July 2024: Vive la France!

As Bastille Day nears, there's loads of opportunities to take on a work of French literature, anything from The Song of Roland through the 21st Century. As for myself, I'll be doing some reading on the 19th Century novel, most likely – I've got the entire Comédie humaine on a TBR bookshelf, having made a valiant beginning but with still a lot to go, and I've also got Graham Robb's biography of Balzac as well as a volume of Balzac's plays. And I can do some more of Hugo or of Flaubert than I've already done, or go on to Zola or Stendhal or Maupassant or George Sand or Prosper Mérimée. Or I could go back a few years to a complete read of Montaigne's Essays or even a little further back to Rabelais. And I certainly don't want to forget the classic theatre, with that two-volume Library of America edition of Richard Wilbur's translations of Molière.

Others may prefer history, or the visual arts, or geography and travel. Or you might want to brush up on your high school analytic geometry in honor of Descartes! Or, if you have access to the Great Courses, there's The Great Tours: France Through the Ages.

You don't necessarily have to confine yourself to metropolitan France. There's the Francophone nations of the Caribbean, and here The Black Jacobins by C.L.R. James comes immediately to mind. And turning to the novel, there's Hugo's Bug-Jargal on the Haitian revolution as well as Harriet Martineau's The Hour and the Man on Toussaint Louverture. Plenty of stuff out there too on colonial wars, and I'm thinking in particular of Alistair Horne's A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962, which is available in an NYRB edition.

There's also that German novelist, Heinrich Mann, older brother of Thomas and author of Young Henry of Navarre and Henry, King of France, biographical novels of France's greatest king, Henri IV – the youthful leader of the Huguenots who, with the opportunity to become king, converted to Rome with the words "Paris is worth a mass," issued the Edict of Nantes on religious toleration, and was assassinated by a fanatical Catholic.

And for anyone interested in a Russian look at things, there's Mikhail Bulgakov's The Cabal of Hypocrites (in which Bulgakov likens himself to Molière and Stalin to Louis XIV in a play that obviously didn't last too long on the Moscow stage of the 1930s) as well as Bulgakov's biographical novel The Life of Monsieur de Molière. Molière happened to be Bulgakov's favorite writer, and his friends nicknamed him "Molière Bulgakov."

What a great topic for July! Vive la révolution! The French Revolution is the first unit I present when teaching Modern World History at the university. It is one of my fav units. The oldest book that would fit this topic on my shelf is The Suitor of Yvonne by Rafael Sabatini. I read Scaramouche last year and enjoyed it (4 stars). I think some swashbuckling is in my future!

I definitely want to use this prompt to finally finish 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne!

I will probably continue with my reading of the Rougon-Macquart cycle, or the Comédie humaine. Unless something else turns up, of course.

I am planning on reading the first volume in a short series of 4 books. The Cavalier of the Apocalypse by Susanne Alleyn is a murder mystery set against the backdrop of the French Revolution.

some of us have been talking place of greater safety Ive read it already but am sure I missed a lot. Considering a group read of it

One of my fav books about France is by one of my favorite popular historian the greater journey: americans in paris Highly recommended

also "little"cant get right touchstone edward carey about Madame Trusseau

I can recommend:
The Accursed Kings Series by Maurice Druon, probably one of the best historical fiction I have read about the Middle Ages in France

The Red Rooster (Le Cock Rouge) by Michael Wallace--one of my fav historical fiction writers. The story takes place in occupied France.

Isabella, Braveheart of France by Colin Falconer 14th century France/Edward II

The Eight by Katharine Neville Dual timeline--1790's France and modern day U.S. Story centers around the Montglen Service, the Chess Pieces and Board of Charlemagne. (Didn't really exist). If all assembled again, it was to provide some supernatural power. Loved the characters: Tallyrand, Marat, Robespierre, Jacques Louis-David, and Napoleon.

I've decided that my priority for Vive la France! is going to be the LoA Molière: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations. I just got done reading Wilbur's translation of Phaedra 2½** and didn't at all care for it. Now understand, I consider Racine the greatest French playwright (sorry, Molière fans) and Phèdre and Britannicus his two greatest plays, but I didn't at all care for Wilbur's use of heroic couplets, which tend to be too sing-song notwithstanding some add-on enjambment and make Racine sound too much like John Dryden – blank verse, I think, would have been preferable.

I'm curious to see, though, how Wilbur's translations of Molière succeed. I'm not at all hostile to Dryden – I'm very fond of Absalom and Achitophel, for example, but A&A is satire and a certain sing-song quality isn't necessarily out of place in that genre. It might work better with a comic/satiric playwright like Molière.

