Best of
France

2007

Brodeck


Philippe Claudel - 2007
    Readers of J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace, Bernhard Schlink's The Reader and Kafka will be captivated by Brodeck.Forced into a brutal concentration camp during a great war, Brodeck returns to his village at the war’s end and takes up his old job of writing reports for a governmental bureau. One day a stranger comes to live in the village. His odd manner and habits arouse suspicions: His speech is formal, he takes long, solitary walks, and although he is unfailingly friendly and polite, he reveals nothing about himself. When the stranger produces drawings of the village and its inhabitants that are both unflattering and insightful, the villagers murder him. The authorities who witnessed the killing tell Brodeck to write a report that is essentially a whitewash of the incident. As Brodeck writes the official account, he sets down his version of the truth in a separate, parallel narrative. In measured, evocative prose, he weaves into the story of the stranger his own painful history and the dark secrets the villagers have fiercely kept hidden.

The Discovery of France: A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War


Graham Robb - 2007
    Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language.Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages.The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France—past and present—remains to be discovered.

The Country Cooking of France


Anne Willan - 2007
    More than 250 recipes range from the time-honored La Truffade, with its crispy potatoes and melted cheese, to the Languedoc specialty Cassoulet de Toulouse, a bean casserole of duck confit, sausage, and lamb. And the desserts! Crpes au Caramel et Beurre Sal (crpes with a luscious caramel filling) and Galette Landaise (a rustic apple tart) are magnifique. Sprinkled with intriguing historical tidbits and filled with more than 270 enchanting photos of food markets, villages, harbors, fields, and country kitchens, this cookbook is an irresistible celebration of French culinary culture.

Matisse: The King of Color


Laurence Anholt - 2007
    Her patient is the artist Henri Matisse, and as Matisse recovers from his illness, he and Monique become good friends. Later, Monique enters a convent where she becomes a nursing nun--and by happy coincidence, she meets Matisse once again. Her religious order is so poor that they don't have a chapel of their own, but Matisse decides that with Monique's help, he can remedy that situation. He develops a sketch drawn by Monique into a brilliant set of stained-glass chapel windows, and then uses his influence to raise enough money for the chapel's construction. This true account of Matisse and the chapel at Vence, in southern France, is the main focus of Laurence Anholt's newest delightful children's story. Anholt's illustrations faithfully reproduce many of Matisse's wonderful artworks in this beautiful storybook.

Virtue and Terror


Maximilien Robespierre - 2007
    Yet today, the French Revolution is celebrated as the event which gave birth to a nation built on the principles of enlightenment. So how should a contemporary audience approach Robespierre's vindication of revolutionary terror? Zizek takes a helter-skelter route through these contradictions, marshaling all the breadth of analogy for which he is famous.

Paris Changing: Revisiting Eugene Atget's Paris


Christopher Rauschenberg - 2007
    His images preserved the vanishing architecture of the ancien rgime as Paris grew into a modern capital and established Atget as one of the twentieth century's greatest and most revered photographers.Christopher Rauschenberg spent a year in the late '90s revisiting and rephotographing many of Atget's same locations. Paris Changing features seventy-four pairs of images beautifully reproduced in duotone. By meticulously replicating the emotional as well as aesthetic qualities of Atget's images, Rauschenberg vividly captures both the changes the city has undergone and its enduring beauty. His work is both an homage to his predecessor and an artistic study of Paris in its own right. Each site is indicated on a map of the city, inviting readers to follow in the steps of Atget and Rauschenberg themselves. Essays by Clark Worswick and Alison Nordstrom give insight into Atget's life and situate Rauschenberg's work in the context of other rephotography projects. The book concludes with an epilogue by Rosamond Bernier as well as a portfolioof other images of contemporary Paris by Rauschenberg. If a trip to the city of lights is not in your immediate future, this luscious portrait of Paris then and now is definitely the next best thing.

Rites of Peace: The Fall of Napoleon and the Congress of Vienna


Adam Zamoyski - 2007
    While the Treaty of Paris that followed Napoleon's exile in 1814 put an end to a quarter century of revolution and war in Europe, it left the future of the continent hanging in the balance.Eager to negotiate a workable and lasting peace, the major powers—Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia—along with a host of lesser nations, began a series of committee sessions in Vienna: an eight-month-long carnival that combined political negotiations with balls, dinners, artistic performances, hunts, tournaments, picnics, and other sundry forms of entertainment for the thousands of aristocrats who had gathered in the Austrian capital. Although the Congress of Vienna resulted in an unprecedented level of stability in Europe, the price of peace would be high. Many of the crucial questions were decided on the battlefield or in squalid roadside cottages amid the vagaries of war. And the proceedings in Vienna itself were not as decorous as is usually represented.Internationally bestselling author Adam Zamoyski draws on a wide range of original sources, which include not only official documents, private letters, diaries, and firsthand accounts, but also the reports of police spies and informers, to reveal the steamy atmosphere of greed and lust in which the new Europe was forged. Meticulously researched, masterfully told, and featuring a cast of some of the most influential and powerful figures in history, including Tsar Alexander, Metternich, Talleyrand, and the Duke of Wellington, Rites of Peace tells the story of these extraordinary events and their profound historical consequences.

Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Côte d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella


David Shalleck - 2007
    . . . With the motor cut out, I could hear the whispered splash of the sea against the hull as we knifed through the Mediterranean. The calming noise, along with the gentle rocking, lulled me into a Zen calm as I went about preparing the crew’s lunch. . . . By keeping just a couple of miles offshore, we had some beautiful sights to our starboard side: the harbor towns of La Napoule and quaint Théoule-sur-Mer, . . . the sensational coastline of the Corniche de l’Estérel. . . . All of this I could see through the porthole in the galley. . . . Italy was only a week away.”La Dolce Vita at sea. . .An alluring, evocative summer voyage on the Mediterranean and into the enchanting seaside towns of France’s Côte d’Azur and Italy’s Costa Bella by a young American chef aboard an Italian billionaire couple’s spectacular yacht. Having begun his cooking career in some of New York’s and San Francisco’s best restaurants, David Shalleck undertakes a European culinary adventure, a quest to discover what it really means to be a chef through a series of demanding internships in Provence and throughout Italy. After four years, as he debates whether it is finally time to return stateside and pursue something more permanent, he stumbles on a rare opportunity: to become the chef on board Serenity, the classic sailing yacht owned by one of Italy’s most prominent couples. They present Shalleck with the ultimate challenge: to prepare all the meals for them and their guests for the summer, with no repeats, comprised exclusively of local ingredients that reflect the flavors of each port, presented flawlessly to the couple’s uncompromising taste— all from the confines of the yacht’s galley while at sea. Serenity’s five-month journey starts on the French Riviera, continues along Italy’s western coast to Amalfi, crosses the Tyrrhenian Sea to Sardinia, up to Corsica, and back to St. Tropez for the season-ending regatta. Shalleck captures the glittery Riviera social scene, the distinctive sights and sounds of the unique ports along the way, the work hard/play hard life of being a crew member, and the challenges of producing world-class cuisine for the stylish and demanding owners and their guests. An intimate view of the most exclusive of worlds, Mediterranean Summer offers readers a new perspective on breathtaking places, a memorable portrait of old world elegance and life at sea, as well recipes and tips to recreate the delectable food.

Diary of a Legionnaire. My Life in the French Foreign Legion


Gareth Carins - 2007
    He experienced at first hand the extremes of human nature, witnessing both the brutal cruelty shown by some Legionnaires in the name of tradition, to the personal sacrifices shown by others. Along the way he met many of the fascinating characters that come from all corners of the world to serve in the ranks of the Foreign Legion. DIARY OF A LEGIONNAIRE is a candid and eye opening insight into this mysterious army. Told through Gareth's exciting and at times humorous adventures during the first eighteen months of his service, as we follow him from the brutality of basic training, to the realities of combat in the jungles of West Africa

Prose Poems


Pierre Reverdy - 2007
    Translated from French by Ron Padgett. PROSE POEMS is Pierre Reverdy's first collection of poems, originally published in 1915. Reverdy was born in Narbonne in 1889. In 1910 he came to Paris, where he knew no one, but he soon met Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob, as well as Picasso, Matisse, Braque, and Juan Gris, who later illustrated his books. "I loved its austerity, its spookiness, and what I imagined to be its cubism"--Ron Padgett.

Practice Makes Perfect: French Verb Tenses


Trudie Booth - 2007
    This title coaches you in when and why verb tenses are used. It includes explanations that pinpoint why specific tenses work in given situations as well as examples and numerous skill-building exercises.

Different Like Coco


Elizabeth Matthews - 2007
    And she vowed to prove that being different was an advantage! Poor, skinny, and orphaned, Coco stubbornly believed that she was as good as the wealthier girls of Paris. Tapping into her creativity and her sewing skills, she began making clothes that suited her (and her pocketbook) — and soon a new generation of independent working women craved her sleek, comfortable, and practical designs. Now an icon of fashion and culture, Coco Chanel continues to inspire young readers, showing just how far a person can come with spunk, determination, and flair.

The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame: Medievalism and the Monsters of Modernity


Michael Camille - 2007
    The first comprehensive history of these world-famous monsters, The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame argues that they transformed the iconic thirteenth-century cathedral into a modern monument.Michael Camille begins his long-awaited study by recounting architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc’s ambitious restoration of the structure from 1843 to 1864, when the gargoyles were designed, sculpted by the little-known Victor Pyanet, and installed. These gargoyles, Camille contends, were not mere avatars of the Middle Ages, but rather fresh creations—symbolizing an imagined past—whose modernity lay precisely in their nostalgia. He goes on to map the critical reception and many-layered afterlives of these chimeras, notably in the works of such artists and writers as Charles Méryon, Victor Hugo, and photographer Henri Le Secq. Tracing their eventual evolution into icons of high kitsch, Camille ultimately locates the gargoyles’ place in the twentieth-century imagination, exploring interpretations by everyone from Winslow Homer to the Walt Disney Company.Lavishly illustrated with more than three hundred images of its monumental yet whimsical subjects, The Gargoyles of Notre-Dame is a must-read for historians of art and architecture and anyone whose imagination has been sparked by the lovable monsters gazing out over Paris from one of the world’s most renowned vantage points.

