France Books

This is by far the most difinitive and best work I have ever seen on the subject of medieval history. Without it, the entire discipline would suffer, as it has for centuries up until the publication of this book. It makes books like Ermengaard of Narbonne pale and hide behind their little awards. Easy to read and highly enjoyable, I recommend everyone buy this book.

This is by far the most difinitive book on the subject of medieval history i have yet encountered. Easy to read and highly enjoyable, I recommend it to everyone in the entire world, whether or not they have any knowledge at all of medieval history. Without this book the discipline would be stuck in an intellectual dark age, as it had been for centuries up until this publication.

This book was truly stunning in its comprehensiveness and ease of reading. I was amazed and could not put it down until I had read it cover to cover. Unlike many books in its field, it focuses on important information, not convoluted thoughts like the use of bear paws. I recommend this book to everyone.

Having taken several courses on Medieval History, I find Daileader's book to be very insightful. It is amazing how similar his insights and conclusions are to those of my professors. I believe this work is truly a great addition to the field.

In this fine novel Jacqueline Pelham brings together a cast of characters who find themselves enfolded in a plot of intrigue and suspense set in the arena of Nazi-occupied France.

Drawing from her knowlege of the despair of a vanquished nation now under the heel of an arrogant conqueror, Pelham weaves a fabric of diverse circumstances that bring a shy young girl onto the stage of a massive plot to plunder the pricless art treasures of the homeland.

With tender precision the author creates a love story set in the scene of one of the most dramatic eras of the twentieth century.

Danielle Delacroiox, the stories heroine, finds herself under the domination of an SS colonel whose sinister motives paint a malevolent background to this tantalizing drama.

This is a story with an evolving plot that embraces the epic theater of the darkest years of World War II as seen through the lens of a cast of characters that portray the best and worst of the human experience.

The author's intimate knowledge of the mid-century art world coupled with her careful delineation of the life style of the upper echelons of French aristocracy paint a vivid fesco that captivates the audience with its authenticity.

Pelham, in her inimitable style, reminds us how unconquerable the individual soul can be and by deftly probing the minds of her characters she skillfully brings her story to a climax that embraces the extraordinary courage of the human spirit and leaves us spellbound from beginning to end.

UNDER THE ROSE by Jackie Pelham is a suspenseful multilayered tale set in France during World War II with chilling international intrique. As Danielle is compelled to catalog great art acquistions for the Nazis, she is secretly working with the resisitance and the man she has grown to love. But fate in the guise of those she both trusts and fears throws almost insurmountable obstacles in her path and it is uncertain if she can survive. Pelham's chracterization throughout the novel is rich and endearing. Her language in telling the story is marvelously gifted. I recommend this novel to anyone who loves to read as one they will not be able to leave unfinished.

Against the background of Nazi-occupied World WarII Paris, Jacqueline Pelham weaves an engrossing tale of intrigue, love,and courage.

Her characters are so alive that I felt chilled with fear for Danielle,the courageous young heroine who becomes a spy for France. The Nazi colonel who tries to seduce her is cold and menacing in his campaign to possess her and her family's fortune in art. Even secondary characters are finely drawn, with frailties and strengths that make them so real you'd recognize them anywhere.

The suspense that ends one chapter only builds in the next. The danger is unrelenting, a constant in the lives of Danielle, her enigmatic lover, and the father and friends she loves.I found myself deeply invested in hoping that there would be a happy outcome for them all.

This book is a great read. Save it for when you can devote long stretches of time to savoring its excitement, because you won't want to put it down.

Set in France during the darkest days of World War II, Under The Rose by Jacqueline Pelham is the riveting story of Danielle Delacroix, a female French aristocrat and her struggle to keep her body, her soul, and her family's artistic treasures safe from the ruthless plunder of the Nazis. Under The Rose is highly recommended as an intense and passionate saga fairly brimming with emotion, blood, betrayal, as one woman strives to preserve works of history and beauty.

First of all, my new engagement calendar arrived in pristine condition, very sturdy cover, heavier quality than I expected, with beautiful pages of Tuscany. The added treat was lovely sayings, recipes, and quotes throughout. The scenic photos carry one away to a glorious place. Pages also of great quality! I will love carrying this dreamy calendar around to sooth me during each and every day this year.

Wonderful, inspiring, soul lifting pictures.

Always one week and one picture open.

Lays flat.

