After the Circus by Patrick Modiano (2015 in translation)

So far as my participation in Paris In July Year Ten I have read


1.  Colette- Two Early Short Stories
2. The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano
3. "A Duel" by Guy de Maupassant ( A Franco-Prussian War Story)
4. Life, Death, and Betrayal at The Hotel Ritz in Paris by Tilar Mazzeo (non fiction)
5. How the French Invented Love by Marilyn Yolem (literary history)
6. "The Lost Child" by Francois Coppée
7. "The Juggler of Norte Dame" by Anatole France- no post
8. A Very French Christmas- A Collection of the Greatest Holiday Stories of France
9. "The Illustrious Gaudissart" by Honore de Balzac
10. After the Circus by Patrick Modiano

From Yale University Press Website

One of the hallmarks of French author Patrick Modiano’s writing is a singular ability to revisit particular motifs and episodes, infusing each telling with new detail and emotional nuance. In this evocative novel the internationally acclaimed author takes up one of his most compelling themes: a love affair with a woman who disappears, and a narrator grappling with the mystery of a relationship stopped short.

Set in mid-sixties Paris, After the Circus traces the relationship between the narrator, a young man not quite of legal age, and the slightly older, enigmatic woman he first glimpses at a police interrogation. The two lovers make their uncertain way into each other’s hearts, but the narrator soon finds himself in the unsettling, ominous presence of others. Who are these people? Are they real, or simply evoked? Part romance, part detective story, this mesmerizing book fully demonstrates Modiano’s signature use of atmosphere and suggestion as he investigates the perils and the exhilaration of young love.

Patrick Modiano, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for literature and an internationally beloved novelist, has been honored with an array of prizes, including the 2010 Prix mondial Cino Del Duca by the Institut de France for lifetime achievement and the 2012 Austrian State Prize for European Literature. He lives in Paris. Mark Polizzotti has translated more than forty books from the French and is director of the publications program at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

I am slightly under the weather so I will just make use of Yale University Press data.  Of this book and The Black Notebook, I prefer The Black Notebook.

I was given this book by the publisher.

It is for sale as a digital book on Amazon for $16.00, way in excess of a fair prize.

"The Illustrious Gaudissart" -by Honore de Balzac - A Short Story Compotent of The Comedie Humaine (1833,)

Honore de Balzac on The Reading Life

Paris in July - Year Ten - Hosted by Thyme for Tea

So far as my participation in Paris In July Year Ten I have read 

1.  Colette- Two Early Short Stories

2. The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano 

3. "A Duel" by Guy de Maupassant ( A Franco-Prussian War Story)

4. Life, Death, and Betrayal at The Hotel Ritz in Paris by Tilar Mazzeo (non fiction)

5. How the French Invented Love by Marilyn Yolem (literary history)

6. "The Lost Child" by Francois Coppée 

7. "The Juggler of Norte Dame" by Anatole France- no post

8. A Very French Christmas- A Collection of the Greatest Holiday Stories of France

9. "The Illustrious Gaudissart" by Honore de Balzac 

There are 91 components to Balzac's La Comedie Humaine.  I have seen numerous 

 Statements by academics concerning the make up of the cycle saying it is 91 full volumes.  Here is the breakdown 

45 Novels

25 short stories

21 Novellas.

Many book bloggers could finish this in under three months.  I have been reading on and off for a while now.

I have now read 80 of 91 works 

I think the errors come from not looking at the full work, available and as practical matter, only really readable in an E book. I am employing the Delphi Edition, it is not perfect but it is ok.  It is only $2.51.  My biggest complaint is that it does not have a chronological index.  The translations are older public domain works.  

Honore de Balzac is the greatest chronicler of Paris, a towering figure in world literature.  His literary output, fired by a legendary fifty cups of coffee a day, is gargantuan.  He wrote five or six works considered among the world's greatest novels, some wonderful short works and some only one determined to read through his grand cycle of France, The Comedie Humaine, would wish to read.  I am currently nearing completion of this project and I urge it on all serious literary autodidacts as well as those into French history and culture.

