"To compensate a little for the treachery and weakness of my memory, so extreme that it has happened to me more than once to pick up again, as recent and unknown to me, books which I had read carefully a few years before . . . I have adopted the habit for some time now of adding at the end of each book . . . the time I finished reading it and the judgment I have derived of it as a whole, so that this may represent to me at least the sense and general idea I had conceived of the author in reading it." (Montaigne, Book II, Essay 10 (publ. 1580))

Monday, February 19, 2018

The Discovery of France - A Historical Geography from the Revolution to the First World War (Graham Robb, 2007)

(358 pages)

Book club selection (via me; session held 25 February 2018).

Originally read this eight years ago, the summary from back then remains on point.

The book is one of the highest value that I've run across in terms of generating ideas per unit.  It does give lots of interesting - and new - information specific to France.  Moreso, perhaps unintentionally, it gives a glimpse into daily lives of many people in the immediately pre-modern world - most of which would apply in France, or elsewhere. This part utterly fascinates.  Difficult to imagine a non-homogenized world - and so recent.  Where accumulating, and "getting ahead," wasn't even on the agenda for so many.

Also not the author's point - but it drives home how wealthy society has become. 

So much of what I believe or assume on various topics (not only France) is just wrong - this book is a useful reminder!

PJ reprised the cassoulet recipe . . . except it was even better this time around.
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