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,…
If you’ve ever taken a course in French literature, whether taught in English or French, you may well have read one of Victor Hugo’s most famous poems, Demain dès l’aube. The poem first appeared in 1856—one of seventeen compositions that Hugo dedicated to his daughter, Léopoldine, who drowned in a…
Mention Paris, and people from around the world immediately conjure a mental image of the Eiffel Tower. Every year, 7 million visitors buy tickets to reach its upper levels where they can enjoy a breathtaking view of the ancient capital. Back in 1887, however, as construction of the monument was…
Sunday, November 7, marks what would have been the 108th birthday of Nobel Prize winner, Albert Camus. During World War II, Camus joined the French Resistance, a movement dedicated to overthrowing the Germans. Camus lent his genius to the clandestine effort by working as a journalist and underground newspaper editor.…
Today marks the 5-year anniversary of Umberto Eco’s death. In case you’re unfamiliar with this Italian author and philosopher, Eco was also a brilliant linguist who penned several international bestsellers such as The Name of the Rose and Foucault’s Pendulum. He also translated numerous works from English and French into…
Two weeks ago, I wrote about a love letter that Victor Hugo wrote to his mistress, Juliette Drouet, shortly after fleeing France to live in exile. In that post, I remarked that over the course of their impressive 50-year relationship, Juliette penned roughly 20,000 letters to the storied author. It’s…
I recently came upon a list of the ten most beautiful love letters. In general, I find such lists rather pointless. In this case, however, most of the letters had been written by great French authors so it piqued my interest. Near the top was one that Victor Hugo wrote…