"The Illustrious Gaudissart"  is a competent of La Comedie Humaine, part of the Parisians in Paris section.  It really is a delightful work, pure top of his form Balzac.  The story begins with a description of the importance of the traveling salesman in France in the 1830s.  It was through these men that the products of Paris spread throughout the provinces.  Balzac is the master of description and Gaudissart perfectly fits the role of the glib talking can size up anyone from a back country farmer to a wealthy businessman at one look salesman who knows how to sell them anything.  This is just done perfectly.  Balzac always has small touches to bring humanity to his characters.  It was so much fun to read about him and his mistress who totally has him under her lovely Parisian thumb.  

Because of his extreme success he comes to the attention of wealthy owners of insurance companies and newspapers who want him to sell subscriptions.  His girl friend knows how many subscriptions he has to sell to keep her happy.  Of course he is married. 

We follow him to a rural town.  Something really funny, I mean hilarious happens.  I loved it and I think you will also.  I really want to leave it unspoiled.  I think you can find this online.

Mel u

The Reading Life

Rereadinglives.blogspot.com

In Observation of The Eight Years of The Reading Life

The Reading Life is now eight years old.  

Since inception on July 7, 2009 there has been 4,661,832 pages views.

There are now 3086 active posts. 

The five most viewed viewed posts are all on short stories by authors from the Philippines.  

R. K. Narayan followed by Katherine Mansfield are authors whose individual posts are most viewed.  

The top visitor home countries are the USA, the Philippines, India, the U.K., and Germany.  

There are now 100 author Q and A sessions, mostly from Irish writers.  If anything is of lasting value on my blog it is these interviews.  I have learned a great deal from them.

I am very gratified to see numerous writers I blogged about when they were just getting started becoming successful. 

My Review Policy.

 I love free books. I look at every book I receive, sometimes 100 a month.  I have no rigid policies, I have posted upon everything from very serious academic work to X-rated rewrites of Jane Austin.  

I never would have dreamed eight years ago I would keep my blog going for eight years.  I know for sure if I am able to look back in eight more years, numerous of these writers will be world famous.  Many will also continue just as occasional authors.  I hope a year from now I will be avidly posting upon great writers I have not yet heard about as of today.  

I offer my great thanks to those who take the trouble to leave comments.  You help keep me going.

To my fellow members of the international book blog community, the greatest readers in the world today, keep blogging.  In these dark times your voice is needed.

Mel u

The Reading Life

Rereadinglives.blogspot.com

A Very French Christmas: The Greatest French Holiday Stories of All Time (2017, published by New Vessel Press)

Paris in July - Year Ten - Hosted by Thyme for Tea

New Vessel Press is offering an A R C to all Paris in July Participants.  Just contact them on the website at the close of this post if you are interested

So far as my participation in Paris In July Year Ten I have read 

1.  Colette- Two Early Short Stories

2. The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano 

3. "A Duel" by Guy de Maupassant ( A Franco-Prussian War Story)

4. Life, Death, and Betrayal at The Hotel Ritz in Paris by Tilar Mazzeo (non fiction)

5. How the French Invented Love by Marilyn Yolem (literary history)

6. "The Lost Child" by Francois Coppée 

7. "The Juggler of Norte Dame" by Anatole France- no post

Today I want to let my readers and event participants know of an outstanding collection of French Short Stories with Christmas themes.  It includes stories by classic writers such as Francois Coppée (two stories), I have already posted upon his very moving story included in the anthology "The Lost Child".  Guy de Maupassant, one of the masters of the form is included , as is the early 20th century Alphonse Drudet and the Nobel Prize Winning Anatole France.  I was delighted to see the collection close with a story by one of my favorite writers, the great Irene Nemirovsky.

There are also stories by contemporary writers new to me.  

I think anyone who likes moving short stories will enjoy this wonderful collection.

This book was published by New Vessel Press (newvessalpress.com).  They offer a very interesting and diverse collection of fiction and non-fiction.  There are several French authored set in a Paris works perfect for July in Paris.

Mel u

The Reading Life

Rereadinglives.blogspot.com

Katalin Street by Mazda Szabo

The Guardian Obituary has a very well done overview the importance of Magda Szabo

Katalin Street is the third novel by the great Hungarian writer, Magda Szabo (1917 to 2007) I have so far had the very real pleasure of reading.  I read her The Door in May of 2015, last year I read Iza's Ballad. All three works were translated by Len Rix and published by The New York Review of Books. 

