handle it. Yes, I have been taking culinary classes, but I couldn't even understand some of the recipes! Reading the book carefully, I perceived that the book may be written for someone who has a lot more experience than I had. Of course, that seems a bit obvious, but seriously, when it's just sitting there on that book rack, and when you wish you could just HAVE it, you can't help but buy it, thinking it's awe-inspiring. But it isn't. At least not for somebody like me. For chefs and people who are more adept, accomplished, or more qualified than I am, this book could be beneficial for them. For me, it was a waste of money. I love the recipes and I yearn to have them, but another problem with French cooking is the use of alcohol and pork. Being who I am, I cannot eat pork, and even other meat choice is very limited for me. While some people can go to Ralph's and buy a package of venison or veal I have to go to a special store, where the meat is limited (only chicken, beef, turkey most of the time). It seems like, to get venison, I have to go hunting in some uninhabited forest to catch Bambi.

Anyways, for me, alcohol is completely prohibited, and I can't even think about pork. Oh yeah, and, I can't catch Donald either (the duck). So basically, I'm limited to the vegetarian recipes (not many veggies, surprisingly. little timmy will be happy), the desserts (that do NOT contain alcohol or raw eggs), and anything else that does not contain intoxicants (aka booze), venison, duck, or pig meat (aka pork, ham, etc). Unfortunately, I can't find some of the cheeses either. You might want to go to France.

Oh, and uh...beware of salmonella. At least a 1/4 of the recipes have raw eggs as one of their ingredient.

Overall, I think I would recommend this to anyone above the age of 18, someone who has had experience cooking, someone who knows where everything is in the kitchen, someone who has space in their refrigerator (a LOT of space), and also a lot of time on their hands. I will now list some of the recipes:

Boullabaisse (what???), Petits Farcis (eggplants stuffed with hearbs, meat or cheeses. Smoked trout gougere. Desserts include Mixed Berry tartlets, pear and almond tart, chocolate souffles (dun, dun, dun. SALMONELLA! But still good), Creme brulee (the BEST). So in the end, the recipes are great, but you will have to toil and sweat to gain the perfect taste, quality, and deliciousness. I wouldn't have recommended this book to a person like me, but the photographs are so good, anyone can appreciate this work of art.

I actually found this book in Paris, France on a recent vacation but decided not to purchase due to size, however my friend bought the book. After surfing through the pages, I returned to the store to purchas a copy of my own, but arrived 2 mintues after closing. My friend suggested Amazon so I jumped online upon my return and found the book for less the 1/2 the cost she paid in the bookstore, even with shipping charges! This book is beautifully illistrated and provides step by step instructions for each recipe. I would recommend to anyone who loves a great cookbook!

I lived in France for three years, have a French partner, and have read countless fiction and nonfiction books about France, American expatriates in France, etc. This one is hands-down my favorite. Very, very funny and reflective of how France is. It is a real mystery to me why this book has not had the same commercial success as the many inferior France-themed books out there.

This book is actually not Jane Smith's first work of fiction. In 1980, she wrote a wonderful novel titled Jacoby's First Case, and in 1984, she published Nightcap, both under the pseudonym J.C.S. Smith (now that's DEEP cover!)

So if you're looking for more enjoyable novels from this author, there's no need to wait -- they've already been written!

This is the funniest book I've read in ages. It made me laugh out loud so often, I had to stop reading it on the subway for fear of embarrassing myself in public. Jane S. Smith brilliantly lampoons the pseudo-academic and -artistic Americans who flock to Provence in search of career-making inspiration, and the natives who prey on them. But she also has a deep affection for her characters (well, most of them, anyway) that makes this book a thoroughly satisfying novel, not just a chilly satire. She skillfully interweaves the actions of a large cast of characters, and brings them all together at the end in a conclusion worthy of a Victorian novelist. Even the title is clever, in retrospect. It's hard to believe this is a first novel. Please, Ms. Smith -- may we have some more?

