Recommended Books

Books on all aspects of French history and society range from the very general -- such as the section on France in the Encyclopedia Americana, International Edition (Grolier), which presents an illustrated overview of the French people and their way of life -- to the specific, such as Judi Culbertson and Tom Randall's Permanent Parisians: An Illustrated Guide to the Cemeteries of Paris (Chelsea Green), which recounts the lives of many famous people who are buried in Paris.

History -- A broad overview of French history appears in many encyclopedias and history books. A very good one is History of France, by Guillaume de Bertier de Savigny and David H. Pinkney (Forum Press), a comprehensive history with illustrations and plenty of obscure but interesting facts.

Two books about French life and society in the 17th century are Warren Lewis's The Splendid Century (William Morrow), and Madame de Sévigne's Selected Letters, edited by Leonard W. Tancock (Penguin), which contains witty letters to her daughter during the reign of Louis XIV.

Simon Schama's Citizens (Alfred A. Knopf) offers a look at the history of the French Revolution -- long, but enjoyable.

Moving into the 20th century, Pleasure of the Belle Epoque: Entertainment and Festivity in Turn-of-the-Century France, by Charles Rearick (Yale University Press), depicts public diversions in the changing and troubled times of the Third Republic. Paris Was Yesterday, 1925-1939 (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), is a collection of excerpts from Janet Flanner's "Letters from Paris" column in The New Yorker. A popular history of the liberation of Paris in 1944, Is Paris Burning? (Warner Books), is by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.

Two unusual approaches to French history are Rudolph Chleminski's The French at Table (William Morrow, 1985), a funny, honest history of why the French know how to eat better than anyone else, and Paris: A Century of Change, 1878-1978, by Normal Evenson (Yale University Press), a study of the city's development.

Travel -- In The Flâneur: A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris (Bloomsbury), Edmund White wants the reader to experience Paris as Parisians do. Although hard to translate, a flâneur is someone who strolls, loafs, or idles.

Biography -- Hugh Ross Williamson brings Catherine de Médici to life in his Catherine de Médici (Viking Press), combining text with illustrations from the 16th century. This queen of France was the dominant personality during her nation's religious wars and the mother of three kings of France, a queen of Spain, and a queen of Navarre.

Representing a different era are A Moveable Feast (Collier Books), Ernest Hemingway's recollections of Paris in the 1920s, and Morley Callaghan's That Summer in Paris: Memories of Tangled Friendships with Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Some Others, an account of the same period. Another interesting read is The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, by Gertrude Stein (Vintage Books). It's an account of 30 years in Paris.

One critic called Simone de Beauvoir, by Deirdre Bair (Summit Books), a biography "à l'Americaine -- that is to say, long, with all the warts of its subject unsparingly described." The story of the great feminist intellectual was based in part on tape-recorded conversations and unpublished letters. Colette: A Life, by Herbert R. Lottman (Little, Brown), is a painstakingly researched biography of the French writer and her fascinating life -- which included not only writing novels and appearing in cabarets but dabbling in lesbianism and perhaps even collaborating with the enemy during the Nazi occupation.

The Arts -- Much of France's beauty can be found in its art. Three books that approach France from this perspective are The History of Impressionism, by John Rewald (Museum of Modern Art), a collection of documents -- both writing and quotations by the artists -- illuminating this period in the history of art; The French Through Their Films, by Robin Buss (Ungar), an exploration of the history and themes of over 100 films; and The Studios of Paris: The Capital of Art in the Late Nineteenth Century, by John Milner (Yale University Press). Milner describes the forces that made Paris one of the most complex centers of the art world in the early modern era.

Nightlife of Paris: The Art of Toulouse-Lautrec, by Patrick O'Connor (Universe), is an enchanting 80-page book with lively anecdotes about the hedonistic luminaries of Belle Epoque Paris, with paintings, sketches, and lithographs by the artist.

Olympia: Paris in the Age of Manet, by Otto Friedrich (Harper-Collins), draws its inspiration from the artwork in the Musée d'Orsay. From there the book takes off on an anecdote-rich chain of historical associations, tracing the rise of the Impressionist school of modern painting, but also incorporating social commentary on such issues as the pattern of prostitution and venereal disease in 19th-century France.

Fiction -- The Chanson de Roland, written between the 11th and 14th centuries, is the earliest and most celebrated of the "songs of heroic exploits." The Misanthrope and Tartuffe are two masterful satires on the frivolity of the 17th century by the great comic dramatist Molière. François-Marie Arouet Voltaire's Candide is a classic satire attacking both the philosophy of optimism and the abuses of the ancien régime.

A few of the masterpieces of the 19th century are Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert (Random House), in which the carefully wrought characters, setting, and plot attest to the author's genius; Victor Hugo's Les Misérables (Modern Library), a classic tale of social oppression and human courage set in the era of Napoléon I; and Selected Stories, by the master of short stories, Guy de Maupassant (New American Library).

Honoré de Balzac's La comédie humaine depicts life in France from the fall of Napoleon to 1848. Henry James's The Ambassadors and The American both take place in Paris. The Vagabond, by Colette, evokes the life of a French music-hall performer.

Tropic of Cancer is the semi-autobiographical story of Henry Miller's early years in Paris. One of France's leading thinkers, Jean-Paul Sartre, shows individuals struggling against their freedom in No Exit and Three Other Plays (Random House).