Pardon My French: Unleash Your Inner Gaul


Charles Timoney - 2007
    Englishman Charles Timoney was thrown into French life headfirst twenty-five years ago when he and his wife moved to native France. He had studied French in school, but his memory of vocabulary lists and verb-conjugation drills proved no match for day-to-day living and communicating with French coworkers. As he blundered towards fluency, he collected the idioms and phrases that no one ever taught him in a classroom and that wonderfully (sometimes wickedly) epitomized l’esprit francais. Pardon My French includes insider’s language tips for dining, shopping, understanding French slang, and more. Selections include: • Faire un canard, which literally means “to do a duck,”but also refers to dunking sugar lumps in coffee and is the preferred way to get a kick of sugar caffeine in France. • Tablette de chocloat, which literally means “chocolate bar,” but is also the term for a finely muscled male stomach in France. Since the English equivalent is a “six pack,” it’s a splendid example of how differently we see things! Packed throughout with whimsical cartoons and trivia (including the words to “La Marseillaise”), Pardon My French is a marvelous armchair trip abroad.

Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II


James H. Madison - 2007
    James H. Madison provides information about her life, the activities of the Red Cross Clubmobiles, and the war.

Haunted House


Pierre Reverdy - 2007
    Described by André Breton as among the ten books he would most like to take to a desert island, Haunted House combines the oblique, dreamlike world of Reverdy's poetry with a more ironic, whimsical tone of mock grandeur. John Ashbery's translations, published here for the first time in the UK, extends his life-long engagement with French literature, one that has vitally informed his own work in poetry, literature, and the arts.

Christmas Around the World: A Pop-Up Book


Chuck Fischer - 2007
    Featuring France, Germany, Russia, Latin America, Scandinavia, Great Britain, Italy, and the United States, every spread is packed with delights: a luxurious central pop-up image, plus removable booklets, pullouts, mini pop-ups, and more. The text illuminates unique Christmas traditions, gift legacies, and portraits of mythic figures, such as England's Father Christmas and Italy's Le Befana. Like Christmas in New York, CHRISTMAS AROUND THE WORLD is destined to become a treasured keepsake and a bestseller for years to come.

Poiret


Harold Koda - 2007
    Essays by renowned scholars describe the historical context of his work; its relation to the dominant artistic discourses of the early 20th century; his muse, Denise Poiret, and her influence on his work; and his role in the paradigmatic shift to a new ideal of feminine beauty. Poiret’s entrepreneurship, his creation of an atelier to extend his influence beyond fashion to the art de vivre, and his relationship to the workshops of the Wiener Werkstatte are also discussed.Poiret’s innovative creations are represented by colorful pochoirs (stencils), personal photographs from the Poiret family archives, and newly commissioned photographs of Poiret’s masterworks.

Talleyrand: Betrayer And Saviour Of France


Robin Harris - 2007
    With bravura he then dominated the Congress of Vienna which re-shaped Europe, but soon discovered that the Bourbons had, in his own words, 'learned nothing and forgotten nothing'. Disgrace followed. The Revolution of July 1830 finally brought a renewal of Talleyrand's former influence. So, in his late seventies, he arrived as ambassador in London, where he and his beautiful companion, the duchesse de Dino, dazzled and captivated British society. At the end, his famous death-bed reconciliation with the Catholic Church created almost as great a scandal as his notorious early life. In this authoritative new biography, Talleyrand emerges as always ahead of his times. He urged the advantages of peace, while Europe was racked by war; he consistently advocated political moderation, a free press and a liberal constitution; he was a forceful proponent of Anglo-French entente; he understood the importance of free trade as the route to national prosperity; and he foresaw the rise of America as a great power. Robin Harris depicts a statesman of truly world-class stature.

Renoir Landscapes: 1865-1883


Colin B. Bailey - 2007
    Throughout his career, he continually experimented with composition, light, paint handling, and pictorial structure in innovative new ways that challenged traditional––and contemporary––painting. He taught himself by working side-by-side with fellow Impressionist masters Monet and Sisley, and in the 1870s began to define his distinctive landscape style of quick, silvery brushstrokes. By the end of the decade he had moved decisively in the direction of unparalleled painterly freedom.This stunning book is the first to examine Renoir’s landscape art in depth, tracing its evolution from the beginning of his career through his Impressionist period and the early 1880s, when he began to incorporate new landscape motifs and new levels of coloristic intensity in paintings after traveling to Algeria and Italy. With over 200 illustrations, a detailed chronology, and bibliography, the book includes essays by highly distinguished scholars that discuss the range and importance of these works and present many fresh discoveries. They also place Renoir’s landscapes in the overall context of the genre in 19th-century France, revealing how his experiments were radical and––in ways that have not yet been fully acknowledged––influential on the later development of modern art.

Blue Guide Paris (Blue Guides)


Delia Gray-Durant - 2007
    A fully updated guide to the City of Light, with not-to-be-missed information and guidance on Paris's incredible variety of art and architecture, history and culture, all of which are brilliantly described in this fully updated edition.

Parisiennes: A Celebration of French Women


Carole Bouquet - 2007
    This collection of one hundred and thirty duotone photographs captures the essence of the Parisian femme fatale. All of the great French photographers from the late 1930s through the 1960s are featured, including Robert Doisneau, Brassaï, Willy Ronis, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Edouard Boubat, Jean-Philippe Charbonnier, Sabine Weiss, and many more. The photographs reveal Parisian women and all of their glorious facets: from the love-struck waif strolling along the banks of the Seine to the belles of the neighborhood balls flushed from their raucous dance moves, from no-nonsense career girls to flirty neighbors. Chanel-clad locals and runway models alike showcase the glamour of the fashion and haute-couture world with inimitable style. One chapter pays homage to the courageous women who battled for justice in World War II, the Resistance, the Liberation, and the revolts of May 1968, including role models such as philosopher and writer Simone de Beauvoir and journalist and playwright Marguerite Dumas. The Parisiennes featured here go to work, ride bikes, pose seductively, smile coyly, and are all devastatingly irresistible.

