Because my family has always had loads of books, we have a special closet that contains all the ones that won't fit in the bookshelves. Unlike places I live - which I've always crammed full of bookshelves - my mother likes to have books kept in certain areas. So there are very nice looking old books here and there, and books that are currently being read on various tables - but if you want to find the books to dig through, it's in the book closet. I assume it was once a linen closet, but it's better for books because it has a light inside so you can actually see what you're looking for. And because its shelves are deep there are two rows of books on each shelf - thus the need for keeping it tidy since books are easily hidden in there.

 

Anyway, we were doing some cleaning, which basically meant trying to put the books in some sort of order so that you might actually find things. And because I always say "but I haven't read that yet!" we didn't purge many. But I did notice this book from high school and thought about how it'd been a long time since I read it, and so I glanced inside.

 

wikipedia: Cyrano de Bergerac

wikipedia: Edmond Rostand

 

I ended up rereading it - though I started out by bouncing around to my favorite scenes. And I had to skip over parts where Cyrano has hopes that he might be loved in spite of his nose - I always have problems with "hopes disappointed" scenes, because I do like the character so much. And as melodramatic and theatrical as the final scene is -

Cyrano dies

(spoiler show)

- it made me tear up a bit. Because, ok, honestly I do love this character.

 

Much of the play's emotions you read into the scene - at some parts there are few words and it's up to the actor to express the feelings behind them. Which is why this is a play actors still enjoy performing.

 

Version I read was translated by: Brian Hooker (Amazon link here for more detail)

 

I've said this before about translators - SO much about whether you will love a book can depend on how well they do their job. To discount this is to miss both the difficulty of translating from another language and how much small word choices and phrases can matter.

 

When Marie Antoinette came to France from Austria, one of the things that the people disliked about her was that she flouted their etiquette. She found it confusing, so she chose to disregard it.Sciolino's book draws back the curtain on French manners and mores, explaining "la seduction" (better defined as "charm" than any kind of sexual pejorative) and how it relates to politics, fashion and even a highly ritualistic dinner party.Sciolino interviews journalists, fashion mavens, politicos and more to get their take on the importance of la seduction in France. Suffice it to say that, by the end of the book, I felt much better informed about the dance of manners that is a way of life for the French. This book is both extensively researched and well-written. Highly recommended for Francophiles.

In France children play a board game, Loto des Odeurs, to help them develop and refine their sense of smell. The French believe in the right to pleasure so they are highly tolerant of other people’s private lives and do not enjoy ugly revelations. Investigative style journalism is rare. The concept of sexual sin and Bible toting politicians don’t exist. French workers hoping to get a job in the public sector, a low-level ticket agent for example, are expected to answer literary questions about the 1678 novel La Princesse de Clèves on their application exams. Though it has nothing to do with ticket taking or any other civil servant job, this romantic novel is so widely loved in France that business-minded president Nicolas Sarkozy created a national uprising when he tried to have the Princesse questions removed from the test. These are just some of the differences between the American and French ways of living, loving and seeing the world that New York Times reporter Elaine Sciolino covers in this humorous but insightful and informative book.In recent days Sciolino has been writing in the New York Times about former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s arrest on sexual assault charges, and he makes an earlier appearance in this book as a well-known womanizer who was nevertheless on track to be a presidential candidate in the next election. Sciolino organizes her book around the idea of seduction, a concept everyone in France seems to have strong and positive ideas about. A belief in the power of seduction explains why the French loved Benjamin Franklin but not John Adams, why the French tried to rule their former colonies by persuasion rather than brute force and why Woody Allen and his films are so popular in France. (If his new movie Midnight in Paris is any indication Allen loves France as much as the French love him.)If you are going to France this book may help you enjoy your visit more. If, like me, you can’t get away right now reading La Seduction will at least give you a window into that fascinating country.