No other country in the world can boast such an immense wealth of specialties. No other country has anything remotely comparable its network of sophisticated restaurants, where thousands of chefs cherish the tradition of great cooking and show remarkable creativity in continually trying to create new delights. No other country produces so many different excellent wines. Experts from the "métiers de bouche" together with first-class chefs have helped to sketch out a new and up-to-date portrait of this gourmet nation which will be richly rewarding to everyone, whether they prefer to enjoy their favorite dishes on the spot in France or cook them in their own kitchen. Or perhaps they will simply be enchanted in a completely new way by the enormous variety of magnificent photographs and tempting recipes, together with the knowledgeable text describing Frances' cuisine and what lies behind it.

    In tiny Lansquenet, where nothing much has changed in a hundred years, beautiful newcomer Vianne Rocher and her exquisite chocolate shop arrive and instantly begin to play havoc with Lenten vows. Each box of luscious bonbons comes with a free gift: Vianne's uncanny perception of its buyer's private discontents and a clever, caring cure for them. Is she a witch? Soon the parish no longer cares, as it abandons itself to temptation, happiness, and a dramatic face-off between Easter solemnity and the pagan gaiety of a chocolate festival. Chocolat's every page offers a description of chocolate to melt in the mouths of chocoholics, francophiles, armchair gourmets, cookbook readers, and lovers of passion everywhere. It's a must for anyone who craves an escapist read, and is a bewitching gift for any holiday.

    This, the most detailed and lavishly illustrated book on the cathedral available in English, beautifully evokes the awe-inspiring monument that attracts countless visitors from around the world.

    But not least it is the home and constant muse of a relatively young art: photography. Since the earliest days of the daguerreotype right up to our time, renowned photographers such as Joseph Nicéphore Niepce, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Doisneau, and Jeanloup Sieff have lived and worked in the city of lights. Over the years a love affair developed between Paris and photography, giving rise to a remarkable record of the metropolis and a telling history of a new art form. This volume takes the reader on numerous walks, camera in hand, through the streets of Paris. Atmospheric black-and-white photos, shot by great photographers over two centuries, reveal the dramatic and the tranquil, the historic and the everyday—in the capitals parks and gardens, boulevards and backstreets, passages and arcades, bistros and nightclubs.

    He brilliantly conveys what it was like to be facing death, day after day, night after night, with never a bed to sleep in nor a hot meal to go home to. This is warfare in the raw ' brutal, yet humorous, immensely tragic, but sadly, all true.

    Norman Shapiro's superb translations display Verlaine's ability to transform into timeless verse the essence of everyday life and make evident the reasons for his renown in France and throughout the Western world.

    When she inadvertently becomes the master of an ancient cursed head of Menander the Magus-the Master of All Desires-she suddenly has the power to grant any wish, at a steep price.Queen Catherine de Medici is trying to obtain the power of the Master in order to get rid of her husband's mistress. But she does not understand that the Master is malic itself, twisting the wishes that he grants to bring destruction.But only Nostradamus knows that evil befalls all who wish upon this accursed object. Can he stop these determined women before they unwittingly destroy the entire kingdom of France?

    In this book, the photographer brings together images spanning the years from the late 1920s to the early 1970s. He has travelled across Europe, from the Scandinavian shield to the Irish bogs, in order to capture what it means to be European. Beyond nationalism and the particular characteristics of each culture and nation, he has found evidence of a greater identity, a likeness shared by the people and the landscape. His photographs seek to speak of the same daily ceremony, of the ongoing business of living for people across Europe, whether Polish priests in alb or cassock, or Abruzzi peasants shrouded in the black of their cloaks and hats.

    The artist explores a wide range of topics, from troubled relationships and existential crises to office politics and doping scandals in the literary world.

    Our local experts vet every recommendation to ensure you make the most of your time, whether it’s your first trip or your fifth.   MUST-SEE ATTRACTIONS from the Eiffel Tower to Notre-Dame PERFECT HOTELS for every budget BEST RESTAURANTS to satisfy a range of tastes GORGEOUS FEATURES on the Musée du Louvre and Versailles VALUABLE TIPS on when to go and ways to save INSIDER PERSPECTIVE from local experts COLOR PHOTOS AND MAPS to inspire and guide your trip

    Madame de La Tour du Pin offers the reader a "faithful picture of myself as I am and as I have been". Written for her son, this intimate document records the changes that befell her family and all those who attended the court of Louis XVI at the time of the French Revolution. A royalist, but also a realist, she concludes that "the rot started at the top and spread downwards". She came back to France after a three-year exile and became involved with the royalist cause, but her hopes were frequently dashed. This selection ends with the return of Napoleon to Paris from Elba. Despite her considerable hardships, Madame de La Tour du Pin writes with great intelligence, compassion, and wit.

