A language learners’ forum

Carmody wrote:I would be most grateful to hear any suggestions people might have for a single volume biography in French on
...Napoleon.

Thank you.

Ironically, I suspect you won't find a short book in French about Napoleon.

Carmody wrote:I would be most grateful to hear any suggestions people might have for a single volume biography in French on
...Napoleon.

Thank you.

Which one?

• Napoleon I (Bonaparte) from 1804 - 1814
• Napoleon II (Son of Napoleon I) ruled for one month in 1815
• Napoleon III (Nephew of Napoleon I) ruled from 1852 - 1870.

I suspect a book about the second one will be really short! Here are some I found (free) in various formats.

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/37050
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30604
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12230


I found 5-6 on Amazon.fr one was on Kindle, so should be easy to get.

Many thanks Rick.

This book on Napoleon Bonaparte
https://www.amazon.com/Napoleon-Life-Andrew-Roberts/dp/0143127853?asin=0143127853&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1
would appear to be excellent but I think it is only in English.

One more for everyone's consideration: Patrick Modiano, Dora Bruder (1997).

This is more of an extended meditation piece than a straight-forward history. Patrick Modiano saw a missing-person's notice in a 1941 edition of Paris-Soir about a young teenage runaway, Dora Bruder. Over the years he collected what little information he could find about her and her family. There's not much - a school report, a few police reports, and then her name appears on a deportation list.

Modiano spends a lot of time walking the streets she once walked. He also draws comparisons between his rebellious youth and hers - but Modiano was a teenage rebel in 1960s Paris, and Doris Bruder was a Jewish teenage rebel in Nazi-occupied 1940s Paris. Modiano later won the Nobel Prize for literature. Bruder was sent to the camps.

It's a haunting read.

^ Thanks for the recommendation, I hadn't heard of this. It sounds fascinating as a premise. I'm going to look it up.

kanewai

Many thanks for the review. However you did not say what you thought of it; could you possibly give it a rating?

I read his Un Pedigree about 3 years ago and found it quite plodding and tedious.

Many thanks.

Carmody wrote:kanewai

Many thanks for the review. However you did not say what you thought of it; could you possibly give it a rating?

I read his Un Pedigree about 3 years ago and found it quite plodding and tedious.

Many thanks.

I'm not much for ratings. I liked this book. It was similar in style to his novels, and he is focused more on atmosphere than plot. This was a bit more grounded in reality than the other two I read, Dans le café de la jeunesse perdue and Rue des Boutiques Obscures. I think Modiano is worth reading, at least once - though Un pedigree sounds less interesting than his novels.

Thanks for the comments. I am always sad when I can't appreciate books that others do.

Carmody wrote:Thanks for the comments. I am always sad when I can't appreciate books that others do.

That seems to be me and Spanish lit. But different things speak to different people.

Just a reminder to people that I have not drifted away.

I recently reread a wonderful book Eric Emmanuel Schmitt Night of fire
https://www.amazon.com/Nuit-Feu-grand-format-French/dp/2226318291

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

(my apologies to all for not posting the images; i do try but they never work out.)