A HISTORY OF FRANCE

by Andre Maurois ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 5, 1957

Heroically, Maurois' newly-supplemented narrative carries the history of France from primal cave-man to the political cave-man of 1956. Because so thickly jammed together, the facts somehow brace each other up. The countless missing connections, the unavoidable superficialities are never felt; the history gives one a genuine sense of completeness, solidity, depth. How this comes about is a mystery-but the meaningful, illumining patterns of course spring from Maurois' unique gift. He has a capacity for utilizing each event, each issue and personality, to presage and add pertinence to all that follows. Everything serves a double or multiple purpose in the history's gradual development. Imperceptible, Maurois builds these ""by- products"" into huge patterns. Seldom does he comment or hypothecate, but he is always industriously singling out information that can work to later advantage, and then combining these pieces of information. Of insight, judgment, overmastering idea, Maurois demonstrates little- but it is the novelist's and not the historian's faculty which saves him.

Pub Date: Aug. 5, 1957

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Farrar, Straus

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1957

Categories: NONFICTION