France Books

This is an authentic voice and readers will be immersed in a superbly crafted and intensely moving plot. The characters live and breathe on every page. There is love, heartbreak, mystery and genuine emotion. Unputdownable until the last surprise.

I would actually give this book 4.5 stars. I really liked the story about Laura trying to find out what happened to her father. Her search for him is very touching and you can almost feel as if you are searching for your father too! The love story part was okay. It kinda irked me how she practically fell into the arms of the guys in the story but thats just me. I also liked the parts where she was with her friends Vee, Grace, and Pansy. It really showed how a strong friendship can get you through anything, even a war. Overall its a great book and I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good love story.

This novel brings to life WWII while invoking WWI. The talefollows the wartime exploits of a young woman and brings history vividlyto life. Through descriptions and a compelling voice, the author manages to weave a fascinating tale while animating history. An excellent book for those who are interested in historical events and lives of those who participated.

Armstrong Encore is the best cycling book I have ever read. It does not insult the cyclist intelligence like most other cycling books I have read. It gives in-depth information of day-by-day following the 2000 Tour. It give explainations and insight that can only come from the pro's themselves. This kind of coverage is not found on TV or videos.

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I've read many books about cycling races over the years and this has to be about the best. excellent in-depth coverage of Lance Armstrong and the US Postal squad as they attempt to repeat their previous year's victory. I could hardly put it down. in fact I'm already reading it for the second time.

As someone who has haunted Paris for decades, I can say that there is no more wonderful companion than Thirza Vallois. Her three volumes of Around and About Paris, covering every arrondissement with both erudition and joy, are almost as deep and rich and rewarding as the city itself. They are to be carried about for consulting on foot, and read in your armchair for pleasure and information you will not find in the run-of-the-mill "guide." These books are for explorers and dreamers, scholars and lovers. If you want to know Paris, you can not do better.

Because Mrs Vallois has a love affair with Paris; because she devoted part of her life to this "cause", she is totally convincing. When you read her descriptions of hidden details on houses nobody noticed before, you understand that Mrs Vallois deserves the right to consider herself as co-owner of "the spirit of Paris". Because this "spirit" is something that was invented by the French to be shared with others, feel free to become a "courtisan". Mrs Vallois books are well documented (no need to say). It's like reading an architectural manual plus an history encyclopedia. All this while walking in charming places. I hope the next books will keep this knowledge embedded in a living style and that Thirza will add more illustrations. Buy this book. It will never look old-fashioned!

Great book!
and now,
Gentle Readers:

You may have noticed that Amazon made some changes to its website. For more information, view that tube place at /watch?v=PvLilHUaDic.

From June 11 - June 17, I, like many other reviewers on Amazon, did not post any reviews and did not make any purchases. This was the only means we have of showing Amazon how much we detest the new reviews format and the overloaded and confusing product pages.
Amazon revised the product pages (if one looked very, very closely) to allow public input re the redesign. Now I am told, although I do not yet see it, that the "improvements" are being scaled back to a more palatable, user/shopper friendly format.

Thanks and Stay Tuned!

/TundraVision

Arzach is classic Moebius. It has all the adventure and action your libido could want plus all the awesome artwork your heart and mind could desire. Why isn't this still in print??!!!

Just like movies (Godfather, Citizen Kane, Annie Hall) there are certain comics you HAVE TO read. Comics like Maus, Dark Knight Returns, and A Contract with God come to mind. For me, Arzach is certainly on that list.

Moebius is an undisputed master of comics, but in the U.S. his work has yet to be seriously collected and made currently available. I suppose at some point (probably after his death, unfortunately) the entire Moebius library will be published properly, but until then it would be nice to see just this one volume of Arzach available again. The art, compostions, mood, atomosphere, and the mechanics of storytelling in these simple but richly detailed short stories are among the most beautiful ever created in the comics medium and should be read by (and made available to) all.

