A Common Reader is . . . . . . written by Tom Cunliffe, of East Sussex, England. It consists of book reviews and more general articles about reading and books and currently receives over 5000 unique visitors each month. So far 213 book reviews have been published.
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 Like so many English people, I enjoy going to France and experiencing a country very different to my own. I live near a ferry port and often see ships sailing off to cross the Channel and I always experience a touch of yearning to be sailing to the land of good wine and different (I won’t say “better”) food.
My nostalgia for France is fed when I turn to Guy Savage’s book blog, His Futile Preoccupations. Guy has a love of French literature and has read far more Balzac, de Maupassant and Zola than most readers. Being conscious of a Balzac-shaped gap in my reading I decided on Guy’s recommendation to begin with Père Goriot. Guy reviewed this himself but I have not reminded myself of what he wrote and will only go back to re-read his review when I have finished my own – such is my fear of being influenced by someone who knows far more about Balzac’s books than I do.
Père Goriot forms part of Balzac’s life-work, La Comédie humaine, and he placed it in the section Scenes of Private Life. It tells the story of Eugène de Rastignac, a young man who comes to Paris to study law. His widowed mother has gone out of her way to provide his means of support at great cost to herself and his two sisters, and it is her hope that Eugène will make his way in the world and restore their fortune.
Continue reading Review: Père Goriot – Honoré de Balzac
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 I have wanted to read more Guy de Maupassant for some time and my interest was confirmed by reading some of Guy Savage’s collection of de Maupassant articles on his blog.
I’d read quite a few of de Maupassant’s short stories of course, but not one of his novels, so Pierre et Jean seemed a good place to start, particularly as it is set in an area of France I visit frequently, the Normandy Coast from Dieppe to Caen.
I often mention the location of novels, because when they are set in real-life places, I enjoy plotting their course on Google Earth and this edition of Pierre et Jean does the work for me, by providing three maps: Normandy in general, a town plan of Le Havre, and a chart of the Seine estuary – all places my wife and I have recently visited.
The novel is set in Le Havre, but a Le Havre which would be totally unrecognisable to us, due to the destruction of the town in the Second World War and its subsequent rebuilding ( largely in concrete!). However, many locations are only a little changed since de Maupassant’s day and I’m sure a walk on the sands today at Trouville would be not be very different to the walk taken by the Roland family on their excursion to celebrate a remarkable inheritance. Many of the little towns of Normandy still maintain their antiquated atmosphere and its easy to imagine the Rolands walking by the water at Honfleur or Quillebeouf sur Seine.
Continue reading Review: Pierre et Jean – Guy de Maupassant
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 I sometimes like to read one of the French classics, so effective are they at reminding me of travels through that beautiful country, with all the pleasures of warmer weather than England, and the cultural and historical interest encountered on the way.
I don’t think there’s much point in writing my usual style of review of a book as well-known as Sentimental Education by Gustave Flaubert. The web is awash with articles and opinions on the classics, often by people with far more knowledge of them than I have, so I will confine myself to describing my experience in reading it and what it meant to me.
The book tells the story of Frederic Moreau, a law student sailing up the Seine to his home in Normandy, where he meets Madame Arnoux, forming an infatuation which lasts a lifetime. He befriends her husband and their paths cross over many years, throught finaincial and political upheaval, and countless other relationships and frienships. Frederic’s love for Madame Arnous in a constant throughout his life, doomed to be unfulfilled, but acting as a reference point through which he views all other relationships.
The book is an example of literary realism. As the Wikipedia article says, “realist authors opted for depictions of everyday and banal activities and experiences, instead of a romanticized or similarly stylized presentation”. This is exactly what Flaubert does, providing his readers with day to day descriptions of Frederic’s life, his money problems, lists of what he buys in the shops and how he furnishes his rooms. We read little details such as, “the wine bottles were warming on the stove”, and during Frederic’s visit to a pottery we read, “in another room the pots were being decorated with fillets, grooves and projecting lines”. While some might find this level of description tedious, I found them very interesting in giving an insight into everyday life.