    In Minor Angels Volodine depicts a postcataclysmic world in which the forces of capitalism have begun to reestablish themselves. Sharply opposed to such a trend, a group of crones confined to a nursing home—all of them apparently immortal—resolves to create an avenging grandson fashioned of lint and rags. Though conjured to crush the rebirth of capitalism, the grandson is instead seduced by its charms—only to fall back into the hands of his creators, where he manages to forestall his punishment by reciting one “narract” a day. It is these narracts, or prose poems, that compose the text of Minor Angels.

    "Not too much. That's it," he exclaims. His voice carries his passion as he swirls the copper pan holding the finished dish. Over the tops of his glasses he assesses the color and takes in the aroma of the sauce. Then he brings a few drops of it to his lips. After thirty years of cooking in France and America, the chef knows what he wants. "I'm looking for balance," he explains. "A hint of herb, a little acidity -- sweet seafood needs a bit of sharpness -- and all the brininess and flavor of the scallops." It is a simple but perfect recipe and it has been given all his attention, commitment, and talent -- as have each of the recipes in this simple but perfect cookbook. "Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook" contains all his creative cooking skills made accessible. By means of Dorie Greenspan's expertly written recipes, Daniel accompanies you into your home kitchen, where his inspiration becomes yours and his instructions are easy to follow. With little effort, you find yourself reproducing his magic on your own stove. One ingredient for a perfect dish is family tradition. In the book's first section, La Tradition, we are transported to the original Cafe Boulud run by Daniel's grandparents on the outskirts of Lyon -- France's culinary capital. Daniel's education as a cook began with his grandmother and the Poulet Grand-mere she lovingly prepared for her guests. It continued with great chefs that shaped his unique interpretation of home cooking. Recipes such as Skate with Brown Butter and Capers, Hanger Steak with Shallots, and splendid Pommes Frites reveal the influences of his French roots. But tradition also includes respect for seasonal ingredients. In the next section, La Saison, Daniel accompanies us through the market. We select peas and sugar snaps that are ready to tumble into the pot for the Chilled Spring Pea Soup. Fresh corn becomes the surprise ingredient in Lobster with Sweet Corn Polenta. Complete the celebration of the seasons with Ruby Grapefruit with Pomegranate Sabayon or a milk chocolate-cherry tart like no other. In the third section, Le Voyage, "Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook" takes us on an exploration of many of the world's cuisines with dishes as varied as Italian-style Veal Gremolata, Spanish Gazpacho with Anchovy Toast, or a fast and easy Asian salad of crab, cucumber, and mango. Imagine yourself under the warm Middle Eastern sun as you taste Daniel's Coffee-Cardamom Pots de Creme. In the last section, Le Potager, Daniel offers an extraordinary selection of vegetarian dishes, from easy starters like Heirloom Tomato and Goat Cheese Salad to main courses such as Lemon-Lime Risotto with Asparagus or bone-warming Root Vegetable Cassoulet, and, of course, sublime desserts to cap any meal. "Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook" opens wide the door of his kitchen and invites you in with 150 recipes that will unfailingly stimulate your passion for flavor while offering a healthy, easy, and modern approach to good eating. He also provides a collection of basic recipes that are used at Cafe Boulud; a glossary of terms, techniques, and ingredients; and a short batterie de cuisine, a guide to pots, pans, and a few gadgets. He even provides a list of trusted suppliers so you can find the same ingredients he uses at Cafe Boulud. Thirty-two pages of color photographs of finished dishes prepared personally by Daniel will allow you to see, and almost smell and taste, what you are cooking. Watch as this book becomes the extension of your own hands. Whether making a salad for one or a dinner for eight, let "Daniel Boulud's Cafe Boulud Cookbook" be your reliable guide to great food.

    This book features information on gourmet self-catering, and a food chapter that serves up the cuisine culture, food history and recipes.

    Now this delightful and utterly original poet has been given a detailed and careful presentation in English, through William Kulik's imaginative translations. In a selection that covers the whole of Jacob's career and that does particular justice to his accomplishments as a prose poet, Kulik offers us a full and sympathetic portrait, framing it with an Introduction that sketches the biography and fills out the historical context. A divided man--sexually, culturally, artistically--Jacob moves us deeply with his steady commitment to his art and its possibilities.

