No comments about Cycling in the French Alps (Cycling Guides Series).

5 comments about A Writer's Paris.

1. After reading Eric's wonderful book Sleep Thinking & having my writing improve a millionfold because of it, I joined Eric's Yahoo!Group newsletter. He's talked about this book. It didn't do a "thing" for me because I really hate Paris. But his other books have helped sooo much, I keep reading his newsletter.
   
   His latest one said:
   
   >>When an editor buys a book from you that in her mind is in the inspirational" category, it can be decidedly hard for you to slip material into the book that is controversial and meaty.
   
   Although A Writer's Paris is an "inspirational book," in the sense that it is meant to inspire you to go to Paris and write, I also wanted to talk about class and privilege, religious opposition to scientific thought, and other "non-inspirational" matters. I tucked in several such essays and wondered how many would make the final cut.
   
   Some of these meaty essays made it into the book and some did not. ...
   
   I am pleased that pieces like Privilege and the Place Vendome, Gay Mayors, and Darwin's Wife made it into the finished product.<<
   
   To me, those "meaty essays" sound like they are talking about what Fiction is really all about.
   
   I just wish all of them had been included.
   
   Maybe Eric will write a "meaty essays" book someday.



2. A Writer's Paris proves inspirational, whether or not you're planning to go to Paris or if you've already visited the city where many artists go to create. Not only does Maisel describe life as a writer on a Paris sojourn, but also the activities for a writer to do for inspiration.
   
   Substitute the places in Paris for the ones in your hometown or country you plan to visit to write. While the book has recommendations for places to stay, along with a planning checklist, information on where to go, and other resources, its content provides plenty of inspiration and ideas that work anywhere.
   
   While the book's purpose is to encourage writers to take a Sabbatical in Paris, it also easily inspires and motivates readers to create more and writer better. Maisel happens to use Paris as the central location for the book's theme taking time-out for deep exploration for writing. Paris or no Paris -- writers can glean many things from this original book.
   
   Topics include writing books in three weeks, taking the bad with the good, practicing the art of strolling, dealing with and appreciating the absurd, making the cafe a home, overcoming barriers, engaging your senses, and more. The writing is superb and flows lyrically with the illustrations adding the feeling of going on a journey while reading the book.



3. In a rare combination of travelogue and writer's guide, Maisel speaks directly to every writer who values calm surroundings as well as a calm state of mind in order to write. Part tour guide, and part writing coach, Maisel takes the reader on the journey he promises in the subtitle.



4. I must admit to purchasing this because Danny Gregory did some of the illustrations. That said, as I read I became intrigued with what I could learn about my own compulsion, and sometimes strong commitment, to painting. Although the star of this show seems to be Paris, the lessons about turning away from other preoccupations and just getting to it, no matter where you are, can be applied to any location. Instilling discipline in a routine, albeit one that is wrapped in time and self-permission, is a strong central message. I liked the practicality of many suggestions and the devil-may-care attitude of others.



5. To follow in the footsteps of Simone de Beauvoir and F. Scott Fitzgerald.... in Paris ... a how-to guide for those bent on a Gaullist literary retreat into the city that spawned many literary masterpieces. Don't forget the cigarettes, the lattes, and of course ... your French Berlitz language book.

5 comments about Something to Declare: Essays on France and French Culture.

1. "Something to Declare" is a clever title for a book about travel abroad; but, beyond its opening pages, that's not what this book is about. "Essays on France" is an equally misleading subtitle, for the book's erudite essays (beyond the opening chapter) are not on France but on a narrow selection of French writers and related movers and shakers, and one fictional character: Madame Bovary. After a fast-paced, dazzling opening sequence, hilariously describing the teen-aged Barnes' first encounters across the English Channel, we slow down to pick through some highlights in the lives of some of the top French authors, poets, filmmakers and other cultural icons, eventually easing to a crawl through exhaustive detail regarding the author's main interest, Flaubert and his world. If Madame Bovary is your cup of tea, you may enjoy steeping yourself further in Barnes. For me it was just too much.



