A French Book Reading Resource

[Carmody]

I have found the above exchange with katsu fun and look forward to his further readings.

On the off chance that someone else out there shares my interests, I am going to mention a book that I have just started to read and hope someone might like to join in.

The book is ............non-fiction.....for a change and is called L'Étrange Défaite . It is written by a Resistance fighter who was caught, tortured, and executed.

The author of the book is Marc Bloch. The book was published in 1946; Bloch was tortured and executed by the Gestapo in June 1944 for his participation in the French resistance.

His life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bloch shows him to be a historian and teacher of the Annales school.

I am a student of history and am very interested why it is that France lost out in both WWI and WWII. I am hoping the book will give me an idea as to the answers.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join me.

[MorkTheFiddle]

I have found the above exchange with katsu fun and look forward to his further readings.

On the off chance that someone else out there shares my interests, I am going to mention a book that I have just started to read and hope someone might like to join in.

The book is ............non-fiction.....for a change and is called L'Étrange Défaite . It is written by a Resistance fighter who was caught, tortured, and executed.

The author of the book is Marc Bloch. The book was published in 1946; Bloch was tortured and executed by the Gestapo in June 1944 for his participation in the French resistance.

His life https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Bloch shows him to be a historian and teacher of the Annales school.

I am a student of history and am very interested why it is that France lost out in both WWI and WWII. I am hoping the book will give me an idea as to the answers.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to join me.

Histories of the Gestapo disturb me too much to read about them. After I finished, for example, La Suite Française and finding out the author died in a concentration camp, I could read no more of her work. However, I look forward to your comments about the Bloch book (sorry ). From what little I know, Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel brought something new and interesting to the table of historians.
As for France, how do you mean France lost out in WWI? If memory serves, it did suffer more material and personnel damage than any other of the belligerants, but does that mean it lost out?
We have a military historian in our membership. Perhaps he will chip in, too.

[Carmody]

Histories of the Gestapo disturb me too much to read about them. After I finished, for example, La Suite Française and finding out the author died in a concentration camp, I could read no more of her work. However, I look forward to your comments about the Bloch book (sorry ). From what little I know, Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel brought something new and interesting to the table of historians.
As for France, how do you mean France lost out in WWI? If memory serves, it did suffer more material and personnel damage than any other of the belligerants, but does that mean it lost out?
We have a military historian in our membership. Perhaps he will chip in, too.

Many thanks; good points all..
1-Yes I saw La Suite Française; totally chilling.

2-Yes, Bloch and Braudel are of the Annales school of historians.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annales_school

Braudel, I am quite familiar with but this is a first time for me for Bloch.

See:
Franco-Prussian_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War

WWI

It must be baldly stated: Germany would have won World War I had the U.S. Army not intervened in France in 1918. The French and British were barely hanging on in 1918. By year-end 1917, France had lost 3 million men in the war, Britain 2 million. The French army actually mutinied in 1917, half of its demoralized combat divisions refusing to attack the Germans. The British fared little better in 1917, losing 800,000 casualties in the course of a year that climaxed with the notorious three-month assault on the muddy heights of Passchendaele, where 300,000 British infantry fell to gain just two miles of ground.

https://time.com/5406235/everything-you-know-about-how-world-war-i-ended-is-wrong/

Allow me to repeat: I love France and its country and its culture and think they are magnificent. I just do not know why a country that I love and respect so much has to lose wars so much.

[Lysander]

Histories of the Gestapo disturb me too much to read about them. After I finished, for example, La Suite Française and finding out the author died in a concentration camp, I could read no more of her work. However, I look forward to your comments about the Bloch book (sorry ). From what little I know, Marc Bloch and Fernand Braudel brought something new and interesting to the table of historians.
As for France, how do you mean France lost out in WWI? If memory serves, it did suffer more material and personnel damage than any other of the belligerants, but does that mean it lost out?
We have a military historian in our membership. Perhaps he will chip in, too.

Many thanks; good points all..
1-Yes I saw La Suite Française; totally chilling.

2-Yes, Bloch and Braudel are of the Annales school of historians.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annales_school

Braudel, I am quite familiar with but this is a first time for me for Bloch.

