Best of
France

1956

Anatole


Eve Titus - 1956
    When he realizes that humans are upset by mice sampling their leftovers, he is shocked! He must provide for his beloved family--but he is determined to find a way to earn his supper. And so he heads for the tasting room at the Duvall Cheese Factory. On each cheese, he leaves a small note--"good," "not so good," "needs orange peel"--and signs his name. When workers at the Duvall factory find his notes in the morning, they are perplexed--but they realize that this mysterious Anatole has an exceptional palate and take his advice. Soon Duvall is making the best cheese in all of Paris! They would like to give Anatole a reward--if only they could find him...

Angelique


Anne Golon - 1956
    Angélique de Sance de Monteloup, a vibrant twelve-year-old tomboy, is the daughter of a simple nobleman impoverished by taxes and other burdens. Angélique joins the local peasant children in their games, ranges the ancient forests and swamps of Poitou and when bandits visit destruction and rapine on the humble villagers, our heroine's leadership qualities come to the fore for the first time. The book also tells of Angélique's first meetings with two crucial characters - King Louis XIV of France and Joffrey. One of the scenes in the book sees Angélique and Joffrey attend the wedding of Louis XIV and his queen, Marie-Therese. As Angélique and Joffrey tangle with powerful forces, it is a classic and gripping adventure story, but we also learn about the couple's tender and often unpredictable relationship. The climax of the book is a decision by the French court which has an impact on the whole of the rest of the story - destined to move to the dangerous streets of Paris for the second book...

The Roots of Heaven


Romain Gary - 1956
    When he fails, do like me: think about free elephant ride through Africa for hundreds and hundreds of wonderful animals that nothing could be built—either a wall or a fence of barbed wire—passing large open spaces and crush everything in its path, and destroying everything—while they live, nothing is able to stop them—what freedom and! And even when they are no longer alive, who knows, perhaps continue to race elsewhere still free. So you begin to torment your claustrophobia, barbed wire, reinforced concrete, complete materialism imagine herds of elephants of freedom, follow them with his eyes never left them on their run and will see you soon feel better ... "For the novel The Roots of Heaven, Gary received the Prix Goncourt for fiction. Translated and republished in many countries around the world, the novel was finally published in Bulgarian. A film version by John Huston starring Juliette Gréco, Errol Flynn, and Howard Trevard was released in 1958.

Carve Her Name with Pride


Rubeigh James Minney - 1956
    She met and married Etienne Szabo, a Captain in the French Foreign Legion in 1940. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, Tania, her husband died at El Alamein. She became a FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) and was recruited into the SOE and underwent secret agent training. Her first trip to France was completed successfully even though she was arrested and then released by the French Police.On June 7th, 1944, Szabo was parachuted into Limoges. Her task was to co-ordinate the work of the French Resistance in the area in the first days after D-Day. She was captured by the SS 'Das Reich' Panzer Division and handed over to the Gestapo in Paris for interrogation. From Paris, Violette Szabo was sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp where she was executed in January 1945. She was only 23 and for her courage was posthumously awarded The George Cross and the Croix de Guerre.

Bonjour Tristesse & A Certain Smile


Françoise Sagan - 1956
    It tells the story of Cécile, who leads a carefree life with her widowed father and his young mistresses until, one hot summer on the Riviera, he decides to remarry - with devastating consequences. In A Certain Smile Dominique, a young woman bored with her lover, begins an encounter with an older man that unfolds in unexpected and troubling ways. These two acerbically witty and delightfully amoral tales about the nature of love are shimmering masterpieces of cool-headed, brilliant observation.

Hammer Blows and Other Writings


David Diop - 1956
    In this paradoxical harmony, the best is revealed. The word of David Diop testifies to this admirable and difficult place. David Diop knew Africa by heart, in its depths, in its living sources, in its people, that is, in its truth. He knew it in its fragility and its caricatures, avatars of an Africa sold and exploited at the markets of history. The poet lived this tension, heavy with this suffering, but carried forward by the hope that the vitality of the peoples of Africa inspires. This dual postulation marks his approach as a committed Negro-African writer, lucid and rigorous in his fight. That's why these beautiful and proud texts remain so close to us, fraternal and always exemplary.

The Journals of Jean Cocteau


Jean Cocteau - 1956
    

Architecture of Truth: The Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronet


Lucien Hervé - 1956
    This book is a pictorial appreciation of the abbey, photographed by Lucien Hervé in the mid-1950s and introduced by Le Corbusier.'The pictures in this book are witnesses to the truth,' says Le Corbusier of Hervé's photographs of the Romanesque abbey. Hervé's exquisite study presents the building throughout the course of a day, depicting the changing play of light and shadow on its stone vaulted exterior and interior. Highly textured and almost abstract in quality, his photographs reveal how the abbey is defined as much by light as by the conventions of Romanesque architecture, to communicate the intense spirituality of the Cistercian monastic order. Arranged according to the canonical hours of prayer, Hervé's photographs are complemented by quotations from the psalms and the saints.An essay by Father Samuel of the Abbey of Notre-Dame de Sept-Fons provides a profound insight into the Cistercian monastic order, while the renowned state-of-the-art architect John Pawson contributes a personal appreciation of this fine example of Cistercian architecture.