French history

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, August 2011; written by Lisa Pearson.

The challenge when writing books about history is to make the subject seem fresh, even when it has been thoroughly researched by previous authors. One successful method is to view history from unique perspectives, and the public library has three new books on French history that each have an interesting twist.

“Paris to the Past: traveling through French history by train”, by Ina Caro is the most readable of the three books. Part travelogue, part history, Caro’s book takes armchair travelers to some of the most historically significant buildings in Paris and its environs. One highlight is Vincennes, a 14th-century fortress in the Paris suburbs, built by Charles V to protect himself from his own subjects. Caro does a wonderful job of explaining the topical humor in the frescoes which Francis I had painted in the galleries of his Renaissance castle of Fontainebleau, which is a 35-mile day trip from Paris. The reader will get a true understanding of the overlapping layers of French history in the chapter on Compiegne. The remains of a 9th-century castle became a gloomy fortress in the 1400’s, which was remodeled into a neoclassical chateau in the 18th century. Looted during the Revolution, it was elaborately refurnished and restored by Napoleon (prior to crowning himself Emperor). It was also the site where the armistice of World War I was signed in 1918 (Joan of Arc was captured in the village of Compiegne in 1430, but Caro mentions this only briefly). Caro ends her architectural review of Parisian history with Napoleon: Louis Napoleon, nephew of the famous “Petit General”. Elected Emperor himself in 1852, Napoleon III modernized Paris with railways, wide boulevards, improved sewers and clean water and transformed the medieval city of slums into the city of light recognized by tourists today. As much as I love this book, I do recommend reading it with a computer handy, as it has no photos.

“Dawn of the Belle Epoque: the Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau and their friends” is by historian Mary McAuliffe. A prolonged siege of the city and a humiliating defeat in the 1870-1 Franco-Prussian war, followed by a crushing war reparation debt (5 billion francs) and a bloody, two-month uprising by the socialist Communards took a terrible toll on Paris: starvation, economic turmoil, and the execution of tens of thousands of working-class Parisians after the fall of the Paris Commune. But after all this pain, the art scene in Paris exploded. McAuliffe presents those turbulent years through the experiences of some of the greatest artists of modern times: painters like Gauguin, Renoir, Monet, and Degas; sculptors such as Rodin and Bartholdi; musicians like Debussy and Ravel; writers such as Proust, Hugo and Zola, and other creative geniuses like Sarah Bernhardt, Cesar Ritz and Gustave Eiffel. The scope of McAuliffe’s book is fairly broad, since there are so many cultural luminaries to include, and although it is chronologically arranged, each chapter jumps around a little from subject to subject. A background in French history is not necessary to enjoy this book, but a familiarity with arts and literature will definitely help.

“When the World Spoke French”, by Marc Fumaroli, is a difficult book to get through. The premise is simple enough: during the Enlightenment (which Fumaroli dates as 1714-1814), all of Europe looked to France as the center of civilized thought, learning and ideals, and this can be seen by looking at the correspondence between scholars, diplomats and aristocrats of various countries with their French counterparts. In actuality, the book is very dense and the translation from the original French does not seem inspired. However, the trick of learning about history through the words of those who were actually there is always interesting, and Fumaroli’s book will probably appeal to readers with an interest in the social history of language, particularly French.

Regardless of your familiarity with French history, one of these new books should offer some new and interesting information, as well as an insight into traveling, art and language. Beaucoup de bons livres!