Katalin Street begins a bit before the World War Two.  It is a gracious place where Jews and Christians have long peacefully lived in close proximity.  The novel shows us how the Nazi take over impact the lives of three intertwined Katalin Street families, one Jewish and extends up to Soviet style Budapest in 1968.  During the war the Jewish family, the father is a dentist, are deported to a concentration camp.  What happens to them is never spelled out and we see the other two families try to deal with the guilt of this.  The central plot action focused on the son of one of the families, he goes on to become a doctor, and his relationship to the daughter of another family.  They enter into a troubled marriage, damaged by the serial infidelity of the husband, preying on his female patients.

Katalin Street is very much worth reading.  For sure The Door, her most powerful work, should be your first Szabo but I suspect it will leave you wanting more, as it certainly did me.

I read in the very well done Guardian obituary that she died, age 90, in a comfortable chair with a favorite book in her lap.

In the interest of full disclosure I was given this book, and many others, by The New York Review of Books.  

Mel u

"The Lost Child" by Francois Coppée - A Very Moving Parisian Christmas Story (1908)

Paris in July- Year Ten - Hosted by Thyme for Tea 

Posts  So Far for Paris in July 10

1.  Colette- Two Early Short Stories

2. The Black Notebook by Patrick Modiano 

3. "A Duel" by Guy de Maupassant ( A Franco-Prussian War Story)

4. Life, Death, and Betrayal at The Hotel Ritz in Paris by Tilar Mazzeo (non fiction)

5. How the French Invented Love by Marilyn Yolem (literary history)

6. "The Lost Child" by Francois Coppée 

During Paris in July Year Eight in 2015 I read and posted upon one of the short stories of Francois Coppée, "A Piece of Bread".  In this story an affluent young Parisian Born to wealth joins the French Army during the Franco-Prussian War (1870. - 1871).  He learns a very valuable lesson from a poor soldier with whom he unexpectedly becomes friends which makes him a better man, more sensitive to the sufferings of others.  

Coppeé has fallen out of fashion due to his participation in anti-Semitic societies and his anti-Dreyfus views.  I admit this does somewhat turn me against him but still he is a good, if kind of sentimental writer.  I have read now two of his stories and enjoyed them both.  Both have a common theme, a wealthy self-absorbed man comes into very close contact with a very good hearted poor person, the common man, and is transformed into a better more emphatic man through this contact.  

As I read Coppée very enjoyable but maybe a bit cliched story, "The Lost Boy", set in Paris, my first reaction was, "aha, The French answer to Dickens' A Christmas Carol". The main character is a very 

rich French businessman, he deals in the stock market, he produces nothing and his only goal is to become richer.  His associates are all of the same mind, his latest project is a public sale of stock in a company he knows will soon be out of business, leaving no value for those who bought the stock.  Maybe ten years ago he married a very nice younger woman, he paid of her father's substantial debts.  She soon has a son and dies when the boy is six month old.  The man totally loves the boy but he can find only 15 minutes a day to spend with him.  Of course he has servants to care for the boy, including a dedicated to him German woman (hint Germans were not popular in France in 1909).  When he goes to work on Christmas Eve he tells his servants to buy the boy a lot of presents, giving them money.

I don't want to spoil the plot too much as this is a good fun to read story.  The man's valet, and the boy's yaya burst into his office, the maid is hysterical.  The valet tells his boss that the son, now ten or so, is missing.  They have reported it to the police.  The man in a wild panic runs to the police station nearest his mansion.  Leaving more untold but to say it ends well and the man is forever changed by his contact with a near saintly working man, a widower just like him.

Yes this is very sentimental but I think you will enjoy it, I know I did. You can find it online.  

I read this in a brand new anthology, A Very French Christmas:  The Greatest French Holiday Stories of All times, published last month by New Vessel Press.  I will post in detail on this book soon. I will read this month at least three more stories from this collection, which the publisher kindly gave me, including one by Irene Nemirovsky.  

There is another story by Coppée in this collection and I hope to read it for Paris in July 11 in 2018.

Mel u

Colette - Two Early Short Stories - A Recommendation of a Collection of her Short Fiction

Paris in July - Year Ten. -- Hosted by Thyme for Tea

"You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm."  (Sidonie Gabrielle Colette)

"We are blinded to the beauty in our own lives

The hours taken are all that we'll get

For five or six hours in the month of July

The summer I read Collette

I found Paris a hundred years late

Calling it sleeping in (.......)

My ear to the stone I can hear her sing (.......)