I would have put it in the academic satire category but strictly speaking it doesn't belong there because the only character to hold a college teaching job gets fired on the first page (two characters go back to graduate school on the last page). Then she goes off to the South of France with her family to write a book. Her children discover a pre-Roman Celtic treasure. Her daughter gets abducted by a child molester. Her husband enters a bicycle race.
It is brilliantly witty about such subjects as eco-feminism and intellectual francophilia but alo carried along by a strong intriguing plot. Wonderful light but intelligent enertainment.

I wish I had written this book. Fool's Gold is one of the best contemporary novels that I have read. It describes the extremely realistic (or were they) adventures of a NYC family who attempt to rediscover themselves in the South of France by renting a villa that turns out to be right next to a major highway. The chain of events that are described in this witty, funny novel seem totally plausible but tend to point out that our fantasies are never really as exciting as our realities. Don't forget to ponder the last sentence in the book. It will keep you smiling for days. A perfect read.

If you want to order an out-of-print book, I strongly recommend Book Rescue. I received my copy of "Good Morning, Miss Dove" by Frances Gray Patton just two weeks after ordering it. The service was prompt and the description of the book given on their website was accurate. I certainly received excellent value for the money invested in this out-of-print book.

This is the story of a school teacher and her sudden illness which requires a life threatening surgery. As she prepares for her operation she reflects on her life and her former students who are now grown and serving her as her doctors, nurses, etc. This is a portrait of a small town and a teacher that you won't see today. It was a simpler, quieter life and Miss Dove is a stern, no-nonense, humorless woman who has ruled decades of classrooms with strict rules and intimation yet her students respect her and have learned valuable lessons from her. Well written and filled with humor and nostalgia, the book still holds up well today. It was filmed in 1955 with a wonderful performance by Jennifer Jones, who brought Miss Dove to life. The film is almost identical to the book with some minor changes which actually make the film a little better than the book (especially the memorable ending scene).

I'VE NEVER DID A BOOK REVIEW BEFORE, HERE GOES:THE YEAR THE MOVIE WAS MADE WITH JENNIFER JONES, I WAS BORN, I DONT KNOW WHEN THE BOOK WAS WRITTEN, BUT MY 7TH GRADE ENGLISH TEACHER HAD MY CLASS READ IT AND WRITE AN ESSAY ON IT. FRIST OF ALL I LOVE TO READ AND MADE A B+, ANY WAY ONE LATE NITE I SAW THE MOVIE, I GUESS I WAS 12 OR 13 YRS. OLD THEN, AND I TELL YOU THAT MOVIE MOVED ME SO MUCH THAT I CRIED FOR DAYS WHEN MS. DOVE BECAME ILL. I WAS MOVED BY THE LIVES SHE CHANGED,I REMEMBER CHUCK CONNERS WAS A POOR CHILD IN HER CLASS AND WITH HER ENCOURAGEMENTS HE FINISHED SCHOOL AND BECAME A COP.WHEN WORD GOT AROUND TOWN THAT MISS DOVE WAS IN THE HOSPITAL, THE WHOLE TOWN WAS UPSET.EVERY STUDENT SHE EVER TAUGHT WENT TO VISIT HER IN THE HOSPITAL,MOST OF IT WAS FLASH BACKS. SHE TAUGHT SEVERAL GENERATIONS. I WENT BACK AND READ THE BOOK AGAIN AND AGAIN, I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR THIS MOVIE EVER SINCE. I AM 47YRS. OLD AND TOLD MY DAUGHTER ABOUT IT, SHE'S (26) AND SHE CAN'T BELEIVE THERE'S SUCH A MOVIE! MY BOOK WAS LOANED OUT YEARS AGO AND LOST IN THE SHUFFEL. BUT TELLING HER THE STORY INSPIRED HER TO BE A TEACHER (3RD GRADE)CAN YOU BELEIVE IT! IN THIS MIXED UP WORLD TODAY. WE SHOULD THANK GOD FOR OUR TEACHERS TODAY! I HAVE CABLE WHICH AIRS OLD MOVIE CLASSICS, IN HOPES THAT IT WILL AIR REAL SOON, BEFORE I LOSE MY MIND!! I HAVE NEVER FORGOTTEN THE MOVIE NOR THE BOOK I GIVE HOMAGE TO THE ARTHUR, IT WAS A GREAT BOOK AND I WILL NEVER FORGET IT. TO PARAMOUNT PICTURES PLEASE RELEASE THE MOVIE ON VIDIO!! FOR IT IS TRULY A CLASSIC AND EVERY SCHOOL LIBRARY SHOULD HAVE IT. I WISH I COULD GET MY HANDS ON ANOTHER COPY, BUT IT'S SO HARD TO FIND. THE BOOK AND THE MOVIE SHOULD BE RATED "10"