This is a beautful calendar. Has lots of room to write on each date. If you loved her books you'll enjoy owning this too.

How wonderful to get yet another Tuscan diary from Frances Mayes- 2008.
I have been buying Under the Tuscan Sun diaries since 2000.
Come September I am checking on Amazon to see if it is available.
It is truly such a magic moment when it arrives in my postbox!- all those great pictures and words of wisdom and joy in life.
I have read/ own all Frances Mayes' books- imagine my delight when on a trip to Italy some years back I FOUND her villa--and took my own pics of this beautiful house!
The yearly diary is such an ongoing reminder of my travels in Tuscany and indeed of so many things Italian.

One of the most beautiful, complex works of art that remain with us from the middle ages, the Unicorn Tapestries at the Cloisters Museum in New York City are a priceless treasure. Their monograph on the tapestries is a beautifully produced, meticulously researched, and well-written overview of the techniques used to weave them, the selection of colors, the symbolism of the figures and flowers, and the possible meaning of the entire sequence. To this day, no one knows for certain for whom they were woven and what they truly signify. If you haven't had a chance to see these wondrous tapestries in person, consider putting them on your list of things to do before you die. If you have been fortunate enough to make a visit, this book will certainly increase your understanding and appreciation of this masterpiece. We are fortunate to have them, though they probably truly belong in France or Belgium.

I absolutely love the unicorn tapestries, and I fulfilled a childhood dream when i saw them at the Cluny museum in paris. The colors are vivid and beautiful and do justice to these awesome tapestries.

I recall seeing these tapestries for the first time as a teen, when my high school class made a bus trip to the Cloisters Museum--deigned as a medieval castle--in the uppermost park in Manhattan. As I recall, I was on crutches at the time. Through the shallow, spiral stairs tested my coordination, however, the fabulous textiles, rich in color and mythology, completely distracted me from my injury.

I've been back a few times over the years to see these priceless treasures, and each time, they have induced silent awe.

Margaret Freeman's volume provides a great record of the collection, including fine pictorial details, and scholarly (but engrossing) explanations of the tapestry themes and motifs.

This is an art book you'll be happy to have.

If you can't see these gorgeous tapestries in person, ***this book is a great way to view them up-close. Each tapestry, circa 1500, is shown in full (in color!) and in detail. All of the brilliant colors are from three dyes: madder (red), woad (blue), and weld (yellow). The hunt of the unicorn theme is possibly an allegory for love, marriage, even the death of Jesus Christ.

These now-famous works of art apparently belonged to François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld, in the late 1600s. They were taken from his chateau and later used by peasants to protect their food from frosts. Fortunately, they were recovered in 1850 and later (1922) purchased by John D. Rockefeller who gave them to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I was fortunate enough to see them last October. My fiancé and I made the trek from Times Square, via subway, to Fort Tryon Park, where The Cloisters are peacefully nestled. We crawled from the sub-terrain and entered the lush, fragrant park. It's a bit of a walk up to the museum, but the garden atmosphere astonished us. We couldn't believe we were in NY! The Cloisters were quiet and uncrowded in the morning. There's a center court complete with bubbling fountains and plants from the Medieval era that is open to the sky. We crossed this courtyard and entered into the small room where the tapestries occupy their personal space. I will never forget the experience. They took my breath away.

I collect art books and am particularly fond of Vincent Van Gogh, the fabulous Dutch artist of the 19th Century, who is probably the most popular of all artists--EVER (certainly my favorite!!). I have taken several art history courses with Van Gogh as subject, seen all the "Van Gogh" films, etc. I own many books about Van Gogh including a few I picked up in the Netherlands. What could anyone else possibly say about him that I have not already heard? The answer as it turns out is plenty. I had not yet read Debora Silverman's VAN GOGH AND GAUGUIN: THE SEARCH FOR SACRED ART.

Silverman has taken a different tact in writing about the artists Van Gogh and Gauguin--who will linked together through eternity if for no other reason than the episode in Arles with Van Gogh's "earlobe" (not ear). Like many, I have wondered just why these two men behaved so antagonistically towards each other. I have heard about personality conflicts, differing life styles, and mental illness, but somehow these reasons have never resonated with me. The explanation for the Gauguin-Van Gogh conflict according to Silverman was owing to nothing less than their conflicting interpretations of the meaning of life.