This slim volume contains the early explosive work of Moebius: the classic Arzach stories and The Detour, my favorite story. A handful of pages that revolutionized the comics-- get this back in print!!

The leading Renaissance scholar of our time, Dame Frances A. Yates ("the most life-enhancing historian I knew", Hugh Trevor-Roper) in this enthralling reconstruction gave us the best example of her original scientific method. Using a new approach ("to history through imagery"), she focuses on the symbolism of Elizabethan 'imperial theme'. These allegorical intellectual portraits of Protestant chivalry in England and the French Pleiadist movement seems to contain an inspiring meta-historical documents. The genesis of this far-sighted study on "Queen Elizabeth I as Astraea" goes back to a sermon lecture (on Arcadian 'Virgo-Regina' and her apologists, prophetical poets like Peele, Spenser or Sidney) given in 1945 and first published in the famous "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute", X,1947. Out of a central essay grew the four "Empire Lectures" originally given at London University Senate House (in January 1952), on the very same theme (imperial political theme in the Middle Ages and Renaissance). Later, it appeared as academic seminars at her favourite "Warburg Institute" and at the Cornell University (1967-70). Summa summarum, this part of Yate's final "Astraea:The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century" have been at first published as a French translation(!). Other texts from the present volume was originally contributed to a various symposiums, colloquiums, Warburg "Journal", "Slade Lectures" and even for a "Annales musicologiques"! Of course, some important parts of the paper were newly written just for this book. Anyway, this is thorough re-analysis of literature, mithology, science and philosophy in Elizabethan (many use to call it rather: "Shakespearian") times. It really challenges the current "modernist" ortodoxies of thinking "without history" and give shape and meaning to traditional ("neo-Hermetic") point of view. Those series of important and inovative essays reflects (through the competitive jugment by thinkers like Charles Schmitt, George Boas, Asa Briggs and Lord Dacre):"one of the most exciting and original of modern English historians: original because she came out of no pre-existing English school but created her own discipline; exciting because, by her enthusiasm and vitality, she inspired pupils who now continue her work...she was essentially a HISTORIAN OF THOUGHT". Or: "Frances Yates is that rare thing, a truly thrilling scholar. Her books on Renaissance history and thinking are alive with poetic instinct and inspired speculation, densely cross-patterned with recurring themes like one huge, continuous tapestry". Believe it or not, you can find at real unexpected places - even in nowadays Serbia - Miss Yates's fans and inspired pupils; just look (if it is anyhow possible) Dragoslav Bokan's recent study on relate subjects titled "Ognjeni Ljiljani" ("Fire Lillies", SKC 1998) or Belgrade translation of her thoughtful "The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age", with extensive preface by domestic authorities. In the context of a dominant,post-modern culture Frances Yates summary-books stands (eighteen years after her death) as the best and concrete proof for abilities of one typical European metaphysical soul to place famous incarnation of mythical "Faerie Queene" Elizabeth in the global (more than) historical context. A superb study!