Chateaux Of The Loire Valley


Robert Polidori - 2007
    Magnificent castles, sophisticated gardens and sweeping parks demonstrate both the monarchs' power and appreciation of art, attracting and fascinating uncounted visitors to this day.

Napoleonic Uniforms: V. 1 & 2


John R. Elting - 2007
    Napoleonic Uniforms is the only reference work of its kind to depict accurately the entire Grande Armée in detail. It portrays the French armies as seen by their contemporaries, and combines authoritative text with lavish illustrations. This superb two-volume set depicts in magnificent colour the uniforms of the Royal Army, Emigrant Troops, Revolutionary Armies, and the Army of Egypt. The new edition will be presented in a cloth bound slipcase. Herbert Knötel's plates, recognised by uniform specialists as being amongst the best and most accurate, fully capture all the beauty, verve and swagger of this colourful episode in military history. With more than nine hundred plates, each with an authoritative caption by Colonel John Elting, Napoleonic Uniforms is the standard source of reference on the uniforms of Napoleon's allies and opponents. Colonel John R. Elting was the foremost expert on Napoleon's Grande Armée and the armies of the Napoleonic period; his books include the acclaimed Swords Around a Throne and, with Vincent J. Esposito, the authoritative A Military History and Atlas of the Napoleonic Wars. Herbert Knötel was an acclaimed illustrator of military uniforms from a distinguished family of artists and historians. John H. Gill is the author of With Eagles to Glory: Napoleon and his German Allies in the 1809 Campaign and the forthcoming Thunder on the Danube: Napoleon's Defeat of the Habsburgs.

The Secret Place


Molly Noble Bull - 2007
    Rachel flees her French village with her late sweetheart’s brother, Pierre Dupre—a Huguenot, and they take refuge in a church until the military captain responsible for the deaths arrives. The captain wants Rachel as his mistress or he wants her dead. Rachel and Pierre agree to a marriage of convenience and manage to escape. Will they reach Scotland as planned? Or will their lives end on an English countryside? The Secret Place, under the title Sanctuary, won the 2008 Gayle Wilson Award in the inspirational category and tied for first place in a second national contest for published authors that year. Published in conjunction with Hartline Literary Agency.

Sandrine's Paris: A Cultural History of the World's Most Romantic City


Sandrine Voillet - 2007
    The most romantic city in the world, and a city with an amazingly rich cultural history.From the Renaissance to the French Revolution, from the construction of the Eiffel Tower to Mitterrand's grands projets, Paris has borne witness to extraordinary people and events over the centuries.And who better to explore the French capital's cultural past than Sandrine Voillet. Art historian, cultural commentator, Parisian, she's as chic and elegant as the city she adores. In this fascinating and highly original portrait of Paris, Sandrine shares her passion for a city indelibly marked by change and revolution. Travelling through 400 years of cultural history, Sandrine introduces the people and events that have shaped Paris into the breathtaking spectacle we see today.Part travelogue, part cultural history and part inside guide to 'hidden' Paris, Sandrine's Paris is lavishly illustrated with over 100 beautiful images that capture the magic of the City of Lights.

Markets of Paris: Food, Antiques, Crafts, Books, and More


Dixon Long - 2007
    Yes, the same markets are held in the same locales as always—literally, for centuries—but many have undergone a remarkable transformation led by a young generation of purveyors focused, even more than their predecessors, on local and organic (“bio”) produce. Markets of Paris, 2nd Edition revisits and updates the entire market scene in Paris, with 12 new entries and 10 new sidebars, including Virtual Markets and Market Streets, Markets Open on Sunday, Artisan Bakers, Getting Along in the Food Markets, Brocante Fairs, and more. One of them, Cooking in Paris, gives information about lessons and workshops offered in home kitchens, bakeries, restaurants, and even wine stores.   Updates focus on the most interesting vendors and most unique and enticing offerings to be found at each locale, including prepared food that can be eaten on the spot. In keeping with growing interest in knowing where food comes from, the authors include profiles and photos of farmers and other artisanal suppliers behind the best food stalls.   One of the biggest changes in the Paris market scene in recent years has been the spike of interest in organic, reflected in the popularity of the Raspail organic market. At one time a fringe offshoot of the regular Raspail market, this Sunday market has fully come into its own. It attracts a large and loyal clientele; of three organic markets in the city, it’s certainly the largest and most widely known. Often it’s referred to as “Le Marché Bio,” and many claim it’s the crème de la crème of all Paris’s markets.   Restaurant listings have been updated, too, with 15 new additions that have been chosen because of their new-generation chefs’ approach to fresh ingredients or their proximity to featured markets. A new section titled If You Have Limited Time directs the visitor to the most interesting markets near his or her accommodations. Another section, Practical Suggestions, addresses common questions such where to get local currency, which map of Paris is the best and most convenient, and business hours for different kinds of shops, stalls, and restaurants. Finally, the book has been reorganized by arrondissement to be more user friendly, and it has a brand-new look with all new photos and a refreshed, modernized design.