    The side streets and markets of Paris come alive with anecdotes about traditional recipes and the daily shopping. Each chapter takes a trip to a different part of the market, with descriptions of the shopkeepers and their goods. And more than 150 recipes document the meals that many Parisians know by heart and consider their daily fare.This isn't fancy restaurant cooking that is difficult to duplicate in the home kitchen, but rather wholesome, easy-to-make recipes, most of which take less than thirty minutes to prepare. Take your pick from Smothered Duck Legs and Apples, Baked Tomatoes with Pesto, and Stuffed Cod with Asparagus. Indulge yourself in Lamb and Red Bean Stew, Tuna Braised in Sherry with Rosemary, or Parisian Bread Pudding. From cover to cover, Parisian Home Cooking is a delicious way to bring a bit of everyday Paris into your own home.

    Both in his life and art, he is thought to embody the climate of inebriated hilarity and excess of the fin de siecle. But as David Sweetman, the noted biographer of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, shows in this definitive work, there was another Toulouse-Lautrec, a committed and concerned man who moved in a secret community of anarchist revolutionaries, whose work betrayed a deep concern for human suffering, an artist who etched his sympathy for fallen women and lesbians into his portraits, and who remained loyal to the disgraced Oscar Wilde when the poet was abandoned and reviled by most. Sweetman's enlightening study of Toulouse-Lautrec has uncovered a man whose alliance with radicals and outspoken social critics (such as Felix Feneon) is implicit in his work.Toulouse-Lautrec was also a man on the cutting edge of radical art. He helped design the sets for the play "Ubu Rio," which, with its foul language and politically subversive imagery, stirred up a frenzy of public outrage and condemnation yet changed the course of theatrical history. Toulouse-Lautrec also created seminal works in the field of graphic art; his posters advertising performances and artistic events were often stolen from their public posting places and reappeared in the living rooms of middle-class homes, making his posters "the Trojan Horse of modern aesthetics."Toulouse-Lautrec's seemingly endless capacity for debauched revelry and his larger-than-life persona are undeniable. Yet hisart is as complex as he was, more varied and disturbing than it has been perceived in our century. Sweetman has introduced in "Explosive Acts" an altogether new way of looking at Toulouse-Lautrec, who, along with Oscar Wilde, Felix Feneon, and their cross-Channel cohort of artists, theorists, and writers, was responding to many of the same social issues and political currents we now face at our own turn of the century.

    From the opening lines of its introduction, her literary gifts are as evident as her passion for good food. Since this work combines recipes with her essays about Monsieur Milbert (the gardener at the Chateau du Fey in Burgundy, where Hesser worked as the cook), readers get to enjoy both of her talents. Hesser worked hard to get M. Milbert to talk with her. She shares the careful, deliberate way she wooed him, sometimes by bringing freshly baked bread to his less mobile wife, sometimes by holding back questions she wanted to ask, just to win his tolerance of her presence. Crusty, surly, and tradition-bound, he is the quintessential French peasant. Fortunately, Hesser--who is respectful and patient even when M. Milbert's stubborn ways exasperated her--knows he is an almost-vanished breed. None of his children, or anyone else, is likely to work as he has, continuing to live mainly off the land for nearly 60 years. Each chapter covers a month, starting with March, when the nearly 400-year-old walled garden comes to life. Hesser talks about the garden, how she used the bounty gathered by M. Milbert, and muses on life in and around Burgundy. In September, "the rains seemed to clean off and illuminate the plants' colors ... everything seemed to wake up, as after a hot, cranky nap." The final tomatoes are harvested, as are the green and butter beans, with Milbert sneakily keeping the best for himself. Hesser visits a neighbor's Portuguese-style garden, as exuberant and vivid as Milbert's is restrained and disciplined. She cooks sautéed red snapper with tomatoes, fennel, and vermouth; makes a profound Tomato Consommé; and slow roasts tomatoes into meltingly tender mounds. Sepia drawings by Kate Gridley add to the low-key charm of this information-packed work. (It even includes a history of purslane going back to the Middle Ages.) The knowledge and maturity of this work belie Hesser's youth. Not yet 30 at the time of writing, she's a wise cook worth following. --Dana Jacobi

    Around About Paris will show you both the Paris that flirts and flaunts itself and the hidden Paris that lies behind windows and under cobblestones.

    In This Guide Two long-term, France-based authors, more than 1200 hours of on-the-road research, 63 detailed maps.Get active with extensive outdoor coverage from bird-watching to donkey rambling.Bursting with local interviews and brimming with insights on Provencal culture.You asked for it, we researched it - more of the region's best painting, cooking and French-language courses.

    An unforgettable odyssey through the world's legendary culinary capitals, each book includes 130 recipes and full-color photographs throughout.

    Georgeanne Brennan, co-owner of Le Marche Seed Company, and Tom McCombie, a California-based chef, give their advice on growing and cooking with classic French vegetables.