I sold my silver to get myself there

To a room with a candle up three flights of stairs

That was the summer I let it all go

Filling my body with my heart and soul

We are blinded to the beauty in our own lives

I was taking all I can get

For five or six hours in the month of July

The summer I read Collette" - lyrics by Roseann Cash

I said this last year and am happy to say it again, if Paris is the City of Love than Colette is her High Priestess.  I also hope to say it again next year.  Colette (1873 to 1954, Sidonie Gabrielle Colette) wrote lots of short stories, novellas and a few novels, mostly set in The Belle Époque Era (1871 to 1914).  She was the first French woman writer to be given a state funeral.  Many draw their 

impression of Paris in the glory days from her most famous work, Gigi, or from the movies based upon it.  Much of her work focuses on slightly or more louche men, young and old, and the women of their world.   Colette worked on the stage in a period where preforming as an actress was often seen as part of the demimonde world.  Colette is also a revered GLBT figure for her sensitive and acute perceptive treatment of lesbian relationships as well as for her own very open sexuality.  Ok and she also loved cats!  I highly recommend The Secrets of the Flesh:  A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman, among the very best of literary biographies.

The Collected Stories of Colette edited by Robert Palmer is the best entrance to her short fiction, containing 100 stories, 31 never before translated.  I have both the paperback, a beautiful book, and the recently released digital edition.  If you wish to read the two stories I'm posting upon today, and Palmer's introduction, they are on the Amazon free sample.  The publisher blurb says there is no comparable collection in French.  

"Clouk Alone" and "Clouk's Fling"

Today I will post upon two early stories from the series on Clouk, starting with "Clouk Alone".  Clouk is a very archetypical Colette creation, a dandy of indeterminate age, a rich Parisian man boy.

You can see the power of Colette to create a character in just a paragraph in this 

"He was about to turn off the electricity before going up to his room, but stopped short: to get to the light switch he would have to walk past a long mirror, tinged green by the dampness, where he would have time to watch himself walking by, paler than normal, even more of the “poor child” than his fabulously wealthy mother had made him. He does not like to walk past it at certain hours of the night. He prefers to go straight up to the second floor, letting the chandelier and the sconces burn on. Upon waking, he would open his fishlike mouth, which could feign astonishment quite easily, when his inexorable valet would say to him: “Monsieur realizes that Monsieur again left the lights on downstairs. Monsieur won’t wonder why Monsieur’s electric bill is seven hundred francs again this month, worse than a department department store.” Clouk, born a millionaire, remained parsimonious by upbringing: a new car every year is a duty, turning off the electricity when one leaves a room is another."

Clouk misses Lulu, a musical actress and no doubt of the high end demimonde world, she taught him not to be afraid to be alone in his exquisite townhouse.  Suddenly he thinks he hears footsteps in the garden.  He wonders if he dare go look, he summons his valet, who clearly respects him only ironically. The valet asks him what he requires, at first he was going to tell him to look in the garden then he decides to tell him to turn of the lights.  This is a delightful story readable in under five minutes.

As "Clouk's Fling" opens he at a restaurant with a "companion", a not as young or or pretty as she once was actress.  She and Clouk are at a favorite after theater haunt.  Clouk watches the door, Half hoping Half fearing Lulu will enter.  The actress sleeps at Clouk's place, as she often has, Clouk does not like to be alone.  I really feel a need to let Colette's descriptive power shine through:

" The hours after dinner, divided between the restaurant and box seats in a music hall, went by quickly—barely time for a dozen cigarettes—bringing back midnight and the moment to sit down, for the third time since waking, in front of a stiff tablecloth, glazed by the roller, and cold as oilcloth. Each time he sits down at a table in some late-night bar, Clouk feels a warm, fleeting rush of exhilaration.....The best time of their day was the interminable daily toilette, two hours of bath, hairdresser, manicurist, masseuse: the meticulous and listless toilette of cloistered women, the empty chatter, the perplexed fussing with ties and vests . . . Then the brief drive in the car around the already dark Bois, truly an old ladies’ drive, cut short again by the desire, the need to return and sit down at the table of a bar. “Some port and herring sandwiches, right, Clouk? What dried us up like that last night was that nasty demi-sec champagne.”

As the story closes, we see beautifully depicted the routine of Clouk's life, the scenes in the restaurant is so wonderfully done.

My edition does not give the first publication data on these stories but by estimate is 1894 to 1898 period.

I hope to read more Colette 

Mel u