Historical books from France
Recommended historical books (15)
Travel the world without leaving your chair.
If you are into historical here are some historical books from France for the next part of the Read Around The World Challenge.
1.
After the Roundup : Escape and Survival in Hitler's France by Joseph Weismann EN
Description:
Cover -- Contents -- Translator's Foreword -- 1. Fall 1940 -- 2. The Star -- 3. July 16, 1942 -- 4. Beaune-la-Rolande -- 5. Escape -- 6. Parisian Wanderings -- 7. Three "Misérables"--8. The Americans -- 9. The Castle of Méhoncourt -- 10. Becoming French -- 11. Return to the Past -- Epilogue: Bearing Witness
2.
Algeria Is Beautiful like America by Olivia Burton EN
Description:
Algeria the Beautiful explores the rich heritage and tumultuous modern history of Algeria and its connections to Europe and colonialism. Olivia had always heard stories about Algeria from her maternal grandmother, a Black Foot (a “Pied-Noir,” the French term for Christian and Jewish settlers of French Algeria who emigrated to France after the Algerian War of Independence). After her grandmother’s death, Olivia found some of her grandmother’s journals and letters describing her homeland. Now, ten years later, she resolves to travel to Algeria and experience the country for herself; she arrives ... continue
5.
In the Company of Men by Veronique Tadjo EN
Description:
WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE Harper’s Bazaar: Best Book of the Year Boston Globe: Best Book of the Year Ms. Magazine: Best Feminist Book of the Year Words Without Borders: Best Translated Book of the Year Drawing on real accounts of the Ebola outbreak that devastated West Africa, this poignant, timely fable reflects on both the strength and the fragility of life and humanity’s place in the world. Two boys venture from their village to hunt in a nearby forest, where they shoot down bats with glee, and cook their prey over an open fire. Within a month, they are dead, bodies ravaged... continue
6.
Les Miserables by Victor Hugo EN
Description:
A thrilling tale of narrow escapes, romance in the midst of a revolution, and heroism at Waterloo, this classic forms a parable of a morally empty state that values retribution rather than justice.
7.
Montaillou : The Promised Land of Error by Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie EN
Description:
Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie has had a success which few historians experience and which is usually reserved for the winner of the Prix Goncourt...Montaillou, which is the reconstruction of the social life of a medieval village, has been acclaimed by the experts as a masterpiece of ethnographic history and by the public as a sensational revelation of the thoughts, feelings, and activities of the ordinary people of the past.--Times Literary Supplement.
8.
Nana by Émile Zola EN
Description:
"Nana is probably the most famous character in Les Rougon-Macquart. The novel that bears her name, published in 1880, is the ninth volume in the series. It consists of a number of episodes, or tableaux, in the short but spectacular life of Ana Coupeau, the fourth child of Gervaise Macquart. We first saw her as a young girl in L'Assommoir (1877), her father an abusive alcoholic, her mother Gervaise reduced to a similar degraded state. She works as a milliner's assistant and dabbles in casual street prostitution. She has a child by an unknown father when she is sixteen. Having escaped from the s... continue
9.
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay EN
Description:
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is brutally arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel' d'Hiv' roundup, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours. Paris, May 2002: On Vel' d'Hiv's 60th anniversary, journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about this black day in France's past. Through her contemporary investigation, she stumbles onto a trail of long-hidden family secrets that connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from... continue
10.
The Black Sheep by Honore de Balzac, Honore Balzac EN
Description:
Philippe and Joseph Bridau are two extremely different brothers. The elder, Philippe, is a superficially heroic soldier and adored by their mother Agathe. He is nonetheless a bitter figure, secretly gambling away her savings after a brief but glorious career in Napoleon’s army. His younger brother Joseph, meanwhile, is fundamentally virtuous - but their mother is blinded to his kindness by her disapproval of his life as an artist. Foolish and prejudiced, Agathe lives on unaware that she is being cynically manipulated by her own favourite child, but will she ever discover which of her sons is t... continue