The Discovery of France | 
|  | | | Title: | The Discovery of France | | Author: | Graham Robb | | Publisher: | W. W. Norton | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | 06 October, 2008 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0393333647 / 9780393333640 | | List Price: | $17.95 | | You Save: | $5.74 | | Amazon Price: | $12.21 | |
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| Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
"A witty, engaging narrative style....[Robb's] approach is particularly engrossing."—New York Times Book Review, front-page review
A narrative of exploration—full of strange landscapes and even stranger inhabitants—that explains the enduring fascination of France. While Gustave Eiffel was changing the skyline of Paris, large parts of France were still terra incognita. Even in the age of railways and newspapers, France was a land of ancient tribal divisions, prehistoric communication networks, and pre-Christian beliefs. French itself was a minority language.
Graham Robb describes that unknown world in arresting narrative detail. He recounts the epic journeys of mapmakers, scientists, soldiers, administrators, and intrepid tourists, of itinerant workers, pilgrims, and herdsmen with their millions of migratory domestic animals. We learn how France was explored, charted, and colonized, and how the imperial influence of Paris was gradually extended throughout a kingdom of isolated towns and villages.
The Discovery of France explains how the modern nation came to be and how poorly understood that nation still is today. Above all, it shows how much of France—past and present—remains to be discovered. A New York Times Notable Book, Publishers Weekly Best Book, Slate Best Book, and Booklist Editor's Choice. 16 pages of illustrations.
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Customer Reviews:
• It's A Ramble 14 June, 2008
Robb has generated a book which taught me much about a place I know little--France beyond Paris. The book seems a compilation of provincial lore and wisdom accumulated over several years' of bicycle travel through this country of peoples. It was generally enjoyable, but like a long uphill climb, was tiring in places. I often enjoy books in this genre, but I found this one occasionally lacking. I still recommend it, for it will open most readers' eyes to new notions, and the author is competent. I most enjoyed the section describing Cassini's mapping of France.
My lack of enthusiasm may be because I did not find the book to be tightly structured, and I sometimes found myself wanting a crisper roadmap for the direction of the text. I also wanted a better roadmap of France in the illustrations, as the many localities described had me turning to my own atlas much of the time. The major theses of the book are lightly woven into the text. One mildly recurring theme is a whiff of anti-clericism. At one point the author suggested the Church had more to fear from latent paganism than the revolutionaries of 1789; I suspect the thousands of clergy who were massacred by the Republicans after seeing their churches destroyed and properties taken might come to a different conclusion.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3MYOI5BL91KKA
• Not To Be Missed 26 June, 2008
Every page of this book yields unexpected and brilliant insights and sidelights into the motley collection of nationalities, languages, and races that somehow became France. The story of Bernadette of Lourdes. The creation of the "official" meter. The persecution of a particular group for a thousand years (and no, it wasn't the Jews). Add to this a smooth and witty prose style and you have a book that shouldn't be missed. It's one of those rare books about which, as Holden Caulfield would say, you feel like calling up the author after reading it.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A238JKIS8R9KQ1
• Excellent 12 June, 2008
France is more than just Paris! There seems to be little written on life in provincial France and the author has certainly filled that void with this book. Who would have thought that life in rural France was so backward compared to not only Paris, but rural life in other European countries? Peasants at this time prayed to stone fertility statues, believed in werewolves and witches and were very ignorant of life outside of their little village--and most didn't even speak French.
This book is chock full of the history of cartographers, early travelers as well as daily life and thought.
There was a France long before there were the French.
If you're interested in French history, this is a must read.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2I3C91UFLXVRD
• A Delightful Book! 22 December, 2008
The Discovery of France is a delightful exploration of the mosaic of villages and cultures that make up France (and most European countries). France presents to itself and the world a civic myth of a unitary nation and culture. Of course the reality is more complex, and Graham Robb looks behind this in a gentle but incisive way. The image of France is a view from Paris. Although that image is nearer the truth now than even 60 years ago, there still is a local identification, way of speaking, manner of greeting (one kiss on one cheek, or 2, or even 5!), that can still reveal to the careful observer (or reader) the stitching together of relatively isolated villages and valleys into a great, successful nation. Was the United States once like this? Take a look at Jimmy Carter's biographical "An Hour Before Sunrise" or Russell Baker's "Growing Up" to see how localized and isolated rural parts of the US were within living memory.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3CQBMYPWHPY4S
• Superficial 26 December, 2008
Enjoying antropology and reading about the background social nature of various regions, especially France,I found this book to be longwinded, uninteresting, and it is the first book I have ever returned. I cannot remember one interesting fact to tell you about this book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A38NH3F8NRHAUQ
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