Gauguin was raised Roman Catholic and attended a Catholic boys school where he was taught the theology of bearing one's cross and dying to the material world to attain the transcendent good--paradise. Van Gogh came from a humanistic Dutch Reformed background in an era when this church was focused on the need for a consolatary religion in the face of EVOLUTION. Their conflict seems to have been a feud of a particular kind as both men attempted to understand the eternal truths, grapple with the new reality of science, and abandon their relgious upbringings.

While Gauguin's paintings reflect the transcendent as "otherworldly" and point the way for later abstract symbolists such as Picasso, Van Gogh's works are tied to the sacred presence of the eternal in the natural world. In painting after painting, Gauguin flattens the canvas, uses paint sparingly and depicts scenes of misery and suffering, sin and redemption. On the other hand, Van Gogh focuses on the sacred nature of work and rural life--threshing, weaving, milking, and rocking the baby by the fireplace. Where Gauguin creates angels strugging with men and flying cows, Van Gogh paints wheat fields and grape vineyards filled with sowers, thrashers, and harvesters. Where Gauguin sees classical elements such as the three muses and a Greek temple and admires Delacroix, Van Gogh sees bridges, sailboats, looms, and walls, and adores Millet.

During their short time together in Arles, Gauguin sought to influence Van Gogh--to have him paint from memory, flatten surfaces, and introduce overt religious symbolism into his work. Van Gogh did partially adapt some of Gauguin's techniques such as cloisonism (black outlines separating flat patches of color), but while Gauguin continued to tackle the sinful ways of man (and apparently sin quite heavily when he wasn't working) Van Gogh adapted Zenlike techniques reminiscent of Hiroshege and other Japanese artists who saw no boundary between the divine and natural worlds.

Silverman writes beautifully (I read every word..this is a powerful book) and there are hundreds of drop-dead beautiful facsimilies of the works of Gauguin and Van Gogh. I think Silverman favors Van Gogh, and I do too so I was not disappointed (though she covers Gauguin quite well). She spends a great deal of time on style and technique, which I also liked very much. She is not merely pointing out technical differences, however, she is showing how their respective techniques were tied to their philosophical outlooks. Several "sets" of paintings by both men are discussed in detail--Van Gogh's Langlois bridge paintings (all nine are reproduced) and the Berceuse paintings (she who rocks the cradle); as well as Gauguin's repeated use elements such as the women of Brittany, cows, angels, and "the dead."

This is a wonderful book and if you love Van Gogh and want to better understand his painterly ways, you must have it. It will enrich your life.

Although a non-scholar, I have a keen interest in art history and thus was delighted to receive a copy of this book as a holiday gift from my daughter. The subtitle indicates Silverman's thematic objective: To examine "the search for sacred art." She provides her reader with a brilliantly written narrative during which she shares a wealth of information about Van Gogh and Gauguin, of course, in combination with hundreds of illustrations (many in full-color) which are skillfully correlated with the text. Here is how the material is organized:

Part One: Toward Collaboration [two "Self-Portraits"]

Part Two: Peasant Subjects and Sacred Forms [eg Van Gogh's "Sower" and Gauguin's "Vision After the Sermon"]

Part Three: Catholic Idealism and Dutch Reformed Realism

Part Four: Collaboration in Arles

Part Five: Theologies of Art After Arles

Part Six: Modernist Catechism and Sacred Realism

Silverman carefully identifies and then eloquently explores all manner of comparisons and contrasts between the lives and art of Van Gogh and Gauguin within an historical, theological, and anthropological context. Hers is a magnificent achievement.