Strange Revelations: Magic, Poison, and Sacrilege in Louis XIV's France


Lynn Wood Mollenauer - 2007
    From 1679 to 1682 the French crown investigated more than 400 people-including Louis XIV's official mistress and members of the highest-ranking circles at court-for sensational crimes. In Strange Revelations, Lynn Mollenauer brings this bizarre story to life, exposing a criminal magical underworld thriving in the heart of the Sun King's capital. The macabre details of the Affair of the Poisons read like a gothic novel. In the fall of 1678, Nicolas de la Reynie, head of the Paris police, uncovered a plot to poison Louis XIV. La Reynie's subsequent investigation unveiled a loosely knit community of sorceresses, magicians, and renegade priests who offered for sale an array of services and products ranging from abortions to love magic to poisons known as "inheritance powders." It was the inheritance powders (usually made from powdered toads steeped in arsenic) that lent the Affair of the Poisons its name. The purchasers of the powders gave the affair its notoriety, for the scandal extended into the most exalted ranks of the French court. Mollenauer adroitly uses the Affair of the Poisons to uncover the hidden forms of power that men and women of all social classes invoked to achieve their goals. While the exercise of state power during the ancien r�gime was quintessentially visible-ritually displayed through public ceremonies-the affair exposes the simultaneous presence of other imagined and real sources of power available to the Sun King's subjects: magic, poison, and the manipulation of sexual passions. Highly entertaining yet deeply researched, Strange Revelations will appeal to anyone interested in the history of court society, gender, magic, or crime in early modern Europe.

Adagio Ma Non Troppo


Ryoko Sekiguchi - 2007
    Asian & Asian American Studies. Translated by Lindsay Turner. Introduction by Sawako Nakayasu. Ryoko Sekiguchi takes the letters Fernando Pessoa wrote his would-be fianc�e Ophelia Queiroz as her subject matter in ADAGIO MA NON TROPPO. ADAGIO's 36 prose blocks--appearing in Japanese, French, and English for the first time in the 2018 Les Figues Press trilingual edition (trans. Lindsay Turner)--echo the 36 letters Pessoa addressed to Queiroz dated from March 1, 1920, until January 11, 1930.Sekiguchi reconceives the Lisbon Pessoa and Queiroz describe in their correspondence as a map over which rendezvous, affairs, and liaisons can be continued through writing. "Written words," she asks, "do they erase themselves? [...] or instead do all words, once read, never disappear?" Sekiguchi superimposes objects over a landscape where names carry shapes, directions, and the places to which they refer. In her Lisbon, a chair slid into daylight or set before a window punctuates time like comma in a sentence. An old couple contemplating ducks indicates a line between two points like a parasol taken from its stand announces a departure. As love establishes boundaries and relationships between people, if our objects convey our love for one another, then Sekiguchi traces the paths and perimeters lovers leave behind.Originally published in a bilingual edition containing Sekiguchi's self-translation into the French (Le bleu du ciel �ditions, 2007), ADAGIO MA NON TROPPO belongs in the same category as the modernist works of Franz Kafka and Pessoa--as well as the recent epistolary work of Marguerite Duras, Roland Barthes, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Maggie Nelson, and Claire-Louise Bennett--writing as a philosophic and aesthetic act that reshapes our notions of time, space, translation, and love.

Art & Architecture Paris


Martina Padberg - 2007
    With town plans and over 600 illustrations. Full-colour throughout.

The Rough Guide to the Pyrenees 6


Rough Guides - 2007
    From lush meadowland, snow-clad peaks and canyons of sinuously sculpted rock to alluring resorts, the full-colour section introduces all of the regions highlights. You’ll find detailed accounts of all the sights, from the gorges of the Basque country to the Romanesque churches of Calunya. This fully updated 6th edition includes information on skiing in the mountains and brand new colour inserts on romanesque architecture and Pyrenean food. Read opinionated reviews of all the best places to eat, drink and stay at all price levels as well as practical accounts of the most popular sporting activities including skiing, river-rafting and even parapenting. The guide also takes a detailed look at the region’s history, cuisine, festivals and wildlife and comes complete with maps and plans for every area.The Rough Guide to The Pyrennees is like having a local friend plan your trip!

The Perilous Crown: France Between Revolutions 1814-1848


Munro Price - 2007
    Beginning with the return from exile of Louis-Philippe d'Orleans in 1814, together with his sister, Madame Adelaide, Price examines the remarkable period that saw not one but two revolutions; the first, in 1830, put Louis-Philippe on the throne, the second in 1848 saw him exiled once more, destined to spend the last years of his life in quiet seclusion in Surrey. Drawing on previously unpublished letters and journals, Price focuses on the amazing political machinations of Madame Adelaide. Mentioned only rarely in other histories of the time, Price restores her to rightful prominence and reveals how her intelligence and behind the scenes wrangling secured her brother the throne, thereby creating France's only long-lasting experiment with a constitutional monarchy. Price brings this extraordinary period, with all its instability and political intrigue, vividly to life, and at the same time illuminates our understanding of a difficult and tumultuous time. The result is an ambitious, exciting, and masterful work of history that is sure to delight and inform for many years to come.