Continue reading Review: Sentimental Education – Gustave Flaubert
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 My last review was a book about Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, whose “Essays”, written in the 16th century, have become classics of philosophy. We all know that the French have far more interest in philosophy than other nations, (just look at the lengthy Wikipedia list of French philosphers), and it is no surprise to discover that French bookshops have many titles on their shelves from the ultra-serious Foucoult and Derrida to the more accessible works such as this amusing little book, Hector and the Search for Happiness, written by psychiatrist, François Lelord.
Whether this book qualifies as “philosophy” or not, I’m not quite sure, but if philosophy isn’t about “the search for happiness”, then what is the point of it anyway?
I enjoyed reading RosyB of Vulpes Libris‘s review of this book. Apparently she gave it to her boyfriend, who never reads books, and he couldn’t put it down. She enjoyed it herself but felt that while the author allow Hector to have some romantic adventures during his travels, she found herself annoyed by the rather two dimensional female characters.
Anyway, to get to the story – Hector, a young psychiatrist, becomes disillusioned with his profession as he realises that the majority of his patients don’t have much wrong with them other than an inability to be happy. One of his patients tells him that he looks in need of a holiday and he decides to set off on a journey around the world looking for the keys to happiness. As he travels he meets many people, and begins to compile a list of 23 lessons which teach him the rules of happiness. Continue reading Review: Hector and the Search for Happiness – François Lelord
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 . . . its hard living up to a child’s hopes. Right! I said we’re going to buy some biscuits and a bottle of water, and we’re going to have a picnic down by the sea! Its raining, Stan said, like it was my fault, and that was when I’d had enough.
This skilfully written novel, Beside the Sea, tells the story of a troubled single mother, who takes her two young sons for a visit to the seaside. She describes the long bus journey through the rain to the unnamed coastal town, arriving at night, to book into a dismal hotel where she is assigned a tiny room on the sixth floor. This is going to be no holiday, for despite the woman’s desire to give her boys a treat, shortage of money and a mother’s trouble mind dog their days, plus of course the unremitting rain.
I was quickly drawn in to this tragic tale, and finishing the book this morning, I found myself full of pity for this little family. If only someone had noticed. If only those men in the café had been more helpful. If only the hotel owner had called social services. But then no doubt they would have met with an uncomprehending response – they aren’t my patch, they’re just visiting, they’ll be all right. Alas, they aren’t all right, and we privileged readers see all the clues, the references to social workers, the neglect of essentials . . .
. . .I hadn’t taken my medicine, but no one sat on me that night. I was like everyone else that night . . . I slept like I do during the day.
Continue reading Review: Beside the Sea – Véronique Olmi
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 I have several Oneworld Classics editions on my shelves and apart from the quality of the writing they contain, I also admire the high production values of this series. Cover design is stylish and appropriate to the content, the paper and typography are to a high standard and the overall result is a very collectible set of books.
Oneworld have an interesting catalogue and I appreciate the idea of publishing a range of lesser known works by “classical” authors. The About Us page on the website tells us that, “In September 2007, Oneworld Classics acquired the legendary Calder Publications list (founded 1949), with its vast array of Nobel-Prize winners and controversial authors such as Artaud, Trocchi and Miller”. This is evidently going to be an imprint to watch.
Last Day of a Condemned Man is an excellent example of Oneworld Classics publishing ethos, being one of Victor Hugo’s lesser known works but presenting it in a form which will ensure its place among Les Misérables and other titles.