    The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard looks at the earlier correspondence between these two famous individuals, revealing the emotions and intimate exchanges that occurred between them. The perspectives presented here are very different from the view related by Abelard in his "History of My Calamities," an account which provoked a much more famous exchange of letters between Heloise and Abelard after they had both entered religious life. Offering a full translation of the love letters along with a copy of the actual Latin text, Mews provides an in-depth analysis of the debate concerning the authenticity of the letters and look at the way in which the relationship between Heloise and Abelard has been perceived over the centuries. He also explores the political, literary, and religious contexts in which the two figures conducted their affair and offers new insights into Heloise as an astonishingly gifted writer, whose literary gifts were ultimately frustrated by the course of her relationship with her teacher.

    The Duc de Saint-Simon was a man of political skill and influence at the heart of the royal court, and this is the first volume in his skilfully written memoirs of the time.

    The films are selected to provide interesting viewing, key cultural information, and accessible language levels. Each chapter of the book is devoted to a single movie and includes aids for students watching the film, discussing and writing about the film, and understanding the film in a broader cultural context.Also included: vocabulary helpful to understanding and discussing the film; structured exercises in understanding the film once it has been viewed, especially for discussion in class; an accompanying reading for each film designed to provide perspective on the film itself.New features for the third edition are: more cultural, historical and literary information about the film and its story; new and additional readings; a section for each film dealing with art.

    Following the same path as the visitor, this book introduces you to 100 Impressionist master-pieces and traces the history of a movement that revolutionized the history of art.Beginning with the birth of the movement in 1863, until the term 'Impressionism' was first coined in 1874 - almost haphazardly - relation to a painting by Monet, the author traces the artistic milieu from which the movement emerged and the background to the lives of the painters involved. Then followed the glorious years until 1886, during which eight exhibitions were held to assert the ideas and aims of Impressionism. After this date, the group gradually dispersed; each artist, pursuing his own personal and often solitary research was driven, as Monet described it, by 'the obsession to carry on painting and making progress until the end'.The works are grouped by theme and some are accompanied by a commentary giving particular insight into these artists, who, at the end of the 19th century, rejected the academic style in favor of a subtle play of light. This volume will provide a fascinating account of Impressionism.

    John Richardson tells the story of their ill-fated but comical association, which began in London in 1949 when Richardson was twenty-five and moved onto the Ch�teau de Castille, the famous colonnaded folly in Provence that they restored and filled with masterpieces by Picasso, Braque, L�ger, and Juan Gris. Richardson unfurls a fascinating adventure through twelve years, encompassing famous artists and writers, collectors and other celebrities--Francis Bacon, Jean Cocteau, Luis Miguel Domingu�n, Dora Maar, Peggy Guggenheim, and Henri Matisse, to name only a few. And central to the book is Richardson's close friendship with Picasso, which coincided with the emergence of the artist's new mistress, Jacqueline Roque, and gave Richardson an inside view of the repercussions she would have on Picasso's life and work.With an eye for detail, an ear for scandal, and a sparkling narrative style, Richardson has written a unique, fast-paced saga of modernism behind the scenes.

    Each region has areas which - depending on climate, terrain and design - boast a range of vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs. This volume seeks to rediscover old-fashioned gardening techniques and obscure produce in an exploration of authentic vegetable gardens growing alongside chateaux or abbeys, small family plots, romantic gardens tended by parish priests, gourmet gardens planned by master chefs and ornamental gardens.

    Containing illustrations of the artist's work, the text examines the relationship of his art to the social and artistic discourse of his time.

    Set in the German prison camps, the story revolves around two French aviators who were shot down and spent most of their time escaping from German prison camps while they do what they can to amuse themselves between escapes. One of the French officers, Captain de Boieldieu, finds greater commonality with his captor, Captain von Rauffenstein, than with his own fellow countrymen and soon the disparity between the two social classes emerge. Grand Illusion is examines the futile nature of war and the optimism of those forced to wage it and in recalling his own experiences as an aviator in WWI as well as those of his comrades, Jean Renoir's calls for a farewell to the class constrictions of European society and for the unity of humankind across class and national boundaries.

    Featured sites include both famous and lesser known places, selected to help you experience the city in a fresh and exciting way. * In-depth site descriptions and background information * Insightful features on history, culture, and contemporary life * More than 190 vivid color photographs * 20 detailed, full-color maps * Mapped walking tours * Specially commissioned artwork and floor plans * Clear, easy-to-use design * Complete visitor information plus hotels, restaurants, shopping, and entertainment

    The colossal dimensions of these cathedrals required not only enormous financial outlay, but also great organisational and technical skills. How, for example, were such long-term projects planned, lasting in some cases for many generations? How was work organised on the building site? Which forms were used, and how were they developed? What were the representational aims of the patrons of churches and secular buildings? And what symbolic significance lies behind these buildings, which were not only architectural masterpieces but also a vehicle for theological content, as part of the liturgy? We can only begin to understand the 'spirit of the Gothic' through an understanding of the historical, sociological, theological, economic and technological background in this time of change. Given this, we can then start to read Gothic cathedrals like the pages of a book.