After reading this book several years ago, I still wish I was lucky enough to have a teacher that understood children and still wished to be around them. Children aren't angels or despite evidence to the contrary, demons. Miss Dove didn't want to soften their lives- She wanted to train them to meet it well. She is likend in the book to a general marshalling troops but another military similie is to a drill srgt. She understands that children are different and special but she doesn't care. She cares that they conform to the rules. Which in general is how society is.By the end of the book you want to move to Liberty HIll and be taught geography by The T MIss D. If you have never read it -you are in for a treat and a thrill. If you have read it you are going for a specail vist back. ENJOY

I have loved this book since I read the original stories in a magazine when I was a child. The story is well-written, depicting a dedicated teacher who truly cares about her children but is not sentimental about them. Instead, she instills values and behaviors that will serve them well all through their lives. Her own behavior is impeccable, and she is a moral touchstone to the entire town and the several generations whom she has taught.

The story itself has wonderful flashes of subtle humor, as well as charming moments of tenderness, even though Miss Dove thinks herself above such behavior. I would very much like to see the movie with Jennifer Jones made into a video and think that there would be a real market for it. I heartily recommend this book -- it should be required reading for all teachers and students and all people who love a good, well-written story.

Having grown up in New Orleans i have a love for it's history.i've heard about the story of Baroness and it caught my attention. i wasn't disappointed having read this book.

Having grown up in New Orleans and visiting the Pontalba buildings on many many occassions, I thought I knew a bit about the countess. This book has brought up many aspects of her life and the lives of her family that I was totally ignorant of. It is quite fascinating even though there are times when the pace is a bit tedious. It is a bit academic at times, but it is afterall a biography and not a work of narrative fiction. There are aspects in everyone's life that tend to be less than thrilling.
Regardless I will recommend it to my many friends, paticularly those who grew up in New Orleans.

Vella brings to life with splendid detail the life in New Orleans and Paris in the 1800's. Vella is unquestionably a tireless scholar who has dedicated much time and passion into assimilating an astounding amount of archival materials to bring to life the realities and sensibilities of the different ranks of the aristocracies. Sophisticated, realpolitic, Machiavellian. A wonderful work and a great read. This is how history should be written (for non-academia). Well footnoted & bibliographed.

Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of the Baroness de Pontalba, by Christina Vella, is one of the best books that I have ever read. I took Professor Vella's class at Tulane University in the Spring of 2000. This book was the basis of the class. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in thorough documentation of facts about a dynamic woman and her family, as well as two great cities, New Orleans and Paris.

Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of the Baroness de Pontalba, by Christina Vella, is one of the best books that I have ever read. I took Professor Vella's class at Tulane University in the Spring of 2000. This book was the basis of the class. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in thorough documentation of facts about a dynamic woman and her family, as well as two great cities, New Orleans and Paris.

This is the first and only Victoria Holt book I have read yet. I love mysteries and read them often. Of all mysteries I have read this is one of the best. I liked it so much sometimes I would stay up into the early hours of the morning because I could not put it down. It is a wonderful book, give it a try.I have plans to read many more of her books. She is one of the top authors on my list of favorite authors.