2. Barnes's collection falls into two halves. The first is a collection of pieces that might be said to have a French theme: a review and appreciation of Edith Wharton's account of a car journey taken through France, a piece of French songsters of the sixties, a very entertaining look at the perils of the Tour de France. The second half is nearly all given over to Flaubert, Barnes's obsession. The essays on the great writer are fascinating, especially those centered around his correspondence. Barnes's love for the writer and the man is contagious. I had no great enthusiasm for Flaubert, despite having loved Barnes's 'Flaubert's Parrot', but since reading this book I have read 'Madame Bovary' with a great deal of pleasure and have begun looking into the correspondence. All the essays are scrupulously and stylishly written and are worth reading for the prose alone.



3. Firstly, I did not gather all this book had to offer, as I do not have the knowledge that Mr. Barnes requires regarding French popular music of decades ago, including Georges Brassens, Boris Vian and Jacques Brel, and other topics that can only be fully appreciated if you have previous knowledge of them. Another example is his detailed discussion of French Cinema, again, hard to appreciate fully without prior and extensive knowledge. As a testament to his writing skill and style, these barriers did not keep me from reading every bit of this book. Unfortunately I had to read many parts as a novice, but his talent as a writer makes that effort an easy one to make.

   There are many essays that will appeal to a wide audience, Edith Wharton, the Tour de France, Henry James, and his discourses on the writers George Sand, Victor Hugo, Stephane Mallarme, and Ivan Turgenev. No book such as this by Mr. Barnes would even be contemplated without a large portion being devoted to Gustave Flaubert, his friends, his actions, and the world he lived in and created. Flaubert is the basis for Mr. Barnes to explore the role of biography, the selective use of historical fact, personal papers, and the revisionist methods that can be employed when even identical source material is used to document the same individual. When Mr. Barnes makes an appearance in the book it is a picture of him standing by the final resting place of his much loved topic, the final resting place of Flaubert.

   The topics I mention are not even close to an exhaustive list of the material that is covered. I have read virtually all of the books and essays that Mr. Barnes has published, and this book is decidedly unique. The book falls short of 300 pages only because the author chose to keep it dense. A slightly more verbose pen could easily have doubled the size of the book. You will likely spend more time on these 279 pages than you generally do, whether with Mr. Barnes or another author.

   A very different book from a brilliant mind and very talented observer and writer, just be prepared for a very new experience from him this time around. He has not taken his readers on a trip like this before.




4. The title of this book, as you can see, is "Something To Declare: Essays on France and French Culture." The blurbs on the back of my trade paperback version enthusiastically support this title. However, only a quarter of the pages of this book are devoted to a discussion of "France and French culture." The rest are spent on the very specific topics of particular French artists and authors, most particularly Flaubert and things related to Flaubert. Given that artists and authors often make a point of setting themselves apart from their cultural milieu (especially most if not all of the ones Barnes writes about) and are often, at a minimum, a bit out of touch with the reality of the world around them, writings on these folks can hardly be deemed to reflect "French culture," as promised by the title. Barnes is, of course, perfectly entitled to publish a book composed of these elements; however, it would be nice if the title and blurbs made it clearer that that is what he is doing, for those of us poor unenlightened souls who do not go into a swoon every time we see or hear the name Flaubert -- for those of us who, in fact, would be perfectly happy for the rest of our lives if we could avoid anything more than infrequent passing references to Flaubert. Simply put, the title does not fairly represent the major part of what is in the book. If you are looking for a book on France and French culture, you can do much, much better with your reading time and money. Moreover, the essays that are not general in nature assume an intimate, detailed knowledge of Flaubert and his writing. If you do not have such an intimate, ready-at-your-fingertips, working knowledge, you will often not know what Barnes is referring to and will consequently have no hope of understanding the point he is trying to make, even if you hang in there and read the whole thing, as I did. These essays are intended for an audience of initiates; reading them in a book like this that purports to address a much more general topic will just leave you feeling like an outsider to the club. Oh, and it will be even worse for you if you fail to hold the belief that "Madame Bovary" is worth intense worship as one of the greatest things to ever have come along, both before and after the advent of sliced bread.