"Christ alone -- of all the philosophers, Magi, etc. -- has affirmed, as a principal certainty, eternal life, the infinity of time, the nothingness of death, the necessity and the raison d'etre of serenity and devotion. He lived serenely, as a greater artist than all other artists, despising marble and clay as well as color, working in living flesh. That is to say, this matchless artist, hardly to be conceived of by the obtuse instrument of our modern, nervous, stupefied brains, made neither statues nor pictures nor books; he loudly proclaimed that he made... living men, immortals. This is serious, especially because it is the truth." Vincent van Gogh wrote these words in a long letter to Emile Bernard, his close friend and painter. He wrote them in Arles, where was working particularly hard, at the end of June 1888. The greatest artistic achievements where still before him, as well as unexpected illness and pity death. Debora Silverman exhibits to us another great event of Vincent's life: short and vehement artistic friendship with Paul Gaugain, that inspired Vincent much and may be even more costed. They knew and write each other for some years. They spent together same weeks in Arles working and fiercely discussing many artistic topics. Unexpectedly, in a while of serious depression Vincent decided to punish his comrade. With dark intentions in the mind he even picked up a razor. But his own illness won. Next day Gaugin found him laying unconscious, all in blood, with one ear cut. Silverman asks how possible was this strange and strangely fruitful friendship. She explores complicated cultural and religious background of both the painters. "I was intrigued -- writes in the Introduction -- by how Gauguin may have assimilated from his seminary training certain mental habits and attitudes toward the visual that were profoundly discordant with those I had identified in van Gogh's formative period in his Dutch theological culture, and I suspected that these distinctive mentalities had implications for the form and content of their work". There have been no similar studies up now. Religious life of Vincent van Gogh have been explored only very recently by Tsukasha Kodera (Vincent van Gogh. Christianity versus nature), Katheleen Power Erickson (At Eternity's Gate), Cliff Edwards (Van Gogh and God) and others, but never in relation to the southern France Catholicism, in atmosphere of which Vincent spent his recent years. Catholic background of Gaugin himself is even less known. Their mutual cultural and religious interferences, and their own personal achievements of this field finally received an abundant and complete description grace to Silverman research.

a work of genius and a pleasure to read. this book is essential for any museumgoer and the general reader with any interest in either artist. revealing the mutual respect and support between two very different men, with outstanding illustrations and insightful prose. i cannot remember any art history book so erudite and approachable.

The story was so cute. It was neat to have the little girl share her story about her experience with grandpa. It is really nice to see such a simple story that brings a neat message of love and family. Good Job!

This delightful story reminded me of growing up next to a dairy farm as a child.

The story gives me a change to talk to my grandchildren about my memories as a child. I love this little book.

Grandmother

This book will make your young children laugh. A wonderful story about Grandpa Joe and the milk stool.

This is my daughter's favorite artist and I get her one of these calendars each year.

First of all, the calendar got to me pretty quickly. It was gorgeous. I'm absolutely in love with it.

I've been a fan of Victoria Frances since the first time I saw any of her pictures, so my opinion may be a little biased. As always, Victoria's artwork is amazing and beautiful. This calendar would not be good for those who dislike blood as she tends to draw vampires a lot. For anyone else, I would recommend this without a second thought.

Absolutely perfect for all of us who long for some anaemic, safe gothdom.

This calendar actually reminds me a lot of the posters displayed in hairdressers windows advertising l'Oreal's majirel hair colour range. (I always make that comparison.)

A word of warning to potential gift-givers though. This calendar is put out by a fantasy t&a publishing house. So make sure you undo the cellophane so that the ads for some very racy mags fall out.

Don't know what happened to March though.(!!!)

Alexander Turner, a battalion-level officer in the British Army, delivers a solid summary of the Canadian Corps' impressive capture of Vimy Ridge in April 1917. Although Turner offers the capture of Vimy Ridge as refutation of claims that Allied generalship in the First World War was fatally flawed, his conclusions skim by the fact that Vimy Ridge was one of the very few attacks that enjoyed this kind of success at such low cost. Furthermore, the amount of mistakes made by the German commanders at Vimy Ridge seem to be beyond the norm for that army in the First World War. Statistically speaking, Vimy Ridge was something of an aberration and therefore difficult to use as a case study. In any event, Turner provides a detailed summary of the preparation and execution of this highly successful Allied offensive.

Turner begins with the usual section on the background to the campaign and opposing forces, which tends to digress a bit into a broader discussion of the tactical-technological problems facing First World War armies. At points, the author appears to want to paint a broader canvas á la John Keegan, rather than deliver a campaign study, but he settles down by mid-volume. The volume includes five 2-D maps (the German retirement to the Hindenburg Line; Arras and the Chemin des Dames Offensives; Locations of Allied Artillery units near Vimy Ridge; the Battle of Vimy Ridge; Attack on the "Pimple" and Bois-en-hache, 12 April 1917) and two 3-D maps (the Assault on Vimy Ridge in the 1st and 2nd Canadian Division areas and the fight for Hill 145 and "the Pimple"), as well as two excellent battle scenes (advance of the 2nd Canadian Division on 9 April 1917 and the defense of the Zwischenstellung). The maps are decent, but the dominant nature of Vimy Ridge is less apparent on the 3-D maps than a standard military 1:50,000-scale map of the area. Furthermore, the operational-level maps provide only vague details on the larger picture of the Arras offensive, without even showing the equally impressive advance of the British XVII Corps to the south of Vimy Ridge.