See:
Franco-Prussian_War
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War

WWI

It must be baldly stated: Germany would have won World War I had the U.S. Army not intervened in France in 1918. The French and British were barely hanging on in 1918. By year-end 1917, France had lost 3 million men in the war, Britain 2 million. The French army actually mutinied in 1917, half of its demoralized combat divisions refusing to attack the Germans. The British fared little better in 1917, losing 800,000 casualties in the course of a year that climaxed with the notorious three-month assault on the muddy heights of Passchendaele, where 300,000 British infantry fell to gain just two miles of ground.

https://time.com/5406235/everything-you-know-about-how-world-war-i-ended-is-wrong/

Allow me to repeat: I love France and its country and its culture and think they are magnificent. I just do not know why a country that I love and respect so much has to lose wars so much.

I guess it depends who you ask on that last sentence:

From Wiki on France's military history says:

...out of all recorded conflicts which occurred since the year 387 BC, France has fought in 168 of them, won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10; thus making France the most successful military power in European history.

Also, here is a random list organizing by wins and losses:
https://www.militaryfactory.com/battles ... tories.asp

Note, this is a tongue-in-cheek post, but it does seem odd to count an allied victory as a loss. After all, no historian counts WWII as an Axis victory in spite of all their battlefield successes.

[kanewai]

On Zola ...

I never did finish Au bonheur des dames. I absolutely loved the world Zola painted, of the dying small shops and the new glamorous department stores. The romance at the center of the story didn't do anything for me either, though, and I lost interest. I'm with you, 7.5 /10 seems fair.

Germinal was something else altogether. It was a struggle to get through, and I thought I would never finish. And yet it was truly epic, and I'm glad I pushed through to the end. Easily a 9 / 10 for me - not one of the world's absolutely greatest books, but a strong contender. For me the style didn't soar either, but I think that's due to me not being a native speaker. French people have told me that his writing style is formal but brilliant. Unlike, say, Balzac (somewhere there's a quote about him telling great stories, it's too bad he can't write - but I can't remember who said it). I'd say Zola is worth a second look. At one point I wanted to read all the Rougon-Macquart books - but now that just seems exhausting.

[MorkTheFiddle]

On Zola ...

I'd say Zola is worth a second look. At one point I wanted to read all the Rougon-Macquart books - but now that just seems exhausting.

Okay, you might have a point, so challenge accepted. Though not with Germinal. I'm going to try a preliminary bout having another go at La Bête humaine, and will go from there.

[katsu]

I've finally finished Au bonheur des dames, and I think I'm pretty much in agreement with everyone else. Loved the world-building, and I enjoyed the "plucky heroine fighting to make it in the big city" story that occupied the first half of the novel, but once the focus shifted to the main character's romance with a man who was constantly sexually harassing her, I lost interest. I'd give it a 7/10, but I'm still interested in reading more Zola at some point.

I'm currently reading Flaubert's Trois Contes, and after that I'm thinking about plunging into some Victor Hugo.

[Carmody]

katsu,

Thanks so much for your thoughtful responses.

Mouret seemed like a Jeffrey Epstein personification; do you think? Like he was obsessed. I think some of the book was censored at the time due to the sex parts, although I am not sure where.

[guyome]

(...) I'm still interested in reading more Zola at some point.

If you're looking for a title, L'Assommoir is a great (though definitely not uplifting) work, one of my favorite Zola books.

[Carmody]

I always like to prepare for the choice of my next book to read; it is part of the fun of my reading books in French. I have just started L'Étrange Défaite by Bloch and it will be a long time before I can read my next book. But does anyone have suggestions for me for a next book which is not sci-fi, murder mystery, detective, or bande dessinée, and..... which is written by a French author in the 20th or 21st century.

What I would really like is to find a contemporary French writer who is not depressing but rather interesting and fun. I am not sure if there are any French authors like that out there but I would sure love to find them. Amélie Nothomb is a zany and totally different kind of author that I really like but I don't think there is anyone out there like her. Françoise Mallet-Joris, Francois Sagan, and M. Barbery were also good and interesting reads.

Many thanks to all.