The leading Renaissance scholar of our time, Dame Frances A. Yates ("the most life-enhancing historian I knew", Hugh Trevor-Roper) in this enthralling reconstruction gave us the best example of her original scientific method. Using a new approach ("to history through imagery"), she focuses on the symbolism of Elizabethan 'imperial theme'. These allegorical intellectual portraits of Protestant chivalry in England and the French Pleiadist movement seems to contain an inspiring meta-historical documents. The genesis of this far-sighted study on "Queen Elizabeth I as Astraea" goes back to a sermon lecture (on Arcadian 'Virgo-Regina' and her apologists, prophetical poets like Peele, Spenser or Sidney) given in 1945 and first published in the famous "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute", X,1947. Out of a central essay grew the four "Empire Lectures" originally given at London University Senate House (in January 1952), on the very same theme (imperial political theme in the Middle Ages and Renaissance). Later, it appeared as academic seminars at her favourite "Warburg Institute" and at the Cornell University (1967-70). Summa summarum, this part of Yate's final "Astraea:The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century" have been at first published as a French translation(!). Other texts from the present volume was originally contributed to a various symposiums, colloquiums, Warburg "Journal", "Slade Lectures" and even for a "Annales musicologiques"! Of course, some important parts of the paper were newly written just for this book. Anyway, this is thorough re-analysis of literature, mithology, science and philosophy in Elizabethan (many use to call it rather: "Shakespearian") times. It really challenges the current "modernist" ortodoxies of thinking "without history" and give shape and meaning to traditional ("neo-Hermetic") point of view. Those series of important and inovative essays reflects (through the competitive jugment by thinkers like Charles Schmitt, George Boas, Asa Briggs and Lord Dacre):"one of the most exciting and original of modern English historians: original because she came out of no pre-existing English school but created her own discipline; exciting because, by her enthusiasm and vitality, she inspired pupils who now continue her work...she was essentially a HISTORIAN OF THOUGHT". Or: "Frances Yates is that rare thing, a truly thrilling scholar. Her books on Renaissance history and thinking are alive with poetic instinct and inspired speculation, densely cross-patterned with recurring themes like one huge, continuous tapestry". In the context of a dominant,post-modern culture Frances Yates summary-books stands (eighteen years after her death) as the best and concrete proof for abilities of one typical European metaphysical soul to place famous incarnation of mythical "Faerie Queene" Elizabeth in the global (more than) historical context. A superb study!

The leading Renaissance scholar of our time, Dame Frances A. Yates ("the most life-enhancing historian I knew", Hugh Trevor-Roper) in this enthralling reconstruction gave us the best example of her original scientific method. Using a new approach ("to history through imagery"), she focuses on the symbolism of Elizabethan 'imperial theme'. These allegorical intellectual portraits of Protestant chivalry in England and the French Pleiadist movement seems to contain an inspiring meta-historical documents. The genesis of this far-sighted study on "Queen Elizabeth I as Astraea" goes back to a sermon lecture (on Arcadian 'Virgo-Regina' and her apologists, prophetical poets like Peele, Spenser or Sidney) given in 1945 and first published in the famous "Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute", X,1947. Out of a central essay grew the four "Empire Lectures" originally given at London University Senate House (in January 1952), on the very same theme (imperial political theme in the Middle Ages and Renaissance). Later, it appeared as academic seminars at her favourite "Warburg Institute" and at the Cornell University (1967-70). Summa summarum, this part of Yate's final "Astraea:The Imperial Theme in the Sixteenth Century" have been at first published as a French translation(!). Other texts from the present volume was originally contributed to a various symposiums, colloquiums, Warburg "Journal", "Slade Lectures" and even for a "Annales musicologiques"! Of course, some important parts of the paper were newly written just for this book. Anyway, this is thorough re-analysis of literature, mithology, science and philosophy in Elizabethan (many use to call it rather: "Shakespearian") times. It really challenges the current "modernist" ortodoxies of thinking "without history" and give shape and meaning to traditional ("neo-Hermetic") point of view. Those series of important and inovative essays reflects (through the competitive jugment by thinkers like Charles Schmitt, George Boas, Asa Briggs and Lord Dacre):"one of the most exciting and original of modern English historians: original because she came out of no pre-existing English school but created her own discipline; exciting because, by her enthusiasm and vitality, she inspired pupils who now continue her work...she was essentially a HISTORIAN OF THOUGHT". Or: "Frances Yates is that rare thing, a truly thrilling scholar. Her books on Renaissance history and thinking are alive with poetic instinct and inspired speculation, densely cross-patterned with recurring themes like one huge, continuous tapestry". In the context of a dominant,post-modern culture Frances Yates summary-books stands (eighteen years after her death) as the best and concrete proof for abilities of one typical European metaphysical soul to place famous incarnation of mythical "Faerie Queene" Elizabeth in the global (more than) historical context. A superb study!