The author makers clear that both the German and Canadian troops at Vimy Ridge were high quality, but that the Canadian Corps had an overwhelming superiority in artillery, which was enhanced by careful planning. The author also disputes the idea that Vimy Ridge was an all-Canadian affair and points out the contributions of various British support units. Although the author briefly mentions the air superiority battles that preceded the Allied offensive, he offers few details once the attack commenced. He does spend a fair amount of time describing the extensive Allied mining and tunneling efforts, much of which did not pan out during the actual offensive.

While Turner notes faulty German dispositions and planning, he does not seem to appreciate that the Allied attack was assisted by fog and snow, which severely reduced German visibility. Instead, Turner emphasizes the muddy ground as an impediment to Canadian mobility. The magnitude of the Allied success at Vimy Ridge is not always apparent in Turner's account, which does not mention that this attack resulted in the furthest Allied advance in one day since the start of trench warfare. Turner's background in an infantry battalion aids him in painting the portrait of Canadian infantry struggling through the mud and shellfire, but there is little actual analysis of the battle's outcome. Overall, Vimy Ridge 1917 is a solid campaign summary, albeit one that could benefit from a bit sharper focus.

World War One battles by their static - and horrific - nature are difficult to bring to life, but that is exactly what Mr. Turner does in this book. He effectively combines the intellectual background (e.g. short biographies of the officers/men, reviews of strategy and technology), photos, and maps. Maps - how important they are, and yet how often a good military book fails to tie the text to good graphics, so one can understand the terrain and the place in the overall "big" picture. While I waited in suspense for the battle to begin, I learned about fascinating developments in strategy ("defense in depth), when I thought there were little or not developments during the war, the abilities of the officers on both sides, and the men who were going to fight the battle. I have never read an Osprey book before, but this will surely guide me in that direction. This was a terrific read.

Essentially the first BEF victory on the western front (pre Messines), Vimy Ridge gave Canada an epic battle all its own. Today the towering memorial on Hill 145 holds the names of the nation's missing (including one of my distant relatives) and is a focal point for Canadian national pride as the statue of Canada weeping for her fallen sons looks out over the coalfields of Lens.

In typical Osprey fashion, this volume presesnts a clear, concise and complete story of this great battle, with excellent graphics, photos, and, perhaps most refreshing, maps (why can't WWI authors and publishers create some decent maps? Osprey seems to be able to pull it off). The final chapter is an excellent description of the battlefield today, made more interesting of course by the the fact that Canada has preserved portions of the trenches as well as part of the Grange Subway on the ridgetop.

Read this Campaign series to get the overview and the lay of the land (and subway system!) then root out a copy of Berton's Vimy for a real understanding of what the battle meant to a 'dominion' that had to fight the British to maintain their identity in a separate corps (a preview of the fight Pershing was to have with the same Brit leadership when the doughboys arrived)and protect their egalitarian society from the class structure the dominated the BEF.

Even if you know this battle well, and perhaps, because you do, the graphics are worth the small investment in this volume. Most Osprey Campaign issues are a nice addition to lengthy tomes simply for the maps and illustrations.

The vice of the Campaign Series can be to cover so large a subject in one small volume and give so much introductory material that the subject of the book is covered in less depth than in an Encyclopedia. In the end you get little more than an introduction, a few nice pictures, if you're lucky some nice maps, and photographs so small you can never see the detail mentioned in the captions.
In Vimy Ridge the author has avoided these perils. He limits himself to the battle, not a history of the whole West Front, and assumes you knew something about World War One before you purchased the book. The result is a gem. A concise description of a battle very different from what you thought it would be, well-written, well-illustrated other than the too small photos. The only criticism is that you are left wanting more, but to get that you need a much larger and more expensive book than Osprey promised you.

I Have the pleasure of reading the Warrior's Rose .
Once I began this extraordinary book ,I could not put it down Highly recommended!
I Salute to Mr Tamas Weber and to the French Foreign Legion.
Read it and Enjoy.