This book is good at keeping you in suspense. Dallas Lawson is a painter who goes to a country estate wich belongs to a mysterious and aloof man(the comte)durring the 1800's. Where she is thrown into mystery and adventure. She went there to find a job of restoring paintings only the job of restoring wrong doing has found her. I highly recommend this book. Its the kind of book to read on a dark rainy day or anytime for that matter.

I just finished this book (my 12th Victoria Holt novel!!) and like always, she can spin a tale of gothic romance like no one else. I wish, God how I wish, this talented woman was still alive and writing, because no one did it better. Her sense of detail, setting, people, is just so lush and vibrant. This novel is set in France and revived my interest in French culture! This is also a fast moving book, full of energy. You will love it! If you have never read Miss Holt, read this, Mistress of Mellyn, and On the Night of the Seventh Moon and just see how quickly you become a huge fan!

This book is good at keeping you in suspense. Dallas Lawson is a painter who goes to a country estate wich belongs to a mysterious and aloof man(the comte)durring the 1800's. Where she is thrown into mystery and adventure. She went there to find a job of restoring paintings only the job of restoring wrong doing has found her. I highly recommend this book. Its the kind of book to read on a dark rainy day or anytime for that matter.

King of the Castle is a classic Victoria Holt suspense novel: a young heroine visits a strange locale, gets caught up in a series of mysterious events, and becomes romantically involved with someone who may be a murderer. In this case, the protagonist is Dallas Lawson, who, at the age of 28 and unmarried, is left bereft after the death of her father. In desperation, she accepts (under false pretenses) a commission which had been offered to her father three years before: the restoration of paintings at a French chateau. But of course, once she arrives, she finds much more than she bargained for: the unsolved mystery of the lost family emeralds, which disappeared during the Revolution; a wayward teenage girl who may actually intend her harm; rumors that the Comte of the chateau murdered his wife; and of course, the enigmatic comte himself. As always, Holt's storyline is both interesting and engaging, although those who have read many of her books may find the progression of the plot to be somewhat predictable. However, the ending definitely comes as a surprise in this enjoyable historical thriller.

Matisse is considered by many to be one of the most prominent artists of the 20th century, with Picasso being the other. Cezanne, of course, was the spiritual father of them both. The problem with Matisse was that he was so devoted to his art that it was almost as a mistress to him, to the detriment of his marriage and family and nearly all other relationships.

Matisse went his own artistic way and did exactly what he wanted regardless of what his family or the public thought. He was sometimes considered a Fauvist (colors reigning supreme) and sometimes an abstractionist, but never realistic and traditional. His art was seen during his lifetime as shameless, unrealistic, existentialistic, and simple in a child-like way, erotic, lewd, and many other things. People are less shocked by it today since it is seen in the context of anything-goes late 20th century and early 21st century work; his so-called sexy odalisques, for example, are mild by today's standards. He was seen as a decorative light-weight in comparison to Picasso, who did more energetic and masculine work. Helen Spurling thinks the disappearance of so much of Matisse's work from the public eye diminishes his true status as a great artist; some of his work went to Russia via his Russian patron and was retained there unseen because of the Cold War. Picasso and Matisse, by the way, became close friends towards the end of his life. He was almost like an elder brother to Picasso and in a certain sense they had an exclusive club based on their art which no one else could understand.

I've always liked Matisse and have seen the great Cone Collection of his works at the Baltimore Museum many times. I confess not totally understanding what he was trying to do in simplifying the shapes and colors and flattening the depth of so many of his works. I'm starting to see that he was an artist's artist, unconcerned whether the public understands him or not. I guess that's OK, but he suffered severe criticism most of his life because of it. He was almost admirable, like a monk totally disciplined for his god, Art. The women in his life made his life as an artist possible. His wife Amelie and daughter Margo took care of all the details outside of his work and a Russian model named Lydia did so towards the end of his life. Unfortunately, Amelie thought (incorrectly per the book) that Margo and Henri were lovers and that broke up the marriage after WWII.

Hilary Spurling does a good job of condensing and making sense of the massive correspondence of Matisse and his family. My only complaint is that it could have been more condensed. It felt a little too much like a daily log in certain places. I'm sure she was trying to finally give the master his due.