5. Julian Barnes is probably the British writer most associated with French influence over his literature. Most of his novels are influenced by France in one way or another, especially his acclaimed 1984 masterpiece, Flaubert's Parrot.
   
   In the introduction to these essays, Barnes traces his personal affiliation with France. From nervous childhood holidays with his parents, to his immersion in French language and culture while studying Languages at Oxford, ending with a 1997 trip across the Channel to deliver the ashes of his parents. He cheerfully admits a bias towards French culture over his native Anglo-Saxon and this fact permeates the essays here.
   
   The first part of the book features a range of essays on obscure French singers, the film director Francois Truffaut, Elizabeth David's cookery writing and, best of all, a lenghty piece on drug taking in the Tour de France.
   
   In the second half of the book, the emphasis shifts to Flaubert, Barnes's self professed literary idol. The essays span the full range of Flaubert's life and his associations: his biographers, his mistresses, his relationship with other writers and film versions of Madame Bovary. Flaubert was given extensive fictional treatment in 'Flaubert's Parrot' and these pieces perhaps read like a reworking of the research notes for that novel.
   
   Unlike most wannabe British continentals who think that to become au fait with European Culture one just has to eat at The River Cafe and take the occasional jaunt to Paris or Rome, Barnes has clearly read many pages of French literature and watched many metres of film. His depth and range of knowledge is impressive and the style is (as with all Barnes's writings) erudite, crisp and piercingly intelligent.

No comments about The Garden at Chatsworth: The Duchess of Devonshire.

5 comments about Scum of the Earth.

1. There are so many people in our society who do things for their own pleasure which are likely to get them thrown into prison that it is difficult for me to picture a prison in which most of the prisoners have a long history of being locked up because of their political activities. The Epilogue of this book, in the form of a letter to Colonel Blimp, complains of an economic order which "reminds one of a certain goose which, instead of golden eggs, lays a time bomb every day and then settles down to hatch it. But all this need not disturb you." (p. 250) The section called Purgatory starts on October 2nd, 1939, with Koestler getting out of a bathtub and wrapping himself in a towel to answer the door, only to have the police ask him, "Have you a gun on you?" (p. 63) The book is full of details, and the pages that are most chilling for me are 94 and 95. "We were two thousand in the camp of Vernet. The average time each of us had spent in jail or internment was eighteen months. . . . If somebody screamed at night in our barrack, we knew he had dreamt of the Gestapo." When Koestler wrote this book, "of its 2000 prisoners only about fifty have been released; . . . and the camp is under the control of the Gestapo."



2. The book itself is interseting, beceause it describes how many situations a man can experience during wartime. How the idyllic countryside life changes into the terror of a concentration camp, and then into a desperate fight against the bureacracy. I am pleased to recommend this book to everybody, who is not only interested in cheap thrillers.......



3. This is the history that France would rather forget, despite claims that the account was part fictionalised it nonetheless reveals disturbing tendencies in pre-German invasion France that were to aid the Nazi occupation and also create the Vichy regime. Anti-Communist and anti-Jewish tendencies, he claims were spreading through France at the time, and leading some people there to believe that German occupation may have been a necessary evil to purge France of left wing and Jewish elements. Koestler also documents the xenophobia spreading through the country...

   Koestler and others were put into camps by the French. Koestler himself was partly a refugee fleeing the Nazis who killed other parts of his family in Hungary and Austria. Being an ex-Communist, led him into suspicion both by the French authorities and the Communists themselves. Koestler was to experience other traumas after this, notably being imprisoned in Franco's Spain (documented in his book "Spanish Testament"). "The Homeless Mind" is the only modern biography of Koestler I'm aware of and should be available from this stockist... and talks of this fascinating and intelligent but sometimes stupid and brutal man.