>8 CurrerBell: oh what a great idea! we did a couple of his plays in HS and since have wanted to read more, Ill have to look at Wilburs translations

>4 MissWatson: I'm thinking on similar lines.

Also I see that Zola is the July author on Monthly Author Reads (a decision for which I was partly responsible , though I had forgotten!).

can we set up a group read for A Place of Greater Safety somewhere?

I’m reading Overhead in a Balloon by Mavis Gallant, a collection of short stories set mostly in Paris. I’m liking the stories I’ve read so far, still trying to figure out at this point what it is about these seemingly unremarkable characters and their stories that keeps me thinking about them days later. Gallant is a new writer for me and I suspect I’m going to want to know more of her work.

Pierre Corneille, Le Cid and The Liar 4**** (trans Richard Wilbur).

Chronologically, the three great classical French dramatists are Corneille, Molière, and Racine. In greatness, I would personally place them in exactly the reverse of their chronological order – Racine, then Molière, and then Corneille, though most would rank Molière first among the three. Corneille actually isn't so much a "tragic" playwright as he is "heroic" in works like Le Cid and Polyeucte, and he was also a successful comic playwright, though perhaps not as well known for his comedies.

In addition to his better known Moliere: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations, Wilbur also translated three plays by Corneille (Le Cid and two of the comedies, The Liar and The Theatre of Illusion) as well as three by Racine (Phaedra, Andromache, and Racine's sole comedy, The Suitors, the last of which seems to be unobtainable today).

Le Cid and The Liar are definitely more successful Wilbur translations than Phaedra (see review), especially so for The Liar. Heroic couplets work better in comedy than they do in Racinian "Greek tragedy" with its set-piece recitative declamations.

I do want to get hold of the Wilbur translations of L'Illusion comique and Andromache (his translation of Les Plaideurs, as noted, being seemingly unobtainable). In the meanwhile, it's on to Moliere: The Complete Richard Wilbur Translations, and I think I'm going to flip back and forth between Molière and Les Miserables in the unabridged Julie Rose translation.

I'm also currently just about halfway through the Great Courses video The Great Tours: France Through the Ages.

(Duplicate post)

I decided to read The Black Count : glory, revolution, betrayal, and the real Count of Monte Cristo by Tom Reiss for this month's challenge. That turned out to be a great decision. I had seen the book mentioned a few times on LT recently. Somehow, I had never heard of it when it came out, and I'm not sure how I missed it. Since Dumas is one of my favorite authors, this immediately caught my attention, and the story looked really interesting, so I chose it for this month.

I had always assumed that Dumas was your standard Frenchman. I had no clue whatsoever that his father, Alex Dumas, was half black, born to a French nobleman and a black slave woman in the French sugar colony of Saint-Domingue, now Haiti. This book tells the story of Alex's life, from his birth in Saint-Domingue, to his arrival in France at the age of 14, his upper class education, and his career in the French army. Reiss also sets the stage by giving a lot of historical information about France, her colonies, and the events of the Revolution. The tale is almost too much to believe as a true story, but it is apparently real. Reiss has done a lot of research into Alex Dumas' life, with 46 pages of notes in the back of the book, and an extensive bibliography. Of course, the records from this time are not complete, so there are some gaps in the story. Nevertheless, I was fascinated by everything in the book, and it reads as well as a good novel. I highly recommend it.

>17 atozgrl: I'm glad you liked this as I have it on my TBR and with your review now hope to get to it this year.

>17 atozgrl: oh that does look good, a BB for me

>18 Tess_W: >19 cindydavid4: Someone on LT got me with a BB a few months ago, and now I'm passing it on. I hope you both like it! I certainly did.

>17 atozgrl: oh wow! Dumas is a fav as welll and since the book was on kindle I started reading it. An hour later...Love his fathers background into his life. and how the younger turned it into classics Thanks for passing this BB along!

>21 cindydavid4: I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying it! My DH thought it looked interesting, so he started reading the copy I checked out from the library. He's gotten into it to, and said it reads well, and he's finding the story interesting like I did. Looks like the book is a hit!

I have finished La conquête de Plassans, usually considered a minor book in the Rougon-Macquart cycle. I found it very interesting, especially the long game that the abbé Foujas is playing here in the small-town politics.

John Greene, The Great Tours: France Through the Ages 4****, perhaps a bit generously so.