A Volunteer Poilu


Henry Beston - 2007
    He grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts and attended Adams Academy in Quincy before earning his B.A. (1909) and M.A. (1911) from Harvard College. After leaving Harvard, Beston took up teaching at University of Lyon. In 1914 he returned to Harvard as an English department assistant. Beston joined the French army in 1915 and served as an ambulance driver. His service in le Bois le Pretre and at the Battle of Verdun was described in his first book, A Volunteer Poilu (1916). Following the end of World War I, Beston began writing fairy tales under the name "Henry Beston." In 1919, The Firelight Fairy Book was published, followed by The Starlight Wonder Book in 1923. During this time, he worked as an editor of The Living Age, an offshoot of The Atlantic Monthly.

Maupassant: A Lion In The Path


Francis Steegmuller - 2007
    Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The Meaning of Sarkozy


Alain Badiou - 2007
    He argues that the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President does not necessarily signal a crucial turning point in French politics, nor require a further rightward move from competing electoral forces.To understand the significance of Sarkozy, we have to look beyond the right-wing populism and vulgarity of the man himself, and ask what he represents: a reactionary tradition that goes back to the early nineteenth century, a tradition based on fear.Badiou argues that to escape from the atmosphere of depression and anxiety that currently envelops the Left, we need to cast aside the slavish worship of electoral democracy. In a characteristically doughty and wide-ranging conclusion, Alain Badioun maps out a ‘communist hypothesis’ that can lay the basis for a genuine emancipatory politics in the twenty-first century.

Heidegger and the Politics of Poetry


Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe - 2007
    All deal with Heidegger’s relation to politics, specifically through Heidegger’s interpretations of the poetry of Hölderlin. Lacoue-Labarthe argues that it is through Hölderlin that Heidegger expresses most explicitly his ideas on politics, his nationalism, and the importance of myth in his thinking, all of which point to substantial affinities with National Socialism.Lacoue-Labarthe not only examines the intellectual background--including Romanticism and "German ideology"--of Heidegger's uses and abuses of poetry, he also attempts to reestablish the vexed relationship between poetry and philosophy outside the bounds of the Heideggerian reading. He turns to Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, as well as Paul Celan, arguing for the necessity of poetry as an engagement with history. While Heidegger's readings of Hölderlin attempt to appropriate poetry for mythic and political ends, Lacoue-Labarthe insists that poetry and thought can, and must, converge in another way. Jeff Fort provides a precise translation capturing the spirit and clarity of Lacoue-Labarthe’s writing, as well as an introduction clearly situating the debates addressed in these essays.

Reading Bande Dessinée: Critical Approaches to French-language Comic Strip


Ann Miller - 2007
    Reading Bande Dessinée, the first English-language overview and critical study of this intriguing medium, traces the history and examines the cultural implications of French comics.Ann Miller’s groundbreaking book not only parses bande dessinée as visual narrative art, but it shows readers how to study it, as she places these comic strips in the context of debates surrounding the form’s legitimization, approaches it from a cultural studies perspective, and examines bande dessinée in its relationship to subjectivity in the body. Miller here illuminates such disparate concepts as Astérix and the mythologizing of Frenchness, historical memory and the Algerian war, and characterizations of the new managerial bourgeoisie in the context of Francophone comic strips. Reading Bande Dessinée will help lay a scholarly foundation for the growing interest in this captivating art form in the Anglophone world.

Henry James Goes to Paris


Peter Brooks - 2007
    This is the story of the year--1875 to 1876--when the young novelist moved to Paris, drawn by his literary idols living at the center of the early modern movement in art. As Peter Brooks skillfully recounts, James largely failed to appreciate or even understand the new artistic developments teeming around him during his Paris sojourn. But living in England twenty years later, he would recall the aesthetic lessons of Paris, and his memories of the radical perspectives opened up by French novelists and painters would help transform James into the writer of his adventurous later fiction. A narrative that combines biography and criticism and uses James's writings to tell the story from his point of view, Henry James Goes to Paris vividly brings to life the young American artist's Paris year--and its momentous artistic and personal consequences.James's Paris story is one of enchantment and disenchantment. He initially loved Paris, he succeeded in meeting all the writers he admired (Turgenev, Flaubert, Zola, Maupassant, Goncourt, and Daudet), and he witnessed the latest development in French painting, Impressionism. But James largely found the writers disappointing, and he completely misunderstood the paintings he saw. He also seems to have fallen in and out of love in a more ordinary sense--with a young Russian aesthete, Paul Zhukovsky. Disillusioned, James soon retreated to England--for good. But James would eventually be changed forever by his memories of Paris.

To D-Day and Back: Adventures with the 507th Parachute Infantry Regiment and Life as a World War II POW: A memoir


Bob Bearden - 2007
    Their mission: defend the west bank of the Merderet River against German counterattack. After long months of training they were finally taking the war to the Germans. Beardens time in combat proved shortlived, however, when he was captured on D+2, June 8.This was only the beginning of a new war for his very survival through multiple German POW camps and ultimately on an epic journey that would take him largely on foot all the way to Moscow on his journey home, all of which makes for exciting reading in this remarkable memoir.