4. Arthur Koestler's memoir about his experiences during the beginning of the Second World War is interesting from a historical standpoint. Koestler finds himself all over Europe, in and out of internment camps, encountering people from all over of all classes. Koestler's experience is interesting because the way he was treated was not the norm, it was the product of his unique background and situation, but it still represents the wide range of possible experiences during this historically uncertain time. The level that it succeeds on most, however, is a personal one. Koestler is a damn witty, talented author, who knows how to tell a story. Despite the subject matter he finds much work with. One can't help but smile at he way he describes the inbreed locals of a small village or the way he personifies his car. As interesting as the historical and stylistic elements is his description of himself (clearly a flawed man with a drinking problem) and his unlikely relationship with a younger woman he wasn't meant to end up with. It may be a comparatively obscure piece of literature, but it's certainly one worth reading.



5. ONE of the greatest books to come out of the second world war now carries a tragic irony. The reverberations of its author's suicide in 1983 spill over into one's reading of it.
   
   In 1939, Koestler was living in the South of France working on Darkness At Noon. Moving to Paris to enlist with the Allies he was, along with thousands of others who had fought Fascism around Europe, imprisoned as an undesirable alien. Life in the camp, which German emigres testified to being comparable with Dachau, is illuminated by a writer whose humanity, optimism and intelligence shine on every page.

1 comments about Corsica 4 (Regional Guide).

1. I was traveling in Corsica summer 2001. I had bought this guide and the Insight guide about Corsica. Together they was a very good match.

   LP's book have a good diving and walking section. The walking section covers the famous GR20 route in particular. The diving section contains a lot about the diving possibilities and where the best dives are.

   There are a lot of small villages in Corsica. Many of them is not mentioned in LP. So don't forget to explore.

5 comments about The Most Beautiful Villages of France (Most Beautiful Villages).

1. This is my third copy of this book. I give it as gifts to everyone I love. I live the dream with a home in Turenne (the picture on the cover) My aim is to visit every single one of these exceptional villages.
   
   The book is beautifully illustrated, and the text has the essence of each village exactly. It whets one's appetite to see The Most Beautiful Villages of France.



2. Yes, the villages in this book are beautiful, but having been to France several times, I was a bit disappointed that the photos in this book are all relatively similar. Although some of the photos and descriptions are impressive, this book could have provided more intimate or unique photos of the villages and shops as well as more interesting prose.



3. This is a thoroughly enjoyable and easy reading book. The authors take you through rural France and anyone who has visited there can identify with it. The process of social and cultural acclimmatization is both facinating and entertaining.



4. I have five of these ''Most Beautiful..." books, and have to say there is something of a problem with this particular book. Many of the images here seem to lack any real black tones in them, and consequently lack depth. It is not because they are meant to look misty and atmospheric, it is simply something missing either in the original photography or in the printing. Compared to the images in "The Most Beautiful Towns of England", for example, where the images are pin sharp and full of contrast, they are simply not as well produced.
   
   Still worth the money if you want to see some of the villages here, but there is little within quite as alluring as the cover photo, in my opinion.



5. Dominique Reperant's "village" has fewer than 1,050 inhabitants and he defines "most beautiful" as most preserved. So it's no surprise that his photographic essay that explored even the tiniest corners of France resulted in a collection of impressive shots that showcase France's roots in the medieval middle ages. And while the coffe table sized book will serve as a pleasurable souvenir of a trip into the French countryside, I was considerably underwhelmed with the quality of the photographs. They have a frustrating sameness of style and composition from photograph to photograph that failed to capture the distinctness of each town and enormous variation in the geographical settings of the towns from region to region. And, if there was a rationale to the order in which the towns were presented, it escaped me entirely.
   
   A nice memory to be sure but certainly not a book that I would categorize as so stunning that it would prompt an armchair traveller into booking a trip on the next available flight to France.
   
   Paul Weiss

No comments about Paris (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

No comments about Gascony, the Pyrenees & Toulouse, 5th (Country & Regional Guides - Cadogan).

No comments about Michelin Green Guide Wine Regions of France.