Very useful course in getting a feel for the geography and the regions of France. I don't drink and I'm a vegan, however, so I was a bit bored by all the attention given to the various French wines and to the heavily meat-based gastronomy. I'd have preferred a bit more on literature, but we all have our own personal tastes {groan}.

Now, for my next Great Courses video, on to From Monet to Van Gogh: A History of Impressionism. And meanwhile, still working on Les Miserables.

I have completed The Cavalier of the Apocalypse by Susanne Alleyn. This is a prequel to her duology featuring Revolutionary police detective, Aristide Ravel. This first book is set in 1786 and has Aristide hunting for a killer and uncovering a plot to discredit the Queen.

The Lost Girls of Paris / Pam Jenoff
4 stars

In 1946 in New York City, Grace comes across an abandoned suitcase and finds pictures of 12 young women in the suitcase. Who were these women and who does the suitcase belong to?

In 1943, Eleanor in London starts a women’s unit of the SOE (Special Operations Executive). Women are recruited and trained to head over to France to help the resistance there. They will transmit (coded) information by radio, they might even help blow up bridges. It is a dangerous mission and the women are risking their lives.

In 1944, Marie, who has recently sent her daughter outside London to live with an aunt and keep her safe, is recruited because she is fluent in French. But there is so much secrecy, it takes a while to figure out what they are asking of her.

I really liked this. Though the women weren’t spies, they were often referred to that way, with no other “good” word to describe what they were doing. It was very dangerous work, and not something I knew about before now. I enjoyed all three storylines. Of course, it was loosely based on real women who did this work (though men did it, too).

I actually completed a twofer! I read The Fortunes of the Rougons by Emile Zola. This is the first novel in Zola's 20 novel series about the Rougons and the Macquarts following the downfall of the Second French Empire (circa 1850-1870's) The Rougons were a pretty miserable lot until the Coup d'Etat by Louis-Napoleon. Napoleon's success was also the success of the Rougons, thieving scoundrels that most were. I can't say this book was terribly interesting, it was a bit mediocre. However, I have read that this book is the historical foundation(s) for the coming novels. There was a plethora of characters, but a family tree was provided. I may have enjoyed this book more had I known more about the history of this period. I think I will read up on it before I go on to read book two. 392 pages 3.5 stars

This read counted also for the Author of the Month Group-Emile Zola.

I attempted, but I had to stop reading Thérèse Raquin by Emile Zola (1867). I made it half-way through. It is very dark and miserable, and I could see where it was heading. The writing was brilliant; so brilliant, that it put me on edge, and that's something I don't need right now.

If I have time in August, I may do a re-read of La Vendée by Anthony Trollope (1850), which is set during the French Revolution, and will report back here if I finish.

I was browsing the "literature in translation" shelf at my local indie and found a slim novella entitled letters of mistress henley published by her friend byIsabelle De Charriere (is anyone familiar with this author?

"Considered by many scholars to be among the most brilliant novels written in French during the eighteenth century, Lettres de Mistriss Henley publiées par son amie was composed as a response to Samuel de Constant's misogynist novel, The Sentimental Husband (1783). Charrière presents six letters penned by a Mistriss Henley, who has chosen a decent and affectionate man as her life's companion only to discover that she cannot bear sharing his life. An immediate success on its publication in 1784, Mistriss Henley was greeted with acclaim and controversy: one reader called the book "literarily excellent" but "morally dangerous in various ways." Remarkable for its empathy for both spouses, Mistriss Henley is not only a moving work of fiction but also one of the most modern novels of its day."

This looks to be an interesting story of French social life after the revolution. Im enjoying it, and am curious if I can find the rest of the letters. Its published by the Modern Language Association of America would this be the best place to look (there is a list of her books but they are all in French) Anyway this will I think be a lighter read after The Count!

just finished the black count and omg I was crying at the end of this non fiction biography of Dumas and his son. I can see why it won a pulitzer Napoleon was a monster, he totally erased everything the constituion did. He killed thousands of Black citizens and officers and sent more to slavery. I think I need to reread count of monte cristo Glad I read this for the French theme; my head is filled with so much I didnt know.

>30 cindydavid4: Glad you liked it! I too learned a lot of French history that I didn't know. I thought it was so good.

here the review
https://www.librarything.com/topic/361718#n8581805

Earlier, I thought that I had read someone questioning whether France was first to outlaw slavery? I had never heard that either. So, I started googling..