Operation Epsom: Over the Battlefield


Ian Daglish - 2007
    After Epsom, the Allies retained the strategic initiative through to the liberation of France and Belgium.This was a battle in which highly trained but largely inexperienced British 'follow-up' divisions, newly arrived in Normandy, confronted some of the best equipped, best led and battle-hardened formations of the Third Reich.Beginning with a set-piece British assault on the German lines in dense terrain, the battle developed into swirling armored action on the open slopes of Hills 112 and 113, before the British turned to grimly defending their gains in the face of concentric attacks by two full SS-Panzer Korps.This entirely new study brings together previously unseen evidence to present an important Normandy battle in very great detail. The unfolding action is illustrated using aerial photography of the battlefield and period Army maps.

Lafayette in America in 1824 and 1825: Journal of a Voyage to the United States


Auguste Levasseur - 2007
    Lafayette's secretary, Auguste Levasseur, describes how the 67-year-old hero of the American Revolution and apostle of liberty in Europe was welcomed and adored by Americans. Details Lafayette's visits with Founding Fathers and addresses slavery and Native American issues. This is the only unabridged English translation. The volume includes a fold-out map tracing Lafayette's travels by land and water.

Cultureshock! Paris: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette


Frances Gendlin - 2007
    The series is especially intended for travellers who are looking to truly understand the countries they are visiting and who might even consider residing there. into the local environment and is packed with useful details on transportation, taxes, accommodation, health, shopping and festivals. Additionally, each book provides concise insights into the history, language, cuisine and business practises of each country, as well as explaining the customs, traditions and social etiquette in a lively and informative style.

Topologies: The Urban Utopia in France, 1960-1970


Larry Busbea - 2007
    The utopian "spatial" city most often took the form of a massive grid or mesh suspended above the ground, all of its parts (and inhabitants) circulating in a smooth, synchronous rhythm, its streets and buildings constituting a gigantic work of plastic art or interactive machine. In this new urban world, technology and automation were positive forces, providing for material needs as well as time and space for leisure. In this first study of the French avant-garde tendency known as spatial urbanism, Larry Busbea analyzes projects by artists and architects (including the most famous spatial practitioner, Yona Friedman) and explores texts (many of which have never before been translated from the French) by Michel Ragon, the influential founder of the Groupe International d'Architecture Prospective (GIAP), Victor Vasarely, and others. Even at its most fanciful, Busbea argues, the French urban utopia provided an image for social transformations that were only beginning to be described by cultural theorists and sociologists.

A Political Education: Coming of Age in Paris and New York


André Schiffrin - 2007
    But this world was torn apart when the Nazis marched into Paris on young André’s fifth birthday.Beginning with the family’s dramatic escape to Casablanca—thanks to the help of the legendary Varian Fry—and eventually New York, A Political Education recounts the surprising twists and turns of a life that saw Schiffrin become, himself, one of the world’s most respected publishers. Emerging from the émigré community of wartime New York (a community that included his father’s friends Hannah Arendt and Helen and Kurt Wolff), he would go on to develop an insatiable appetite for literature and politics: heading a national student group he renamed the Students for a Democratic Society—the SDS . . . leading student groups at European conferences, once, as an unwitting front man for the CIA . . . and eventually being appointed by Random House chief Bennett Cerf to head the very imprint cofounded by his father—Pantheon. There, he would discover and publish some of the world’s leading writers, including Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucault, Art Spiegelman, Studs Terkel, and Marguerite Duras. But in a move that would make headlines, Schiffrin would ultimately rebel at corporate ownership and form his own publishing house—The New Press—where he would go on to set a new standard for independent publishing. A Political Education is a fascinating intellectual memoir that tells not only the story of a unique and important figure, but of the tumultuous political times that shaped him.

Cannes: Inside the World's Premier Film Festival


Kieron Corless - 2007
    Who is not familiar with Cannes' famous paparazzi scrums, beachfront happenings and world premieres? But the history of Cannes is also famous for scandals and controversies, where the great nations of the world have gathered and clashed. This vivid and beguiling history reveals the best and most revelatory tales from this festival's spectacular history through previously untold first-hand accounts from key players.

Le Gégèneur / The Tormentor


Philippe Gaulier - 2007
    The Tormentor- Thoughts on the theatre presented with humour, nonchalance, and gusto - An outline of about a hundred exercises that students enjoy practising, pleasure The perfect book for those who love and practise the theatre.

Balenciaga


Lesley Ellis Miller - 2007
    His name is now synonymous with clothes made to the highest standards and characterized by their sculptural quality, deft manipulation of textiles, and dramatic use of color. This absorbing new book, with breathtaking illustrations, examines Balenciaga's design and business and places him firmly in the context of the time and country in which he learned his trade—and the international fashion scene in which he subsequently matured and triumphed. This stunning book is published to accompany The Golden Age of Couture, a major exhibition opening at the V&A in September 2007.

Oudry's Painted Menagerie: Portraits of Exotic Animals in Eighteenth-Century Europe


Mary Morton - 2007
    Paul Getty Museum to be held from May 1 to September 2, 2007--is the first to focus on the series of life-size portraits painted by the eighteenth-century artist Jean-Baptiste Oudry of the animals in Louis XV's royal menagerie at Versailles. A tiger, a lion, a leopard, and, most impressive of all, the famous rhinoceros known as Clara joined a group of other exotic animals in Oudry's "painted menagerie," which was purchased in 1750 by his German patron, the Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. The book's insightful essays situate this suite of paintings within the context of Oudry's career; discuss Oudry's remarkable drawings of animals; and present a fascinating history of menageries and of the phenomenon known as "Claramania"--when the real rhinoceros, Clara, traveled through Europe and caused a public sensation.