The book is primarily polemical. Hugo was a lifelong campaigner against the death penalty and Wikipedia tells that he convinced the government of Queen Victoria to spare the lives of six Irish people convicted of terrorist activities. His influence was credited in the removal of the death penalty from the constitutions of Geneva, Portugal and Columbia. In the Preface to the 1832 edition, which begins this volume, it is stated clearly the book is nothing other than an appeal . . . for the abolition of the death penalty”. There then follows 18 pages of carefully reasoned argument for why the death penalty has no place in civilised society, least of all a professed Christian society, for,
civilisation is no more than a series of transformations. The gentle law of Christ will finally penetrate the penal code and extend its influence across it. Continue reading Review: The Last Day of a Condemned Man – Victor Hugo
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 It is very difficult to write about this much-reviewed book, The Kindly Ones, which won France’s most prestigious literary award, the Prix Goncourt. Perhaps my difficulty arises because as I attempt to write it, I keep finding myself moving too rapidly into superlatives while also conscious that these need almost to be qualified with mental health warnings, such is the impact of this massive work on the unsuspecting reader.
Indeed, if you read The Kindly Ones, you are going to spend a couple of weeks inside the head of one of the most unpleasant fictional creations of all time and also join him in planning and observing the worst war crimes in history. Frankly, despite its undoubted status us a masterpiece, The Kindly Ones can be a rather oppressive read and to put it down for a while is like coming up for air from a very murky pool. Having said that, if you want to read an insider’s view (although fictional) on these events, then this is perhaps the best book on the topic that you’re ever going to read.
If you decide to travel with Maximillian Aue through these 970 pages, you will be in the company of a senior SS officer, totally imbued with Nazi philosophy and convinced of his mission to further the aims of his Fuhrer in every possible way. Max Aue is a monster, but also an immensely cultured monster. He is a Greek scholar and a student of Plato, and sees no dichotomy in aligning Nazi philosophy with the highest values of the ancients.
Continue reading Review: The Kindly Ones – Jonathan Littell
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 Anyone reading the reviews on this blog will realise that I rarely give bad reviews of books. I simply don’t have enough time to read poor books and have even less time to review them. However, I have decided to make an exception in this case because apparently the book is highly regarded. And in a perverse way I did enjoy it, but only because its excessive misery and over-weening pretentiousness eventually made it amusing, even funny.
I was drawn to Cliffs mainly because it is set in Étretat, Normandy, one of my favourite stretches of coastline. I have walked along the cliffs above Étretat myself several times and when I read in the front cover that this novel “resembles a pebble from the coast of Normandy, polished and pure and yet troubled by a raging sea”, I decided to read it.
I expected that the book would bring back to my mind memories of moules mariniere, glasses of Calvados, and of course those tall, white cliffs rising at each end of the promenade. However, Olivier Adams’ Étretat is a very different place to mine, being the place his narrator’s mother committed suicide by jumping from those cliffs one dark night, and also a place of dark obsessive memories.
Continue reading Review: Cliffs – Olivier Adam
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 Beautiful Image has been published by Pushkin Press in collaboration with the French Embassy in London who promote translations into English of notable French books (see French Book News). Marcel Aymé is little known in Britain despite his ironic and insightful body of work emerging from the 1930s and 40s and including the period of German occupation.
Aymé’s books often had unusual themes – In The Walker Through Walls, the main character suddenly finds he has a unique gift of (need I say?). Beautiful Image similarly begins with Raoul Cérusier presenting two passport photographs of himself to a government office, only to find that the clerk refuses to accept them because they bear no resemblance to their bearer. The supervisor and other colleagues are called to assist and confirm to the astonished Cérusier that the photograph it completely different to his appearance. Cérusier manages to look at his reflection in a window and finds that indeed, his face is now that of a different person.
Cérusier leaves the government office and begins to take in the implications of his transformation. One of the first things he discovers is that his new face is greatly attractive to women, and whereas before, he was little noticed by the opposite sex, he now notices two women on a bus looking at him, “the one dreamily, the other with a distinctly greedy eye”. Needless to say, nobody from his past life now recognises him. He sees a friend in the street and goes up to him, only to find that he seems to want to hand him over to the police as a mad-man.
Continue reading Review: Beautiful Image – Marcel Aymé
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