The French

Download or read book The French written by Theodore Zeldin and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-12-31 with total page 562 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a guide to France intended for the traveller who wants to get to know French people as individuals, for the negotiating businessman and for students who wishes to discover in-depth aspects of their lives. It looks at what makes up the national character of France.

Download or read book The Year of the French written by Thomas Flanagan and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2004-10-31 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1798, Irish patriots, committed to freeing their country from England, landed with a company of French troops in County Mayo, in westernmost Ireland. They were supposed to be an advance guard, followed by other French ships with the leader of the rebellion, Wolfe Tone. Briefly they triumphed, raising hopes among the impoverished local peasantry and gathering a group of supporters. But before long the insurgency collapsed in the face of a brutal English counterattack. Very few books succeed in registering the sudden terrible impact of historical events; Thomas Flanagan's is one. Subtly conceived, masterfully paced, with a wide and memorable cast of characters, The Year of the French brings to life peasants and landlords, Protestants and Catholics, along with old and abiding questions of secular and religious commitments, empire, occupation, and rebellion. It is quite simply a great historical novel. Named the most distinguished work of fiction in 1979 by the National Book Critics' Circle.

Download or read book The French Chef Cookbook written by Julia Child and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2023-11-21 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautiful new edition of the beloved cookbook capturing the spirit of Julia Child's debut TV show, which made her a star and is now featured as the centerpiece of Max's Julia. The French Chef Cookbook is a comprehensive (Aïoli to Velouté, Bouillabaisse to Ratatouille) collection of more than 300 classic French recipes. By 1963, Julia Child had already achieved widespread recognition as the bestselling author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but it wasn’t until her television debut with The French Chef that she became the superstar we know and love today. Over the course of ten seasons, millions of Americans learned not only how to cook, but how to embrace food. The series completely changing the way that we eat today, and it earned Julia a Peabody Award in 1965 and an Emmy Award in 1966. From that success came The French Chef Cookbook, Julia’s first solo cookbook, written with all the wit, wisdom, and joie de vivre for which she is rightly remembered. Organized by episode—”Dinner in a Pot,” “Caramel Desserts,” “Beef Gets Stewed Two Ways”—the book, like the television show on which it is based, is a complete French culinary education, packed with more than 300 delectable recipes—including timeless classics like Cassoulet, Vichyssoise, Coq au Vin, Croissants, and Chocolate Mousse. The definitive companion to Julia's groundbreaking television series, The French Chef Cookbook is now available in a beautiful new edition, sixty years after Julia first took to the airwaves.

Download or read book The French Way written by Richard F. Kuisel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2013-12 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How the French have used American culture to define a unique modern identity There are over 1,000 McDonald's on French soil. Two Disney theme parks have opened near Paris in the last two decades. And American-inspired vocabulary such as "le weekend" has been absorbed into the French language. But as former French president Jacques Chirac put it: "The U.S. finds France unbearably pretentious. And we find the U.S. unbearably hegemonic." Are the French fascinated or threatened by America? They Americanize yet are notorious for expressions of anti-Americanism. From McDonald's and Coca-Cola to free markets and foreign policy, this book looks closely at the conflicts and contradictions of France's relationship to American politics and culture. Richard Kuisel shows how the French have used America as both yardstick and foil to measure their own distinct national identity. They ask: how can we be modern like the Americans without becoming like them? France has charted its own path: it has welcomed America's products but rejected American policies; assailed America's "jungle capitalism" while liberalizing its own economy; attacked "Reaganomics'" while defending French social security; and protected French cinema, television, food, and language even while ingesting American pop culture. Kuisel examines France's role as an independent ally of the United States—in the reunification of Germany and in military involvement in the Persian Gulf and Bosnia—but he also considers the country's failures in influencing the Reagan, Bush, and Clinton administrations. Whether investigating France's successful information technology sector or its spurning of American expertise during the AIDS epidemic, Kuisel asks if this insistence on a French way represents a growing distance between Europe and the United States or a reaction to American globalization. Exploring cultural trends, values, public opinion, and political reality, The French Way delves into the complex relationship between two modern nations.

Download or read book 1000 Years of Annoying the French written by Stephen Clarke and published by Open Road Media. This book was released on 2012-03-20 with total page 764 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of A Year in the Merde and Talk to the Snail offers a highly biased and hilarious view of French history in this international bestseller. Things have been just a little awkward between Britain and France ever since the Norman invasion in 1066. Fortunately—after years of humorously chronicling the vast cultural gap between the two countries—author Stephen Clarke is perfectly positioned to investigate the historical origins of their occasionally hostile and perpetually entertaining pas de deux. Clarke sets the record straight, documenting how French braggarts and cheats have stolen credit rightfully due their neighbors across the Channel while blaming their own numerous gaffes and failures on those same innocent Brits for the past thousand years. Deeply researched and written with the same sly wit that made A Year in the Merde a comic hit, this lighthearted trip through the past millennium debunks the notion that the Battle of Hastings was a French victory (William the Conqueror was really a Norman who hated the French) and pooh-poohs French outrage over Britain’s murder of Joan of Arc (it was the French who executed her for wearing trousers). He also takes the air out of overblown Gallic claims, challenging the provenance of everything from champagne to the guillotine to prove that the French would be nowhere without British ingenuity. Brits and Anglophiles of every national origin will devour Clarke’s decidedly biased accounts of British triumph and French ignominy. But 1000 Years of Annoying the French will also draw chuckles from good-humored Francophiles as well as “anyone who’s ever encountered a snooty Parisian waiter or found themselves driving on the Boulevard Périphérique during August” (The Daily Mail). A bestseller in Britain, this is an entertaining look at history that fans of Sarah Vowell are sure to enjoy, from the author the San Francisco Chronicle has called “the anti-Mayle . . . acerbic, insulting, un-PC, and mostly hilarious.”

Download or read book The French Café written by Marie-France Boyer and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 1994 with total page 112 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here is a wonderfully fresh and evocative look at one of France's great institutions--the cafe. Marie Francis Boyer showcases the legendary Parisian cafes--where some of the world's most celebrated philosophers, poets, and painters gathered--and also explores cafes whose architecture and decoration are part of the French heritage.

Download or read book When The World Spoke French written by Marc Fumaroli and published by New York Review of Books. This book was released on 2011-06-14 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Review Books Original During the eighteenth century, from the death of Louis XIV until the Revolution, French culture set the standard for all of Europe. In Sweden, Austria, Italy, Spain, England, Russia, and Germany, among kings and queens, diplomats, military leaders, writers, aristocrats, and artists, French was the universal language of politics and intellectual life. In When the World Spoke French, Marc Fumaroli presents a gallery of portraits of Europeans and Americans who conversed and corresponded in French, along with excerpts from their letters or other writings. These men and women, despite their differences, were all irresistibly attracted to the ideal of human happiness inspired by the Enlightenment, whose capital was Paris and whose king was Voltaire. Whether they were in Paris or far away, speaking French connected them in spirit with all those who desired to emulate Parisian tastes, style of life, and social pleasures. Their stories are testaments to the appeal of that famous “sweetness of life” nourished by France and its language.