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Louis XIV to French Revolution - suggestions?

annis
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Post by annis » Wed February 17th, 2010, 12:33 am

Another one for your list, Miss M
Clare Colvin "The Mirror Makers" --set at the Sun King's Court. The story of a group of renegade Venetian mirror-makers who escape to work in Frnace, and become caught up in various intrigues.

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Miss Moppet
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Post by Miss Moppet » Wed February 17th, 2010, 12:49 am

[quote=""annis""]Another one for your list, Miss M
Clare Colvin "The Mirror Makers" --set at the Sun King's Court. The story of a group of renegade Venetian mirror-makers who escape to work in Frnace, and become caught up in various intrigues.[/quote]

Thanks Annis!

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Post by Chatterbox » Wed February 17th, 2010, 9:26 am

Since you read French, what about Jean Diwo? I found some of his to be tedious reads, relatively, but a couple are definitely set in the right period. There's La Fontainière du roy; I think Les Ombrelles de Versailles is a sequel to that. There is Demoiselles des Lumières, about Mme de Pompadour. I find his writing a bit turgid, but I still also have the first two volumes in his series set in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, Les dame du faubourg, so I'm going to give it another try.

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Catherine Delors
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Post by Catherine Delors » Wed February 17th, 2010, 10:20 am

I have not read the Mirror Makers, but what a great subject!

Miss M, have you read the beautiful L'Allee du Roi, about Madame de Maintenon? Translated into English as The King's Way, with one entire chapter (the most dreamy/fascinating one, of course) deleted and possibly further outrages to this outstanding text.

So if you read French, by all means go for L'Allee du Roi, not the bowdlerized translation.

I have read other books by Chandernagor, HF and otherwise, but this one, which was her debut, remains IMO her best. But then I am enthralled by Maintenon (and Louis XIV too, in a different way.)

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Post by Miss Moppet » Wed February 17th, 2010, 5:20 pm

[quote=""Catherine Delors""]
Miss M, have you read the beautiful L'Allee du Roi, about Madame de Maintenon? Translated into English as The King's Way, with one entire chapter (the most dreamy/fascinating one, of course) deleted and possibly further outrages to this outstanding text.

So if you read French, by all means go for L'Allee du Roi, not the bowdlerized translation.

I have read other books by Chandernagor, HF and otherwise, but this one, which was her debut, remains IMO her best. But then I am enthralled by Maintenon (and Louis XIV too, in a different way.)[/quote]

I read L'allee du roi first in English and then in French but only about 10 years later, so I didn't even notice that there was an 'extra' chapter in the original version! Which one did they delete?

I hate it when texts get mangled in translation. It happened with Anne Golon's Angelique series too, the English translations say the text is unabridged but when I got French language copies I discovered all sorts of things had been missed out - sometimes affecting the plot.

On my TBR pile is Catherine Decours' Aimee du Roi, which is intended as a 'counterpart' to L'allee du roi, telling the story of Mme de Montespan. I'm looking forward to reading it but not expecting it to be as good as the Chandernagor which really got into the spirit of the C17.

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Catherine Delors
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Post by Catherine Delors » Wed February 17th, 2010, 5:31 pm

I am not home but off the top of my head the missing chapter of L'Allee du Roi is 12 or 13. I'd say 12, but don't hold me to it.

You know, the one that has almost a Proustian feel, where she reminisces about Louis XIV playing the guitar for her, about the course of her life. I can imagine the reaction of the editor: "Nahhh, way too literary. We'll have to cut this stuff out, Ms. Chandernagor!"

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Post by Miss Moppet » Wed February 17th, 2010, 5:31 pm

[quote=""Chatterbox""]Since you read French, what about Jean Diwo? I found some of his to be tedious reads, relatively, but a couple are definitely set in the right period. There's La Fontainière du roy; I think Les Ombrelles de Versailles is a sequel to that. There is Demoiselles des Lumières, about Mme de Pompadour. I find his writing a bit turgid, but I still also have the first two volumes in his series set in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, Les dame du faubourg, so I'm going to give it another try.[/quote]

Thanks Chatterbox - I didn't know about Demoiselles des Lumieres, that is one for the Royal Mistress Challenge.

The annoying thing is the local library system has very little in the way of foreign language books, and what they do have is usually translations of John Grisham. The London Library has the classics and literary prizewinners like the Hedgehog book, but not much popular fiction. So Diwo might have to wait until my book buying budget increases, but I'll definitely bear him in mind. If I was just going to try one it would probably be La fontainiere du roy.

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Post by Miss Moppet » Wed February 17th, 2010, 11:53 pm

[quote=""Catherine Delors""]I am not home but off the top of my head the missing chapter of L'Allee du Roi is 12 or 13. I'd say 12, but don't hold me to it.

You know, the one that has almost a Proustian feel, where she reminisces about Louis XIV playing the guitar for her, about the course of her life. I can imagine the reaction of the editor: "Nahhh, way too literary. We'll have to cut this stuff out, Ms. Chandernagor!"[/quote]

You're quite right, it's chapter 12. I can't comment on similarity to Proust because so far he remains on the shelf, unconquered, but I loved this chapter because it returns to the framing device of the opening pages - Francoise in old age at Saint-Cyr - and it has some of the most beautiful writing in the book. Shame on the barbarian English publishers!

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Catherine Delors
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Post by Catherine Delors » Thu February 18th, 2010, 9:06 am

Indeed Chapter 12 is my favorite. As for the shame, I don't know whether it should be ascribed to British or American publishers...

The result was that the book was a runaway bestseller in France (1.6 million copies, which is HUGE for this market) and didn't make, as far as I know, as much of an impression in the UK or the US. Dumbing down books may sound like a clever marketing strategy, but it doesn't always work.

For Proust, he can look daunting if one looks at the whole "Temps Perdu" but why not "conquer" him slyly by nibbling at smaller chunks, like "Un amour de Swann"? Just an idea. :)

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Post by Miss Moppet » Thu February 18th, 2010, 12:00 pm

[quote=""Catherine Delors""]Indeed Chapter 12 is my favorite. As for the shame, I don't know whether it should be ascribed to British or American publishers...

The result was that the book was a runaway bestseller in France (1.6 million copies, which is HUGE for this market) and didn't make, as far as I know, as much of an impression in the UK or the US. Dumbing down books may sound like a clever marketing strategy, but it doesn't always work.

For Proust, he can look daunting if one looks at the whole "Temps Perdu" but why not "conquer" him slyly by nibbling at smaller chunks, like "Un amour de Swann"? Just an idea. :) [/quote]

Thanks, I might! I've tried starting at the beginning once or twice intending to read right through...that didn't work! Although I enjoyed what I read. My reading time is frustratingly fragmented at the moment. So a bite-size approach might work.

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