This book is a translation of the famous postwar trilogy of Charlotte Delbo, a French Resistance fighter who was caught and sent to Auschwitz, then transferred to Ravensbruck. She was, and is, quite well-known in France. Though she is now deceased, the translator, Rosette Lamont, knew Delbo personally and is the foremost expert on her work, having written a number of articles on Delbo. Another who has written sensitively about Delbo is Nathan Bracher. Like all translations, there is a little something lost in the English rendering. If you are able to read the French, the original titles are "Aucun de nous ne reviendra," "Une connaissance inutile," and "Mesure de nos jours." Other books by Delbo you might find interesting are "La Memoire et les Jours," and "Le convoi du 24 janvier." She also wrote a number of plays, and poetry that isn't in this trilogy.

Thanks to the work of the Video Archive for Holocaust Testimony at Yale University, the Survivors of the Shoah project by Steven Spielberg, and the efforts of the new National Holocaust Museum, there is no shortage of testimony from Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. But Jews were not the only victims of the Nazi regime, and there is surprisingly little testimony from non-Jewish survivors. Delbo is probably the only non-Jewish victim who became an important literary figure in the postwar era, and her position as victim along with her eloquent indictment of Christianity and Christian culture for their complicity in the extermination of the Jewish victims with whom she feels strong kinship and empathy make her work an absolutely unique contribution to post-Holocaust literature. Feel free to e-mail me at schnaibl@fas.harvard.edu for more bibliographical references.

The other two reviews are so insightful and accurate, in my opinion, I should have little to add. Yet, after reading "Auschwitz and After", I felt I had to express something of how the book made me understand and grow. As a convert to Judaism (born in 1951, I was on the pathway my whole life, I realize now), I have read many, many books/memoirs/histories on the Holocaust. Many of them have been very moving, indeed, beginning with Anne Frank's Diary, on through to "Maus". Though I acknowledge that these words have been said before, I still believe that Charlotte Delbo's words put me into that Hell more than any other survivor's testimony to date. Delbo's words do more than say "this happened and that happened". They are poetry...yet how can poetry apply to any experience in a death camp? Surprisingly, scarily, the poetry transports the reader there more truly than any film, any historical analysis, even better than any well-written survivor account. At first I thought I would not like it; my sensibilities were offended that someone would write in poetic format about an experience at a death camp ("Maus" was different; it was a cartoon, yes, but drawn by the son of a survivor, not a survivor). After finishing Delbo's triology, I feel that her words (not all in poetic form) made me understand as much as anyone who did not experience a death camp, how it felt, how one survived, what one endured when one "came back" to the "real world".

Due to the passage of time, we are losing the remaining Holocaust survivors. Hence, Spielberg's and others' efforts to record the testimony before it is too late. There has been more attention lately paid to the children of the survivors' and how their parents' experiences affected their lives. Delbo's words transcend the words of one survivor - she really makes the reader understand what happned to those who "came back", how little they had to give, in some cases, to their spouses, to their children. American culture puts a lot of emphasis on "getting over, moving on". To some extent, I believe this is usually a healthy thing to try to do; but some experiences fall outside the realm of being able to "get over it". I would suggest that some experiences are so traumatic that one cannot "process" them and get over them. How is forgiveness possible when the entire world is affected as a result? Some experiences mark a person and maybe a culture permanently, and to deny or to try to repress this is unhealthy. At the end of their lives now, most published Holocaust testimonies report that the death camp experience "never leaves you" - something "survivors" probably didn't believe when they were first liberated. The fact that the Holocaust survivors are becoming fewer and fewer makes Delbo's book all the more important because it conveys the true horror, the true evil of human degradation and genocide - and explains why the Holocaust, as well as other genocides have and will reverberate from generation to generation. Her book made me realize that understanding and vigilance, not "processing" and forgiveness is the answer.

