Category Archives: France
Suspended Sentences
Suspended Sentences by Patrick Modiano (French) 2014 / 232 pages rating – 9.25 / three novellas (autobiographical) Called the “Marcel Proust of our time”,he won the 2014 Nobel Prize in Literature “for the art of memory with which he has evoked tvhe … Continue reading
Manon Lescaut
Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prévost 1731/ 174 pages (Kindle) rating 8 / classic French novel Manon Lescaut was written a full 100 years prior to The Red and the Black by Stendhal (1830), but only another 50 years prior to The Ladies’ Paradise by Emil Zola. Oh, … Continue reading
The Ladies’ Paradise
The Ladies’ Paradise by Emile Zola 1883/ 480 pages rating 9.5 classic – French (Introduction, Notes and translation by Brian Nelson) Zola knew what he was talking about when he wrote page after page of busy and boisterous narrative about a … Continue reading
Wind, Sand and Stars
Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (French) 1939/103 pages rating: 6/classic I’m not a fan of this book – imo it’s not meant for women – the author likely would have thought his ideas would just confuse women. … Continue reading
All Our Worldly Goods
All Our Worldly Goods by Irène Némirovsky (France) 1947 / France / 264 pages rating: 8.5 / classic First a word about Némirovsky. The 20th century French writer (novelist, journalist, refugee, Jewish-Catholic) was arrested by the occupying German forces in 1942 and died … Continue reading
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas – 1854 Read by John Lee – 47 hours (Oxford Edition – 1130 pages) Rating – 10 (they just don’t write them like this anymore) I enjoyed this book far far … Continue reading
Father Goriot
Father Goriot by Honore Balzac 1835 – Rating 10 Jean-Joachim Goriot, a widowed and retired wheat dealer who sold his business, lives alone in a pension in Paris. Since the death of his wife Father Goriot has doted on his … Continue reading
