Last month, I picked up a gently used copy of short stories by Guy de Maupassant. I’d put off reading his work for too long and was happy when a friend from my book club chose the classic tale, Boule de Suif, for this quarter’s read. The short collection, titled…
This week, I began working on a post about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911. I’d read several articles and listened to podcasts about the heist, which is full of surprising twists. However, on Monday morning, as I perused a list of Le Monde’s top…
I was first introduced to the engravings of Jacques Callot many years ago when I happened upon a free exhibit of his 18-plate series, The Miseries of War. Born in Lorraine in 1593, Callot is one of France’s great masters of engraving. Not only did he produce thousands of spectacular…
Until reading Barbara Kingsolver’s fictional novel La Lacuna, I would never have envisioned Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, French surrealist author André Breton, and Mexican muralist and painter Diego Rivera as part of the same squad. Their commitment to Marxism drew these three extraordinary men together and, for a brief period,…
Last week I wrote about Edgar Degas’ most renowned sculpture, La Petite danseuse de quatorze ans. Degas’ portrayals of 19th-century dancers give us a window into the lives of young female professionals—a circumstance that was exceedingly rare. Referred to as rats, these budding ballerinas played a secondary and less desirable…
I clearly remember my first exposure to Edgar Degas’ wax sculptures of ballerinas. As a high school graduation gift, my parents sent me on a student trip to France. At 18, I’d heard of the word Impressionism and, being an avid student of dance, I’d seen some of Degas’ behind-the-scenes…
I have a small stack of French-related coffee table books that I’ve wanted to review for months but waited until December since I think they’d make great gifts. Today’s post was intended to supplement a previous piece, 35 Sensational Reads for the Francophiles on your Gift List. When I sat…
If you follow my blog, you’ve probably recognized that I have a penchant for sobering literature. While feel-good stories aren’t exactly banned from my shelves, most of what I read is either nonfiction or historical fiction that sheds light on a troubling period in human history. Likewise, when it comes…
