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France

Disastrous twilight

14 December 2009
The Dogs and the Wolves Irène Némirovsky, translated by Sandra Smith

Chatto, pp.216, 16.99

With the opening paragraph of The Dogs and the Wolves (first serialised in France in 1939 and never previously translated) Irène Némirovsky takes us to the heart of her story:… Read more

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Mysteries of Paris

11 March 2009
The Chalk Circle Man Fred Vargas, translated by Si

Harvill Secker, pp.247, 12.99

Fred Vargas — nom-de-plume of the French archaeologist and historian Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau — took to writing crime novels in 1991. Among the many unusual aspects of her books is the… Read more

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From palace to cowshed

25 February 2009
Dancing to the Precipice: Lucie de la Tour du Pin and the French Revolution Caroline Moorehead

Chatto & Windus, pp.496, 20

Madame de la Tour du Pin’s Journal d’une Femme de Cinquante Ans, with its vivid descriptions of her experiences during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire, is one of… Read more

Chalk and cheese

26 November 2008
The British in France: Visitors and Residents since the Revolution Peter Thorold

Continuum, pp.273, 30

The British in France: Visitors and Residents since the Revolution, by Peter Thorold Peter Thorold has not written an orthodox history of French and British political cultural and social relations.… Read more

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