Yes, apparently so. I even found mention of such attempts during the Middle Ages, which is jaw-dropping. Meanwhile, vaguely aware that some countries were still battling peasant/serf populations, while we were founding this country, I found that it was much more pervasive than I had recognised.

this is only wikipedia so typical grain of salt admonitions - but its a place to start:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_abolition_of_slavery_and_serfdom

wow thank you for that! lots of abolition In France it was allowed again

>34 cindydavid4: you are welcome.

i cannot help myself. when i dont know something i have to figure it out.

i have book on hold. it will be months before I read it.

I do the same thing.

I have killed two books with one stone, as it were, by reading His Excellency Eugene Rougon, the second volume in Zola's sweeping Rougon-Macquart cycle. This was also my Monthly Author Read as Zola was the nominated author for July.

This novel is rather different from its predecessor The Fortune of the Rougons. It is really a political study of the rise and fall and partial rise of the title character under the rule of Emperor Napoleon III. It contains a lot of wry observations about political patronage and the mutual dependency between patrons and clients, still very relevant today. The characters are generally based on amalgamations of real historical personages during the early rule of the Emperor, and the events depicted closely mirror reality, according to the translator's preface in this Delphi ebook version. That said, I did find the narrative dragged in places and I found myself skimming considerable chunks, and, while it's cleverly constructed, I can't say I really enjoyed it as a novel.

I read Overhead in a Balloon: Twelve Stories of Paris by Mavis Gallant for this theme. I had not read Gallant before, but I found this volume of short stories very enjoyable. I read only one story a day and found myself thinking over them with pleasure, sometimes rereading. Gallant writes with a fine irony, developing the theme of unlooked for outcomes in each story. Reversals are constant, for example, in “Speck’s Idea,” the longest of the stories at 48 pages, about the fortunes and misfortunes of art gallery owner Sandor Speck. Speck hopes to put his gallery back on its feet by mounting a major retrospective exhibit of an artist who is all but unknown to present day collectors. His manipulations to create a demand for this artist’s work and to acquire a good inventory of his paintings culminate in a final outcome that is totally unexpected, but also totally believable.

I laughed a lot at Gallant’s constant irony, but on reflection saw very serious elements as well. Of course I liked some of the stories better than others, but over all, I enjoyed this collection enough to order a copy of her Collected Works. I recommend her to all who like reading short stories.

>37 john257hopper: That's next up for me, and the font is size 6!

>38 dianelouise100: That sounds like a winner. On my WL it goes!

i have finished Le carrefour des Écrasés which is lightweight on the mystery. But reading about the arts and books is fun.

At least I got two Corneille plays (Wilbur translations) done along with a Great Courses video (>15 CurrerBell:). I'm only about halfway through Les Miserables in the Julia Rose translation (about 1200pp of text and another hundred or more pages of endnotes), and I didn't get to Moliere at all this month. I've been having some major problems of Real Life for the past couple or three weeks.

>41 CurrerBell: Best wishes, I hope things will be better soon!

>41 CurrerBell: Hope things get better for you soon!

>41 CurrerBell: Feel Better soon.

I finally finished 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea by Jules Verne. It was a hard read for me and often boring, but I can see its merits and am glad I made it.

>41 CurrerBell: I think that speaks to lots of us these days Hang in there

I’m still making my way through All Signs Point to Paris: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Destiny. It’s one woman’s search for love based on an astrologer’s take that the birth date and place of the man she had recently been seeing would make him her soulmate. Only he broke up with her. But as he was born in Paris, she was determined to find the right man for her in France. This was the story of her journey. (I’m at the part where she is finally in Paris supported by her friend and sister.)

Whew! After several weeks, I just finished Les Misérables (Modern Library), Julie Rose translation, at roughly 1200 pages (exclusive of the Adam Gopnik introduction and the endnotes, which all told bring it to, according to the LT note, 1376 pages). I started it in the hardcover edition but then switched over to Kindle, where it was much easier to read both in weight and in accessing the endnotes, which are very important considering Hugo's numerous historical and other digressions in the unabridged version.

4½****. 4**** to the novel itself, which really can get tedious at times with Hugo's digressions, but 5***** to Rose's translations and the very helpful endnotes.

ETA: This took me over a week past our July read, but I'm going to include it anyway since it took up such a really substantial portion of my July reading. And I'll definitely be joining Tess in the Emile Zola Group Read. I'm planning on using the Oxford World Classics editions, of which I already have several Zolas, and perhaps following up after a translated read with a stab en français for those volumes that I have in the original.

>48 CurrerBell: Congratulations for finishing such a large tome and so close to the end of the month too! That must have taken a lot of dedicated reading.