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mrs_bonaventure's review against another edition
3.0
A good basic race through 2000 years of French history, setting out the main timeline and events. I enjoyed it but also found it massively frustrating in places that the author didn’t provide much context or analysis. I understood what happened, but much less why it happened. I guess this is a good place to start and explore further.
jeremiah042's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
Love it.
pocketvolcano's review against another edition
5.0
This book was published in 2018, the same year that Norwich passed away. Learning he had passed saddened me as he’s one of my favorite authors. Especially in this book, he infused his writings with a wit and humor and a frankness that I loved. His love for France shone in this tome. I learned so much reading it, and it amazed me at how interconnected the histories of France and Britain really are. Fantastic book. Rest well Mr. Norwich.
alliepeduto's review against another edition
4.0
It’s is rare to find a history book that is both informative and funny in equal parts, but the late John Julius Norwich has undoubtedly pulled it off. I generally take pride in my overall knowledge of European history, but this book rightly put me in my place. I didn’t even know that there was a Second French Empire, to be perfectly honest; post Revolution to WWI I knew absolutely nothing about. Luckily that’s why I read this book! I highly recommend to anyone who is interested is high-level French history. It is (relatively) short and presents the facts in a concise (and often very funny) way. Certainly it is a testament to the author’s expansive knowledge and love for the French that this book is as wonderful as it is.
justin_vest's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
This is a well-written informative history that doesn't require a lot of pre-existing knowledge to follow unlike other histories I've picked up. I learned a lot from this particulate book as well as used it to find topics I want to read more about. The focus is heavily on French rulers and other leaders and the major sociopolitical events surrounding them. The biggest cons are the author's sympathies towards rulers who were clearly terrible people and, at best, a non-critical eye toward the impact of colonialism. There are a number of anecdotes and commentary that are sexist and racist in the subtle way you'd expect from an old, well-to-do white man. So, while I would have preferred a more leftist take on French history, this was the book available at the library. The other con was a lack of chapter titles that give context for what they will be about, although it is laid out in chronological order and each chapter includes the dates it will cover so someone with better knowledge of the historical timeline would have better luck skipping around to chapters of interest.
ajthenerd1123581321's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.0
lilac_rose's review against another edition
3.0
Norwich clearly loves France. However there are some historical inaccuracies e.g. napoleon height. There is also the case that this book would likely have been better as two books. As in its current condensed form it is confusing in parts and overwhelming in others.
crankylibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
It requires a foolhardy self-confidence to condense 2000 years of history into a mere 400 pages; to do so with clarity, charm and a slightly salacious sense of humor borders on genius. Norwich's quip worthy “political history” is a mad dash through France’s Greatest Hits: Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, Francis I, Henri IV and his one mass, a succession of Louis, The Revolution, Napoleon, Dreyfus, The Somme, Vichy, De Gaulle, and The Resistance. While he offers helpful guidance on the fractious political squabbles among Valois and Bourbons, Jacobins and Royalists, and pro and anti Dreyfusards; he is far more interested in personalities than politics. Hence his focus on the two larger than life rulers who defined French cultural dominance:
But civilization, must in the long run, be more important than economics...No civilization obviously can be ascribed to a single man or even to a single cause but the fact that France’s two highest points to date coincides with its two most dazzling rulers, Francis I and Louis XIV surely suggests that there may be some connection; that the effulgence of a great monarch may somehow fertilise and irradiate the genius of his subjects. (p. 174)
Perhaps...although the epilogue’s racist lament for culturally improving colonialism gives one pause, as do the multitudinous and admiring asides about royal mistresses, making this the rare historical monograph with R rated footnotes. You will learn a lot from this book, but as with such Gallic delicacies as snails and raw oysters, it leaves one feeling a bit queasy.
"I drove along the the West African coast from Abidjan to Lagos. Though Independence had come it was still very much the colonial world..The difference between Ghana and Nigeria (formerly British) and the others (formerly French) was astonishing. In Abidjan and Lome (Togo) I had delicious lunches of truite aux amandes the trout having been flown in from Marseilles the night before; there were delightful cafes populated largely by the French who had stayed on sipping Pernods and Camparis in their immaculately cut shirts and shorts. And how well I remember my spirits dipping as I approached the Nigerian frontier, staffed by an enormous Nigerian lady in bulging khaki uniform, sitting at a rickety wooden table ringed with circles left by brimming tankards--she was halfway through one herself-- and doing the football pools. Oh, dear, I thought , oh dear."
But civilization, must in the long run, be more important than economics...No civilization obviously can be ascribed to a single man or even to a single cause but the fact that France’s two highest points to date coincides with its two most dazzling rulers, Francis I and Louis XIV surely suggests that there may be some connection; that the effulgence of a great monarch may somehow fertilise and irradiate the genius of his subjects. (p. 174)
Perhaps...although the epilogue’s racist lament for culturally improving colonialism gives one pause, as do the multitudinous and admiring asides about royal mistresses, making this the rare historical monograph with R rated footnotes. You will learn a lot from this book, but as with such Gallic delicacies as snails and raw oysters, it leaves one feeling a bit queasy.
"I drove along the the West African coast from Abidjan to Lagos. Though Independence had come it was still very much the colonial world..The difference between Ghana and Nigeria (formerly British) and the others (formerly French) was astonishing. In Abidjan and Lome (Togo) I had delicious lunches of truite aux amandes the trout having been flown in from Marseilles the night before; there were delightful cafes populated largely by the French who had stayed on sipping Pernods and Camparis in their immaculately cut shirts and shorts. And how well I remember my spirits dipping as I approached the Nigerian frontier, staffed by an enormous Nigerian lady in bulging khaki uniform, sitting at a rickety wooden table ringed with circles left by brimming tankards--she was halfway through one herself-- and doing the football pools. Oh, dear, I thought , oh dear."