I have never read a book on the topic of the Holocaust that grasped it quite as well as this one has. Other books make the Holocaust sound 'too good' compared to her stories and accounts that are portrayed in this book. If you want to get a real grasp or feel of the Holocaust experience in a poetic and creatively written path, then this is a book you should read. Also, for anybody interested in the Holocaust, this is a definite must. It is basically as true and real as an account on the Holocaust can possibly get. It is simply an amazing piece of work.

Just imagine having your love notes found, analyzed and published for the world to see? Well, this is it. One of the world's most famous and iconic couples' lyrical notes to each other are here for all to share. Should it have been done? Some may say 'no', but considering the fact that they are by Stein, one of the most well-known, unread writers in history, and Toklas, whose place in history largely hinges on her hashish fudge, I'd say 'why not?' These ladies have long been used to public curiosity and scrutiny and became household names during their 1934-35 visit to the US. The introductory essay alone, though scholarly, is worth the price of admission---"Having a cow" will take on a whole new meaning in your vocabulary!

How wonderful to read about the emotions of what is sometimes considered to be "deviant" love. I believe they would each be honored to know that their true relationship is public and, for the most part, that people are touched by their genuine caring for each other. I highly recommend this book, especially for those people who find it hard to understand relationships between same-sex couples.

What a hoot! Kay Turner has done it again, producing a book that's both entertaining and eye-opening -- a delightful-as-usual combination of the scholarly and hilarious. Brava! A wonderful gift for and/or from yer girlfriend.

I own the more condensed version of this book, and did review it, but there still remains something incredibly juicy about the luxurious tales stored in this book. They come from the time of "parlor tales" where apparently it was the in thing among writers to make up the most imaginative fairy tales possible. And admittedly these are incredibly imaginative, even as one is rolling their eyes as wild characters still desperately conform to French style. No matter what you think of them artistically, they are still thoroughly entertaining and it's a pity that many of the stories aren't in vogue any longer.

Great movies. Great characters

I bought this book when I was a junior in High School because I enjoyed fantasy and the cover was so beautiful; it turned me into a fairy tale scholar. I have since written at least 5 university papers on fairy tales, specifically Beauty and the Beast, and this book has been in every bibliography. I even did my Honors Research project on Beauty and the Beast because of the incredible influence Jack Zipes has had on me. Through this book I learned what fairy tales were really like, not those bowdlerized silly things that we usually read, and I learned that other people took them seriously. The introduction is fantastic background into the French figures whose tales have so far become a part of our culture, and the stories are not the kind you are prone to find in usual anthologies. Along with fairy tale as Myth and The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture,I recommend it wholeheartedly, especially if you are interested in pursuing a scholarly approach to wonder tales.

To those fashionistas who remember the early 70s and to those who don't, this book is wonderfully interesting and perfectly detailed in its comparisons and reflections on the works of St. Laurent and Lagerfeld. Although in the early 70s the US was just starting to swing, it seems that Paris was sizzling. This book made me envious of everyone there. I would recommend this book to everyone interested in fashion, pop culture and Paris.

I love this book. It's my Christmas discovery.
If you like fashion, you will have so much fun discovering that everything we have now started in the seventies.
Lot of details, you feel like an insider.
Beetween Karl and Yves, which one will you choose ?

Despite the press, I don't think Kaiser Karl emerges as the more noble and human character. I actually like him more now.

I really liked this book because it took place in the "old days" which was fascinating to read about. I could actually put myself in Rosemary's place. The ending leaves you dreaming so you can decide what you want the ending to be. It's a story of dreaming and believing in yourself. It taught me alot about growing up!

I thought this book provided insight into "the mysterious" and was very enjoyable. Despite its rating as young adult or children's literature, I feel it can easily be read and enjoyed by anyone with an open mind.

It's 1790, Rosemary is 12, and although on the surface her family fits perfectly into their North Carolina farming community, beneath that surface they're a little magical. This is a spellbinding novel about becoming who you are, featuring vivid characters and an enchanting heroine. A very satisfying read.