Nitzan Halperin

A friend gave me this book to read book and it is wonderful. It's written very colorfully in Tamas's own words and tells of his life preceding the Legion, his joining the French Foreign Legion, and his experiences of Legion life and his battles in Algeria. He describes, as a boy, leaving Hungary and entering war-torn Paris. His heartbreaks and his trials are difficult to relate to by modern day standards but yet his warrior spirit remained intact. His story includes his wild, boyish pranks that will make you laugh and cry. By the way, Tamas Weber is also one of the most respected Karate Masters in the world. Not only a highly decorated Legion hero but a ninth degree Karate master. This is his endearing story and a great read.

This autobiography starts with early childhood memories in Budapest during the Second World War. After loosing his father the family makes a difficult escape to Paris. Soon after arriving there Tamas and his brother are de facto abandoned by their mother and forced to grow up as orphans. Many episodes illustrate the hardships and pleasures which result in a developing street wisdom. At the age of 16 he joins the foreign legion which he is forced to leave after repeated injuries in Algerian battles as a highly decorated officer. Many tales of camaraderie and battle cries are vividly described.
This story is told with a unique sense of humor and sharp observations. Between the lines a strong willpower is shining through. One can sense that the Spartan formative years are either destroying the psyche or building an extraordinary personality.
I finished reading the book in one session and had the feeling that it should have a follow up. What happened to this kid as a grown up?
Fascinating reading

This colourfully-written book gives a real insight into the young man who grew up to be Tamas Weber, karate and self-defence master. It paints a picture of his childhood, youth and early manhood in war-torn Europe and his experiences in the French Foreign Legion. The story is told with Tamas' compassion, strength and very unique sense-of-humour... If you ever have the chance to train with Tamas Weber, do so!

Osu!!!!!!!

I first encountered this book through the aisles of my public library. I re-checked it so many times that I had to see if it was still in print. To my happy surprise it was. I love it for the great recipes and the warm and rich memories of a by-gone time; though I did find mention of a place I had travelled to on my honeymoon in 1996--a qaint little town called Annecy, in France. She described her experience much as I had recalled my own happy time there! This book is simply enchanting and everything I've made from it has been a rewarding and deliciously wonderful dining experience. Try the Green Beans Brittany Style or the simple Escarole Salad. Really good!

Is it really possible to cook French food? I wonder how hard this recipe book will be...probably impossible. Aren't all French cookbooks a little hard to understand, my last one was...oh well, I have jet lag keeping me awake, I might as well read this somewhat interesting French cookbook my mother set out for me to read on our return from Europe...here goes!

Incredible! Amazing! When can I start cooking this food? I'm going to give this book as Christmas gifts to all my "Reader-Friends" because this isn't just a classy cookbook, this is an old world novel!

You'll never know that French cooking could be so de---liciously-romantic (need I go on?);

possible to cook? - even for the novice (like yourself!);

exciting! - because you can use all the taboo "fat" foods like butter and cream (we all know that butter and cream makes everything taste better), and without gaining weight (!!)...

Yes, you'll never know until you read "When French Women Cook" (similar to reading a classic, century-old-novel) that you too can actually cook this practical, sumptuous food and be known as a gourmet French chef. (well, almost!)

At least you can say you read this fantastic cookbook-novel that inspired you to cook these incredible tasting dishes! I think one should go to Madeleine Kamman's French Cooking School in France to really qualify as a pro French chef.

OK ?...Let's go!...Bonjour!

OK I bought this book on a whim. I'm not sure why I bought it over the other dozens of books on french cooking/lifestyle that I read the reviews about. I suspect it was on someone's list and they made it sound appealing. I have read it (parts of it I have reread). I have cooked many recipes from it. The book is appealing.

First, the recipes are wonderful. The saute of wild mushrooms is the best. The browned veal stock took me alot of research on epicurious.com (reviewing other recipes) to fill in the missing steps. Once I experimented with it, I thought it was excellent. I never appreciated the importance of homemade stock until I read this book. Now I have lots of it ready for defrosting. But the book has more to offer than recipes.

This book is perhaps at its best in that it sheds light on a way of life that has passed or is passing. It provides insight into the very different regions and origins of the people of early twentieth century France. I came away with a new appreciation for the people and their cuisine. A very worthwhile investment.