    In 1932, only three years after he purchased his first camera (a Leica), Brassaï published a portfolio of 64 photos titled Paris by Night that caused an immediate sensation. His lively eye (seen in an enigmatic photograph at the beginning of the book) captured fresh, unique images of the city and its citizens. Fascinated by the underworld, he moved easily among gangsters and prostitutes in bars and bordellos; he was equally at home among the fashionable and wealthy, and just as devastating in his depiction of them. He used magnesium flares for low-contrast shadows, catching his subjects in natural poses at significant moments. The wide range of Brassaï's work is suggested by his formal nudes, which have an affinity with Edward Weston's, and his informal portraits, which remind viewers of Diane Arbus, who admired his work. Brassaï was a central figure in the intellectual and artistic circles of Montparnasse that made Paris the most exciting city in the world during the 1930s. In a long essay that includes lively anecdotes of the photographer's relationships with Picasso, Henry Miller, Kertesz, and many other luminaries, the author re-creates the aesthetic and philosophical ferment of the period. Brassaï: The Eye of Paris recognizes the artist's talents in five different media--photography, filmmaking, sculpture, writing, and drawing--but focuses on what he is best known for: lyrical and penetrating photographs of the City of Light. --John Stevenson

    This work describes the variations, the admirable metamorphoses that the body can accomplish. While animals lack such a variety of gestures, postures, and movements, the fluidity of the human body mimics the leisure of living beings and things; what’s more, it creates signs. Already here, within its movements and metamorphoses, the mind is born. The five senses are not the only source of knowledge: it emerges, in large part, from the imitations the plasticity of the body allows. In it, with it, by it knowledge begins.

    Day-by-day coverage of walking the entire GR20, plus other stunning hikes Full-colour introduction reveals the island's natural wonders, cultural heritage and hearty cuisine Insider tips on driving routes, activities for kids and the best places to dive, kitesurf, cycle and horseride

    It comprises paintings, sculpture and drawings by every significant artist of the period, as well as works by early Salon artists who were highly regarded in their day but are now less well known. All the paintings for which the Hermitage is justly proud, whether by Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Picasso or Matisse, are featured, but so too are many that are kept in storage at the museum. Includes an illuminating commentary by Dr Albert Kostenevich, curator of Modern European Art at the Hermitage Museum.

    Carefully researched from primary sources, and superbly executed by a renowned military artist, these paintings are of the very best of their type and are sought after by serious collectors. Lucien Rousselot was a Peintre de lArme and a recognized authority on the uniforms of the French Army. Edward Ryan is an expert on military art and the history of uniforms.

    Lingering in front of the Louvre, pondering Jim Morrisons grave, befriending a poodle at Les Halles, or enjoying a baguette at the Eiffel Tower, Betty and Rita take in all the sights of Paris in this enchanting picture book. Big dogs on the trail of big fun, they visit Notre Dame, the Bastille, L'Arc de Triomphe, and the Centre Pompidou, as well as the parks, fountains, bistros, and other sights that Paris is famous for. Forty duotone photographs accompanied by brief captions capture the Parisian holiday experience with whimsical wit. As sure as the dog is mans best friend, Betty and Rita Go to Paris will charm les pantalons off Francophiles, photographers, and dog lovers the world over. Betty, age 11, is the consummate big sister and enjoys the perks of such a position, especially the lions share of all food treats. Rita, seven, defers readily, preferring attention to food anytime. This is their first book.

    How is hair arranged? Is it left long or cut short? How often is it washed? Do men and women treat their hair differently and what does this tell us about gender?This stimulating book contains articles written by the Paris hairstylist Emile Long between December 1910 and December 1920 for an English trade journal. Long's purpose in writing was to keep English coiffeurs informed about the goings-on in the world of fashion and hairdressing in France, and especially in Paris. In doing so he has provided us with a personal cultural history of the world's most fashionable city in a period that stretches from the end of the Belle Epoque, through the First World War, and into the opening year of the Roaring Twenties. His investigation of hairstyles and fashion inevitably leads him to a fascinating discussion of important historical issues: the 'true' nature of Woman; the genesis and democratization of fashion; and popular attitudes towards hygiene. With his engaging literary style Long invites us to think about consumer habits and technology, notions of fashion and cleanliness, and changing ideals of femininity and the social order.Students and scholars of history, fashion and French society will enjoy these rich and revealing accounts of what hair means to identity and culture.