Those of us who live today are spoiled in one sense that we don't realize: We can see Matisse's work on display and appreciate its evolution. That wasn't possible until just the last few decades. Until then, many of his most powerful works were locked up in the Soviet system and not on display or were in the hands of reclusive collectors.

That's an important point to remember when you wonder why Picasso has gotten so much more attention than Matisse, you could always see Picasso's work and Picasso courted attention.

Matisse, by comparison, found that it took all of his energies just to create art. There was very little time left over for his family and the rest of the world. He also wasn't inclined to seek out those who could explain and defend his work. As a result, he was widely misunderstood and underappreciated during his lifetime. This book corrects many of those problems.

Of particularly interest is the finding that although Matisse spent his life painting voluptuous nudes, he didn't indulge in having sexual relations with his models. Rather he used the sexual tension the models created in him to help inspire a better work. The models did become, ultimately, the undoing of his marriage . . . but not for the reasons you expect.

As fascinating as he is as an artist, he even more interesting as a creative person and head of a family. Matisse saw his family's role as being there to serve art. Although in a crisis, he would show up to encourage and aid family members and friends . . . usually he was off painting or sculpting by himself in sunnier climes. The rest of the time, they were doing administrative tasks, critiquing the works, staying out of his way and helping him enjoy a tranquil existence.

Anyone who wants a deeper appreciation of Matisse's work will learn from this volume. Although the book would have been better with more color plates, the pages are generously illustrated with black and white reproductions to give you a sense of his focus and development.

For artists, the book's many insights into the pros and cons of relationships with collectors and dealers will make the volume a "must have" item.

I didn't know the background of many of his best works, such as Jazz. It was a pleasure to better understand why he did them.

In particular, you will come away with a new appreciation for Matisse's use of color to capture emotion. Think of The Red Studio and the Conversation.

I seldom savor biographies as much as I did this one. I plan to go back now and read the first volume in the series, The Unknown Matisse.

Ms. Spurling's extensive use of Matisse's letters (and especially reproducing the funny little cartoons he liked to put in them) made the book a special joy.

Nice work, Ms. Spurling!

Superb! Not only one of the best biographies I've read, it get's into the mind of the artist. This is not an easy thing to do. I read it as I would a novel, it was very hard to put down.

Such a wonderful book to read! After seeing his works of art at the museums in New York (MET - MOMA); in Maryland (BMA); and in California (San Francisco), it is a joy to the human spirit to read this biography. This book offers the reader all the underlying events contributing to each of his major works of art. It allows us to better appreciate his extreme and intense efforts to create; it allows us to recognize his unquestionable courage to be himself while many of the art world turned away from him; and one will learn of his life long love of the natural world (birds and plants) and his view of the importance of the spirit of man. Further, this book allows the reader to see his social frustration; one can learn of his powerful drive (so red hot) to create, and one will see in words how he commanded everyone around him to assist him in his zeal to achieve his personal best in art. As the book denotes towards the end even Picasso, the great competitor, stated in a discussion of one of Matisse's later works (the Chapel in Nice): 'Only Matisse could do this!' Read to learn, read to know, and read to be more deeply passionate in love with Matisse as I am!

"Artists are like plants whose growth in the thickets of the jungle depends on the air they breathe, and the mud or stones among which they grow by chance and without choice." Matisse's words coupled with his life as proof of what van Gogh said about the love of art making one lose real love make the reader feel the pain, the joy and the rich colours of his life all that much more. He made us understand.

Hilary Spurling's masterpiece (savoured by me for endless months, days and hours) has been an extraordinary experience I never wanted to end - both volumes. And now her biography is all locked in my mind - hopefully, to be recalled again and again in painting after painting and life experience after love experience - thanks to all the years of her hard work and research.