The Fall of Napoleon, Volume I: The Allied Invasion of France, 1813–1814


Michael V. Leggiere - 2007
    With over a million men under arms throughout central Europe, Coalition forces poured over the Rhine River to invade France between late November 1813 and early January 1814. Three principle army groups drove across the great German landmark, smashing the exhausted French forces that attempted to defend the eastern frontier. In less than a month, French forces ingloriously retreated from the Rhine to the Marne; Allied forces were within one week of reaching Paris. This book provides the first complete, English-language study of the invasion of France along a front that extended from Holland to Switzerland.

The Priesthood of the Heart: Woman's Unique Vocation


Jo Croissant - 2007
    Rather, the author is convinced that ., .the hour is coming, in fact has come, when the vocation of woman is being achieved in all its fullness..., as Vatican II affirmed. Here a woman speaks to women simply, warmly, humbly. She dwells on what she has shared with numerous others: that women bring the specificity and beauty of their identity to the home, the Church and society. Croissant urges each of them to realize their call as daughter of God, spouse of Christ, mother of men and of all humanity. If this book is for all women no matter their life situation, it can as well help more than one man understand the mystery of woman

On Pain of Death: A Sumach Mystery


Jan Rehner - 2007
    She has had to abandon her Canadian identity for fear of arrest, her lover has disappeared without a trace, and a good Jewish friend has been taken away to Drancy, a German transit camp, leaving her little sister behind in Juliette's care. Only one step ahead of the Gestapo, Juliette obtains a new identity and joins an escape network of the French Resistance to bring the young girl out of France to safety. Meanwhile, in the village of St-Leacuteger, Gabrielle Aubin's husband is wrongfully executed for the murder of a German soldier. Hoping to find the true killer, Gabrielle joins the Resistance. The two women's lives become inalterably intertwined when they find each other while hiding out in a nunnery in Beaune. When they flee to the hills to work with a Resistance group in the Morvan forest, they discover they share a common link to the past, a secret that eventually leads to a shocking revelation. With consummate skill, Rehner keeps the reader wholly in her grip as she interweaves the stories of the two women through harrowing plot twists. Born of Rehner's intimate

The Lady And The Unicorn


Elisabeth Delahaye - 2007
    This book presents an updated overview, and it aims, if not to solve all of its mysteries, at least to provide some answers to the questions posed by the reader and viewer.

Fashion in Medieval France


Sarah-Grace Heller - 2007
    Texts from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries describe how cleverly-cut garments or unique possessions make a character distinctive, and even offer advice on how to look attractive on a budget or gain enough spending money to shop for oneself. Such descriptions suggest fashion's presence, yet accepted notions date the birth of Western fashion to the mid-fourteenth-century revolution in men's clothing styles. A fashion system must have been present prior to this 'revolution' in styles to facilitate such changes, and abundant evidence for the existence of such a system is cogently set out in this study. Ultimately, fashion is a conceptual system expressed by words evaluating a style's ephemeral worth, and changes in visual details are symptomatic, rather than determinative. SARAH-GRACE HELLER is an associate professor in Medieval French at Ohio State University.

Untimely Beggar: Poverty and Power from Baudelaire to Benjamin


Patrick Greaney - 2007
    To take account of literature’s relation to the poor, Patrick Greaney proposes the concept of impoverished writing, which withdraws from representing objects and registers the existence of power. By reducing itself to the indication of its own potential, by impoverishing itself, literary language attempts to engage and participate in the power of the poor.This focus on impoverished language offers new perspectives on major French and German authors, including Marx, Nietzsche, Mallarmé, Rilke, and Brecht; and makes significant contributions to recent debates about power and potential in thinkers such as Agamben, Deleuze, Foucault, Hardt, and Negri. In doing so, Greaney offers significant insights into modernity’s intense philosophical and literary interest in socioeconomic poverty.Patrick Greaney is assistant professor of German studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

French Home


Josephine Ryan - 2007
    This beautifully illustrated book explores the elements that combine to create spaces with an identifiably French feel: the archituectural details that enhance the framework of a room; the textures and colours that flatter various styles of furniture; options for lighting, mirrors, and paintings. Looking at real homes, antiques dealer and stylist Josephine Ryan demonstrates a keen eye for objects both ordinary and extraordinary, and examines the alchemy of a style that can be either lush and complex or pared-down and rigorous. With words by Hilary Robertson, "French Home" will help you reinvent your surroundings and gain a touch of French style. *Lavish photographs by Claire Richardson *Celebrates a style that mixes antique and modern with easy flair.

Practice Make Perfect French Vocabulary


Eliane Kurbegov - 2007
    Each chapter of this comprehensive book focuses on a theme, such as family or travel, so you can build your language skills in a systematic manner. As you lay the foundation for an increasing vocabulary, you are able to perfect your new words with plenty of exercises and gain the confidence to communicate well in French.Practice Makes Perfect: French Vocabulary offers you:More than 120 exercisesConcise grammatical explanationsA new chapter on contemporary vocabularyAn answer key to gauge your comprehensionWith help from this book, you can easily speak or write in French about: Different occupations and jobs * French holidays and traditions * Taking the train * Growing your own garden * Where it hurts on your body * Your house * Your family and friends * What you studied in school * Your favorite TV show * Your family's background . . . and much more!