THE FRENCH

by Jean-Francois Revel ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 11, 1966

This is an annihilating attack on the French which when all is said, and supported by the political, social and cultural conditions of France today, doesn't leave them with a scintilla of amour-propre. While taste and elegance have always been exclusively associated with the French, they don't apply (except to a marginal few); fifty million Frenchmen look like ""people in a waiting room""; they are culturally deprived; they are also politically incapacitated having always been indifferent to democratic principles and respectful of authoritarian power (de Gaulle) and militarism (also le grand Charles). Revel examines the impotence of the intelligentsia; he also analyzes the total failure of the Left, which, once ineffectual, now no longer exists, and he uses a great many examples -- from the Algerian War to some which are more localized-- to show how France is not only immobilized internally but isolated internationally..... Mr. Revel, a French writer and critic, wraps a winding sheet around the country which was once synonymous with civilization and may prompt action and reaction, guessably more over there.

Pub Date: April 11, 1966

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Braziller

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1966

Categories: NONFICTION