`When French Women Cook' by Madeleine Kamman is one of the very best in a genre which may be called culinary anthropology, a genre closely related to the memoir and the survey of local cuisines, but still a bit different. It is more than a memoir in that it provides many useful recipes serving a much greater purpose than simply illustrations of an event or a point, as you find in, for example, Ruth Reichl's excellent memoirs. They are also a bit less than a full survey of a culinary terroir, as you may find in Paula Wolfert's excellent books, in that they tend to deal with the recipes of a specific group of people. The three other leading examples of this little genre are Patience Gray's `Honey from a Stone', Richard Olney's `Lulu's Provencal Kitchen', and Amanda Hesser's `The Gardner and the Cook'.

Madeleine Kamman is an odd duck in the pantheon of English language writers on French cuisine. She is really a cookbook author of the first order, especially with her excellent text `The New Making of a Cook', but she has always been a bit in the shadow of Julia Child, Elizabeth David, and Richard Olney. According to Child's biographer, there was even a substantial amount of rancor towards Child on Kamman's part, after the success of Child's book and TV shows and before Kamman achieved recognition with her original `The Making of a Cook'.

Like the other three notable books in this genre, this is a cookbook which is meant to be read from cover to cover. It's culinary content and its anecdotal introductions to each of the chapters are all great reading. The book tells the story of eight French women cooks, all of whom Mme. Kamman, who is herself, of French birth, knew before she left France for the United States in 1960 (coincidentally about the same time as Jacques Pepin, another major French culinary import to the US). As Shirley Corriher points out in her new Foreword, by some happy chance, the eight women came from a very diverse collection of French culinary centers. And, this diversity is easily one of the most useful and enjoyable aspects of the book. One sees clearly the difference between the cuisine of Normandy, laden with its apples and butter, and the cuisine of Alsace, for example, with its sauerkraut and sausages, so similar to its German neighbor's cuisine. So, this book becomes a major dissertation on examples of terroir, the French doctrine that is conveniently paraphrased as `What grows together, goes together'.

Ms. Kamman confirms the role of this book by insisting that there are many ingredients to many of these recipes that simply cannot be had in the United States. A major issue, for example is her claim that it is senseless for us to create `crème fraiche' in our kitchens, as there is simply no way we can reproduce the flavor and result obtained from the true French product. How idiosyncratic this position is can be seen from the fact that many cookbooks I have seen which presented French cuisine gives a recipe for `crème fraiche'. Interestingly enough, however, is the fact that Julia Child, in `Mastering the Art of French Cooking' allows that American cream typically doesn't match the butterfat content of the French product, but does allow that one can approximate the product by mixing in a little buttermilk and letting the mix stand for a bit. In Ms. Kamman's favor, she simply tells us to use heavy cream when the recipe calls for `crème fraiche'.

Ms. Kamman is also adapts the conceit that these recipes come from a time before the reign of the famous French male chefs and their Michelin stars. I won't belabor this point, but Madeleine is plainly wrong on this point as the male domination of commercial kitchens goes back at least to Antonin Careme and Escoffier. And, Michelin started giving out its restaurant stars in 1933, starting with the granddaddy of modern French cuisine, Ferdinand Point.

But getting back to the recipes, I find virtually all of them delightful to read and delicious in anticipating my trying them and tasting the results. Since the book's chapters and recipes are organized by person and by region in France, the recipes are not organized for easy location for a good dish for chicken or veal or artichokes. Gratin's, my favorite type of dish, for example, appear among the recipes for each of the eight chapters. This being so, it is almost a shame that Mme. Kamman took such great pains to give us a measure of the cost and the difficulty of the recipes, as one will generally not use this book to find quick or cheap recipes. For that, we go to Rachael Ray.

Nevertheless, these recipes are really top drawer in both selection and in the detail with which the author describes the procedures. One thing I really like about the text which may be a little intimidating to some readers is that while Ms. Kamman is very careful in describing things carefully, she does expect a modicum of knowledge about French cooking. Not every French culinary term is translated and you may have to consult her textbook for her preferences on what to put in the `bouquet garni', or even to find out what a `bouquet garni' is.

One of the surest tests of whether or not I like a cookbook is whether I anticipate the recipe for a dish and actually find a recipe for that very dish in the book. This happened as I ran across a gratin recipe for mushrooms and potatoes. This seemed to be such a natural dish that I thought it was inevitable that there should be such a recipe, and there was.

This book is highly recommended for anyone who likes to read about cooking in general.