I am now filled with the colours of the Master - just as he'd installed 'The Tree of Life' in "a change of key that brought an extraordinary clarity, serenity and stillness to the music of the chapel." If the student of art, the student of life might only read pp. 455-456, he/she would be amazed at one whose talents were mocked ("any child could paint better than Matisse." ... "...his inventions seemed not simply monstrous but blasphemous as well.") and would ache to have had the chance to be a simple fly on the wall in those last years of his life when the many energies swirled about his taxi beds and many wond'rous studios ever-changing, metamorphosing, revealing and displaying, nurturing, teaching... revolutionary!

Let us not forgot his bedrocks - the women who made all his successes possible are miraculous and astonishing... Lydia, Matisse's remarkable genius manager (we should all be so lucky to know such a dynamo); Amelie, his extraordinary wife and her 'nine lives'; of course, Marguerite, his daughter, whose amazing vitality and strength of character resounds on almost every page of his life story; she was one (by her great courage) who humbled him more than anyone else could; and the countless models and interns...

As a side note... I remember in January 2006 when Hilary Spurling "scooped one of Britain's most prestigious literary awards," Whitbread Book of the Year prize, just as the big scandal exploded about Oprah's book club "author" protégé/scam artist James Frey was exposed. I thought to myself, "There is still a god!" What kind of mindless person would turn to Oprah for advice on what to read in the first place?! What does she know about literature?

I am humbled at Hilary Spurling's great accomplishment and would love to meet her one day so I could sing her the song I wrote about Matisse and the story of his blue butterfly. [...]

"The blue of that butterfly and Cezanne
made you more of a spiritual man."

Yes, this book is very witty and very easy to read. I am en route to France for a year next year as an American exchange student, and I found this book to be very helpful for every aspect of the process--except I wish she added more information like "Why did she switch host families?" and about school. She barely mentioned anything about homework, the lycée, or anything like that. But I loved everything else about the book. It was intriguing and exciting. And also, it's a very nice quick read. If you are, going to be, or was an exchange student, this book is a must-have. Anther book I recommend is The Exchange Student Survival Kit. Au revoir!

I am planning on studying abroad to France in 2003 and this book has helped me out in many ways. It told me exactly what I need to know before I go, how the French people are, the school system, and it gave me encouragement. Just reading about how she doesn't regret going makes me want to go even more. I just wished she would have added more about how to handle so much school! Anyway, this book is great to read, even if you aren't planning on going to France. It has a lot of interesting facts that I could never imagine possible. Great book.

The moment I saw this book in the bookstore, I knew I had to get it because Megan did what I have always wanted to do: be an exchange student in another country. This book is just so charming, delightful, and cute. I finally was able to be an exchange student this summer in a Spanish speaking country, and while I was not gone a whole academic year but only for a couple of weeks, I always had this book by my side because so many things were the same. So if you have ever been an exchange student before/hosted one in America, or are going too I recomend this book right away, and if you are just looking for a good book to read you'll have a ball.

On the cover of this book, the publisher exudes, "A delightfully irresistible, charming account of a young American girl's year abroad." For once, this kind of description is actually an understatement. Yes, the book is in fact "delightfully irresistible" and truly charming. But the writing is also exceptionally limpid and evocative and betrays an exceptional maturity and talent. Megan McNeill Libby gives us beautifully impressionistic portraits of France, the French, and her very personal struggles, disasters, and triumphs. Her depiction of the French is extraordinarily perceptive and from my own experience living in France totally accurate. At times, I laughed until I cried; more frequently, I caught myself involuntarily smiling and nodding in agreement. But the deeper reward of reading this book is simply seeing the way that Ms. Libby writes and thinks. She is one of those rare authors with whom one falls in love after (no, during) a single reading. I am normally sparing with my praise, but I readily admit to being a gourmand for this book. Merci bien, Megan, and please give us more!

The author of Postcards from France, Megan Libby, was just 16 when she went to France in 1994 as your typical AFS student. But she wasn't typical: she had her eyes wide open and was able to record, in a series of letters and postcards sent back home, what a humbling experience it is to be a newcomer in another culture. By turns comedic, touching, insightful, and revealing, Postcards from France is always refreshing - and it's highly likely this talented young author will go on to write more books that will be a pleasure to read.