France: An Adventure History

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There is the memoir of the English girl who became an actual friend of Napoleon Bonaparte’s during his final captivity on St.

Along the way, readers will find the usual faces, events and themes of French history - Louis XIV, the French Revolution, the French Resistance, the Tour de France - but all presented in a shining new light. I want to know more about the scandal of the Murder of Madame Bovary, more theories into The Tree at the Center of France, or simply more recounts of Robb’s own stories of visiting the hidden parts of France. Part travelogue and part essay, this is a lively and thought-provoking homage to the complex and inimitable country that is France.

Dream and romance have conditioned myriad encounters with Venice across the centuries, but the city's story embodies another kind of experience altogether - the hard reality of an independent state built on conquest, profit and entitlement and on the toughness and resilience of a free people. He talks about why the southeast is more violent than other parts of the country; how anti-clericalism existed long before, and after, the Revolution; and why the country’s obsession with Paris’s predominance from the 12th century to the present was in part the result of how much writing about France --- literary, historiographical, legal --- emanated from the City of Light. When I read it again – and I will read this book again – I might jump into one of the later essays first.

Everything about Venice,' observed Lord Byron, 'is, or was, extraordinary - her aspect is like a dream, and her history is like a romance. I could do without the last quarter of the book’s pages comprising excessively copious notes and references. What he has done in this informative and hugely entertaining book is to interest himself in an generally unknown area, open it up and relate it to the broader history of France. Original, knowledgeable and endlessly entertaining, France: An Adventure History is an unforgettable journey through France from the first century BC to the present day.His style is not straightforward, but that of a curious vagabond slash ADHD explorer who cannot stick to one thing in particular. Frequently hilarious, always surprising, this is a a vivid, living history of one of the world’s most fascinating nations, it will make even seasoned Francophiles wonder if they really know that terra incognita which is currently referred to as ‘France’. His 2007 book The Discovery of France won both the Duff Cooper and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prizes. FRANCE is an entertaining, though demanding, history of France, from the first-century BC to the present day.

Even with the helpful maps and a massive list of notes and references (which constitute nearly one-third of the hefty book), readers might appreciate the stories more if they have a ready understanding of French history, geography, and language. The book is divided into key periods in French history as a starting point with intersections of Robb's adventures in that part of the region. who, what, why, and how of religious wars, of the French Revolution, of the Tour de France and modern-day protests, of the French love of nature, to name a few topics covered by Robb. This is a fairly ambitious book, covering a huge amount of time in an attempt to give an impression of the whole history of France as a nation.I felt he was trying too hard to project his own erudition: his lofty style and insistence on focusing on the obscure ignored the reader, like the elitist Professor burdened with chairing a tutorial for lowly undergraduates that he considers, frankly, beneath him and unworthy of his time. ambitious and original' - The Times_____Original, knowledgeable and endlessly entertaining, France: An Adventure History is an unforgettable journey through France from the first century BC to the present day. Over the course of her first year, she is welcomed into the rhythms and routines that characterise life at the edge of the world.