    Thanks to Roud... a thick and well-kept-up curtain of mystery rises to reveal to us the founder of the Cinmathque Franaise, a man who was both unassuming and extravagant, a fabulous man, an obsessed man, and man animated by an ide fixe, a haunted man." -- Franois Truffaut, from the ForewordWhen Henri Langlois began collecting prints of films in the 1920s, most people -- even many in the film industry -- thought of movies as a cheap and disposable form of entertainment. Langlois recognized them as a priceless form of art and worthy of preservation. In 1935, he founded the Cinmathque Franaise, the legendary film library and screening room in Paris which Jean Renoir described as "the church for movies" and Bernardo Bertolucci called "the best school of cinema in the world." Indeed, some of the world's most influential filmmakers -- including Godard, Resnais, Truffaut, Rivette, and Wenders -- learned their craft by watching the classic films Langlois devoted his life to saving from destruction and obscurity.As Richard Roud reveals in this "affectionate, intriguing biography" (Times Literary Supplement), Langlois was a brilliant and temperamental man who could be, by turns, charming and maddening. Marvelously creative, Langlois was also so incredibly disorganized that, once the Cinmathque became a government institution, he was dismissed as its director in 1968 by then Minister of Culture Andr Malraux, an action which caused Europe's eminent film personalities to protest in the street of Paris until he was reinstated. By the time of his death in 1977, Langlois's genius forrediscovering the cinema of the past (he championed the works of Abel Gance, Carl Dreyer, and Louis Feuillade when they were considered pass by his contemporaries and defended Howard Hawks against the disdain of American intellectuals) and his desire to share his discoveries with the world (at a time when other film archives refused to screen any of the films in their collection) had inspired a great and abiding love of cinema in a generation of filmgoers, leaving behind a legacy director Nicholas Ray considered "perhaps the most important individual effort ever accomplished in the history of the cinema.

    Lavishly illustrated with stills from Merchant Ivory's French films, this book combines Merchant's recollections of film making in France with stories of the meals he enjoyed there.

    Employing psychoanalysis, feminist film theory, and the critical race theory articulated in the works of Frantz Fanon and Toni Morrison, T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting argues that black women historically invoked both desire and primal fear in French men. By inspiring repulsion, attraction, and anxiety, they gave rise in the nineteenth-century French male imagination to the primitive narrative of Black Venus. The book opens with an exploration of scientific discourse on black females, using Sarah Bartmann, the so-called Hottentot Venus, and natural scientist Georges Cuvier as points of departure. To further show how the image of a savage was projected onto the bodies of black women, Sharpley-Whiting moves into popular culture with an analysis of an 1814 vaudeville caricature of Bartmann, then shifts onto the terrain of canonical French literature and colonial cinema, exploring the representation of black women by Baudelaire, Balzac, Zola, Maupassant, and Loti. After venturing into twentieth-century film with an analysis of Josephine Baker’s popular Princesse Tam Tam, the study concludes with a discussion of how black Francophone women writers and activists countered stereotypical representations of black female bodies during this period. A first-time translation of the vaudeville show The Hottentot Venus, or Hatred of Frenchwomen supplements this critique of the French male gaze of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Both intellectually rigorous and culturally intriguing, this study will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French literature, feminist and gender studies, black studies, and cultural studies.

    It also provides explanatins of trail makers, equipment advice, packing tips, and a pocket-sized English-French walker's vocabulary.

    From 1672, France was continuously at war for over 40 years across Europe, from Sicily to Ireland, fielding the largest armies seen in the West since the fall of imperial Rome. Yet these conflicts - which shaped borders, determined lives, and settled crowns, and tell us so much about the great monarch's government and policies - have been strangely neglected by historians: this book is, astonishingly, the first comprehensive study in any language since the eighteenth century.John A. Lynn (the leading authority on the subject today) examines these wars together, systematically. He sets them - and their consequences - in their full diplomatic, military, administrative, and institutional contexts. He explains why they took place when and where they did; he looks for a coherent strategic policy behind them: he explores the operational logistics of their campaigns; and he considers what they achieved, and what they cost.The results are challenging: John Lynn portrays the mature Louis as far more concerned with defending his realm than he was with conquest. And, although the enormous cost of the wars shadowed the king's last years, Professor Lynn sees their achievements as more positive and enduring than is usually allowed.To the king, warfare was a process of attrition rather than a series of decisive and hence risky, events. As the number and strength of his foes increased, Louis created an army far larger than that maintained by any previous French monarch. So great was the need for troops that he finally sacrificed his navy to concentrate his resources on his land forces. John Lynn characterizes this kind of warfare (which predominated in Europe since the end of the Thirty Years War to the onset of the French Revolution) as "war-as-process"; and he argues that, while it did not win Napoleonic-style battlefield triumphs, it was consistent with the International system of the day, and offered strategic advantages and lasting gains in a way that modern historians have been reluctant to acknowledge.Written with all Professor Lynn's customary panache, this ambitious study offers a powerful central argument, an exhilarating breadth of vision, and a wealth of local detail. It will be necessary reading for specialists in the international relations of early-modern Europe, in the history and dynamics of ancien-regime warfare, and in French politics and institutions. But - as it sweeps us from Turenne and Vauban to Marlborough and Eugene - it is also a hugely enjoyable ride for those who take their history for pleasure and interest alone.

