A French Book Reading Resource

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jeffers
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby jeffers » Sat Jul 31, 2021 9:18 pm

Carmody wrote:and am greatly enjoying my Bien Dire subscription:
https://biendire.com/fr/magazines-a-l-unite/971-bien-dire-n137.html


I've been tempted by the idea of subscribing to a magazine, in fact I think I subscribed to one for students a few years ago but never read any of it. What do you like about Bien Dire?
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Sun Aug 01, 2021 12:10 am

Bien Dire is excellent. Peter Mollenberg subscribes to it and loves it as well. It provides excellent vocabulary that you are not going to get elsewhere. Peter and I subscribe to just the magazine but it also comes with a CD if you choose that.
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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Sat Aug 07, 2021 8:00 pm

I have been a bit quiet here since I am in the midst of reading Napoleon ou le mythe du saveur by Jean Tulard. At over 450 pages, it is a handful and quite interesting. At the moment I am half way through.

Image

If you know of any good biographies of Napoleon by all means let me know.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby kanewai » Sun Aug 08, 2021 8:13 am

Carmody wrote:I have been a bit quiet here since I am in the midst of reading Napoleon ou le mythe du saveur by Jean Tulard. At over 450 pages, it is a handful and quite interesting. At the moment I am half way through.
Ahh, Napoleon. He will be Exhibit A in my fantasy essay on How learning foreign languages benefits our understanding of history.

I grew up with the standard American version of Napoleon: He was a French general who tried to conquer the world. He was probably just trying to compensate for being short. Luckily the English defeated him at Waterloo and saved Western civilization.

To our European friends: No joke, this really is the standard narrative in the U.S.

I was shocked (shocked, I tell you!) to read French authors like Victor Hugo or Alexandre Dumas who had a much more nuanced view of the man. But he's a bad guy, I used to think, A monster!!! You can't be sympathetic to him! But the more I read, the more I learned.

And then I learned Italian, and encountered an entirely new perspective on Napoleon.

How's the book?
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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:26 pm

Kanewai
I grew up with the standard American version of Napoleon: He was a French general who tried to conquer the world. He was probably just trying to compensate for being short. Luckily the English defeated him at Waterloo and saved Western civilization.

To our European friends: No joke, this really is the standard narrative in the U.S.

I was shocked (shocked, I tell you!) to read French authors like Victor Hugo or Alexandre Dumas who had a much more nuanced view of the man. But he's a bad guy, I used to think, A monster!!! You can't be sympathetic to him! But the more I read, the more I learned.

And then I learned Italian, and encountered an entirely new perspective on Napoleon.

How's the book?


You are absolutely correct! I thought it was just me! Thank you!

Where to begin? This book definitely got me interested in the man and I am learning lots, however, the book is a bit dated or clumsy in many respects. There must be another good biography out there but I can't find it. This author has treated Napoleon's Russian, Egyptian, and Iberian peninsular campaigns very briefly, almost casually.

Napoleon was so very many different things that it is hard to know what to say; everything needs to be qualified. He did so many horrific things and also so many magnificent things that it is still difficult for me to grasp him.

What is a challenge for me right now is that I need to read about Napoleon in the context of the French Revolution. That is a necessity and requires a lot of background reading on my part so as to understand what Napoleon was doing and why. Maybe that is one reason I am struggling with the book

I am only two thirds through the book and would not suggest that others read it due to how it is structured. Writing a one volume book on Napoleon is a challenge for anyone but I think it could be done better.

At this time I would give it a 5/10.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Le Baron » Sun Aug 08, 2021 10:53 pm

I think the main thread running through Napoleon's character is that he was an opportunist - in any way one would like to take that word. He played-up his 'ordinariness' in France whilst being from minor Corsican nobility. He despised the core ideas of the revolution, but adopted it so he could turn it to his vision (then decided it had achieved its aims and had 'ended' on his terms). He played at being a meritocrat, but then crowned himself emperor....etc.
And yet, as you said, he still really was a maker of the modern world with a modern vision. There was a lot of material about Napoleon on France culture in May because it was the 200th anniversary of his death. I consumed quite a few articles/podcasts.

Please give us your evaluation of the book on completion, I'd be interested to know.
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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Mon Aug 09, 2021 1:49 am

I am neither for nor against Napoleon as of this time. I am learning about him and find that he changed over time from someone who espoused the values of Rousseau and Robespierre when young to someone who was perfectly comfortable at crowning himself emperor in his advanced years. He died at 52 years of age.

Was he an opportunist? Sure. Most people are. We have to take advantage of our situations to survive.

At this point in my learning process I see him as a person who was:

1-A genius who accomplished so very much on so many different fronts. Our George Washington of that era could have learned lots from him.

2-Initiated many very useful policies for France that have lasted to today.
https://www.dummies.com/education/history/world-history/napoleon-bonapartes-lasting-contributions/

3-Committed horrible atrocities in his many wars.

So at this time I see him as having many parts or sides and can't judge him as good or bad but rather having both. He morphed or shape-shifted over time.
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Le Baron » Mon Aug 09, 2021 1:58 am

Does it say in the book that he espoused Rousseau? I don't think he ever supported the views of the philosophes/encyclopédistes as intellectual architects of the spirit of the revolution.

We don't all have to be opportunists. We can choose to be, which may weigh on our conscience (or not). I see Napoleon as a sort of semi-benevolent Machiavellian.

Anyway, I'll shut up and let you finish the book. :)
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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:56 pm

Le Baron »
Does it say in the book that he espoused Rousseau? I don't think he ever supported the views of the philosophes/encyclopédistes as intellectual architects of the spirit of the revolution.

Page 63: As a young man training in the military he did write:
O Rousseau, pourquoi faut-il que tu n'aies vécu que soixante ans! Pour l'ntérêt de la vertu tu eusses dû être immortel!
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Carmody
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Re: A French Book Reading Resource

Postby Carmody » Wed Aug 11, 2021 8:50 pm

The following debate may be of interest to people interested in Napoleon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxQ4TcTcPbI
Last edited by Carmody on Thu Aug 12, 2021 12:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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