    In Aristocratic Women in Medieval France another model is put forth: women of the landholding elite--from countesses down to the wives of ordinary knights--had considerable rights, and exercised surprising power.The authors of the volume offer five case studies of women from the mid-eleventh through the thirteenth centuries, and from regions as diverse as Blois-Chartres, Champagne, Flanders, and Occitania. They show not only the diversity of life experiences these women enjoyed but the range of social and political roles open to them. The ecclesiastical and secular sources they mine confirm that women were regarded as full members of both their natal and affinal families, were never excluded from inheriting and controlling property, and did not have their share of family property limited to dowries. Women across France exchanged oaths for fiefs and assumed responsibilities for enfeoffed knights. As feudal lords, they settled disputes involving vassals, fortified castles, and even led troops into battle.Aristocratic Women in Medieval France clearly shows that it is no longer possible to depict well-born women as powerless in medieval society. Demonstrating the importance of aristocratic women in a period during which they have been too long assumed to have lacked influence, it forces us to reframe our understanding of the high Middle Ages.

    It tells, in frank detail and with eloquent relish, of its author's South England childhood and schooldays; his post-war stint in the army, which ended in disgrace and imprisonment; his years in Paris, during which he was involved in publishing Beckett and wrote pornography; his return to England, where he grew serious about politics, was imprisoned for the second time (as a member of the anti-nuclear Committee of 100), offended T. S. Eliot, participated in the new satire movement, promoted the public performance of poetry, and invented the poster poem. These pages give us unofficial glimpses of the likes of Alexander Trocchi, Maurice Girodias, Lindsay Anderson, Nell Dunn, Peter Cook and the charismatic Pauline Boty. There are enough characters among the less well-known - from the author's father to the Portobello Road street-trader 'Minky' Warren - to stock a lively novel.

    Her challenging new book definitively establishes the centrality of lesbianism as sexual obsession and aesthetic model in Proust's vast novel A la recherche du temps perdu.Traditional readings of the Recherche have dismissed Proust's Gomorrah--his term for women who love other women--as a veiled portrayal of the novelist's own homosexuality. More recently, queer-positive rereadings have viewed the novel's treatment of female sexuality as ancillary to its accounts of Sodom and its meditations on time and memory. Ladenson instead demonstrates the primacy of lesbianism to the novel, showing that Proust's lesbians are the only characters to achieve a plenitude of reciprocated desire. The example of Sodom, by contrast, is characterized by frustrated longing and self-loathing. She locates the work's paradigm of hermetic relations between women in the self-sufficient bond between the narrator's mother and grandmother. Ladenson traces Proust's depictions of male and female homosexuality from his early work onward, and contextualizes his account of lesbianism in late-nineteenth-century sexology and early twentieth-century thought.A vital contribution to the fields of queer theory and of French literature and culture, Ladenson's book marks a new stage in Proust studies and provides a fascinating chapter in the history of a literary masterpiece's reception.

    . . . Providing portraits and some unforgettable scenes with a keen sense of detail, Mme de Boigne's memoirs were greatly admired by Marcel Proust."—Victor Brombert

    It gives a complete survey of Chopin's music for solo piano, including a graded list of his works, together with detailed and constructive suggestions for study and performance. An extended introduction places Chopin in the context of his time, distancing him from the romantic misconceptions that have dogged his reputation through successive generations.

    The French town of Cambrai earned a permanent place in military history on November 20, 1917, when it became the site of the first major armored battle.

    Many of these works have never before been reproduced in color or even publicly shown, for they have been gathered together by Joachim Pissarro from the collections of not only major museums but of private individuals worldwide. Monet and the Mediterranean features over one hundred color plates, with introductory commentaries for each series or grouping of paintings. Produced in association with the Kimbell Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, this book accompanies the first major exhibition of Monet's Mediterranean paintings.

    He identifies, in particular, conflict among feudal elites--landlords, clerics, kings, and officeholders--as the dynamic which perpetuated manorial economies in some places while propelling elites elsewhere to transform the basis of their control over land and labor.Comparing regions and cities within and across England, France, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands from the twelfth through eighteenth centuries, Lachmann breaks new ground by showing step by step how the new social relations and political institutions of early modern Europe developed. He demonstrates in detail how feudal elites were pushed toward capitalism as they sought to protect their privileges from rivals in the aftermath of the Reformation.Capitalists in Spite of Themselves is a compelling narrative of how elites and other classes made and responded to political and religious revolutions while gradually creating the nation-states and capitalist markets which still constrain our behavior and order our world. It will prove invaluable for anyone wishing to understanding the economic and social history of early modern Europe. Capitalists in Spite of Themselves was the winner of the 2003 Distinguished Scholarly Publication Award of the American Sociology Association.

    It considers the political choices they had to make and the pressures and constraints they were under.

    Jacket by Peter Strausfeld.250 numbered copies printed.(Out of print). Contents: -The Tantalising Elsewheres of Henri Alain-Fournier (by Adrian Eckersley)-Le Grand Meaulnes by Henri Alain-Fournier (trans. by R. B. Russell)-How Far Should We Believe in "Miracles"? (by Adrian Eckersley)-Translated by Adrian Eckersley: Miracles/ Summer Misery/ Young People/ The Shower/ Tale of the Sun and the Highway On This Great Road/ Round/ Through Summers/ Highway Shanty/ Under This Tepid Remnant/ The First Fogs of September/ The People of the Manor/ And Now That There's Rain.../ On the Road Which Drops Down/ Woman's Body/ Dialogue as Christmas Approaches/ [Untitled]/ The Poisoned Woman/ The Pleasure Party/ In the Very Small Garden/ Three Prose Poems: (Major Manoeuvres, The Tailor's Guestroom, March Before Daybreak)/ Love Seeks Out Abandoned Places/ Magdalene/ The Miracle of the Three Village Ladies/ The Quarrel and the Night in the Cell/ Public Holidays/ The Miracle of the Farmer's Wife/ Portrait.

    His best-known works--On Power, Sovereignty, and The Pure Theory of Politics--all made distinctive contributions to our understanding of the modern state, and to the creation of a political science capable of civilizing that state. His work in the field of economics is relatively unknown in the United States, but like many writers in the contemporary field of political economy, de Jouvenel is not interested in expanding the claims of economy at the expense of polity. On the contrary, his thinking is governed by the oldest and most fundamental of political concerns, the definition of the good life.The good life is not a product of the marketplace, but of deliberate and collective decision--that is, a task for thoughtful citizens and statesmen, and not simply the sum of millions of separate and amoral consumer preferences. De Jouvenel is well known for his opposition to the distended state, but he was no anarchist. His eloquent warnings to keep the state in its proper sphere were accompanied by a richly sophisticated discussion of what the proper sphere is--an aspect of his work that comes through very clearly in this volume.Written between 1952 and 1980, the essays range from a discussion of technology to reflections on such fundamental economic concepts as amenity and welfare. They include the deeply theoretical as well as the practical and the concrete. All are informed by de Jouvenel's insistence that a science which seeks to understand the production and distribution of goods must be concerned in the first place with the good itself. Economics and the Good Life is a companion volume to The Nature of Politics: Selected Essays of Bertrand de Jouvenel. Like the earlier volume, this collection is accompanied by an editor's introduction that places the essays in the wider context of de Jouvenel's work. This work is essential to the libraries of economists, political theorists, historians, and sociologists.

    The book examines both the structural and cultural elements behind the breakdown of the eighteenth-century monarchic state and its aristocratic social system. Engaging with the latest historical research, it presents a picture of the tensions evolving in this system, and tracks elements of conflict throughout the revolutionary decade. The Revolution is firmly acknowledged as failing, within its own time, to fulfill its goals, but ultimately it is seen as having long-term benefits for the French population and for European society.

    impressive and challenging reevaluation of the sixteenth-century origins of the Enlightenment." --Sixteenth Century JournalIn this book, George Huppert introduces the reader to a group of talented young men, some of them teenagers, who were the talk of the town in Renaissance Paris. They called themselves philosophes, they wrote poetry, they studied Greek and mathematics--and they entertained subversive notions concerning religion and politics. Classically trained, they wrote, nevertheless, in French, so as to reach the widest possible audience. These young radicals fostered a succession of disciples who expressed confidence in the eventual enlightenment of humankind and whose ideas would bear fruit two centuries later.

    Its conclusions suggest a new way of looking at the political history of the period, and offer new interpretations of aspects of early medieval kingship, government and historical writing.