Discovering Milan Kundera (1929-2023) in 1985 and giving “The Joke” to my father for Christmas. #111Words #MilanKundera #TheUnbearableLightnessOfBeing #TheJoke #MichaelHenryHeim #MyFather #AlbertCamus #Fiction #Translation #CzechLiterature #FrenchLiterature https://andrewjshields.blogspot.com/2023/07/discovering-milan-kundera-1929-2023-in.html

Polka dots and a paperwhite: early morning with Kate Chopin's 1897 very short story Regret. The seven page kindle story moves from a depiction of a strong self-sufficient spinster with no regret to a woman crushed by loneliness after her neighbor's children leave her temporary care. I first encountered Chopin's work when a book club read The Awakening. Her narrative depictions of women feel so contemporary, even now. #KateChopin #FrenchLiterature

Four a.m. paperwhite and polka dots. Kate Chopin's 1897 very short fiction Regret. In the span of 7 kindle paperwhite pages, Mamzelle Aurlie moves from a strong indepent spinster with no regrets to one with quite a few after she cares for her neighbor's children. In the silence that follows, her loneliness becomes acute. Chopin's The Awakening was my first encounter with the author's work. Her narrative take on women feels quite contemporary to this day. #KateChopin #Women #FrenchLiterature

TOMORROW (Monday) is the last day for 20% off pre-orders of Mérimée's SONGS FOR THE GUSLE, in my translation! E-books are also available for pre-order. #NewReleases #books #reading #translation #translator #ReadingInTranslation #FrenchLiterature #WritingCommunity All info here: https://www.frayededgepress.com/gusle.html

La quatrième fois qu’on fait la quête au bistrot, le garçon me dit :
– Vous, les étrangers, vous faites tout le temps des collectes pour des couronnes, vous allez tout le temps à des enterrements.
Je lui réponds :
– On s’amuse comme on peut. » [2/2]

Agota Kristof, Hier, 1995.

#amreading #FrenchLiterature

Allow me to introduce you to this gentleman! https://lauranagle.substack.com/p/new-words-9-meet-my-pal-hyacinthe?utm_source=twitter&sd=pf #translation #FrenchLiterature #WritingCommunity #LiteratureInTranslation #books

“Love born in the brain is more spirited, doubtless, than true love, but it has only flashes of enthusiasm; it knows itself too well.”

- Stendhal, The Red and the Black

#Stendhal #TheRedAndTheBlack #19thCentury #FrenchLiterature #ClassicBooks #LiteraryClassics #MoncreiffePress #LiteraryQuotes #FestiveQuotes #BookQuotes #BookCommunity #Bookish #Bookstodon

“I adore you, I hate you, I offend you, I ask your pardon, I admire you, I blush for my admiration: in a word, I have nothing of tranquillity or reason left about me.”

- Madame De La Fayette, The Princess of Cleves

#MadameDeLaFayette #ThePrincessofCleves #HistoricalRomance #Histodon #FrenchLiterature #17thCentury #ClassicBooks #LiteraryClassics #MoncreiffePress #LiteraryQuotes #BookQuotes #BookCommunity #Bookish #Bookstodon

James Grieve's dedication to his translation of Swann's Way (which we are publishing spring 2023). #proust #swannsway #translation #frenchliterature

“And now gentlemen … all for one, one for all - that is our motto, is it not?”

- Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers

#AlexandreDumas #Swashbuckler #ClassicBooks #LiteraryClassics #FrenchLiterature #MoncreiffePress #LiteraryQuotes #BookCommunity #Bookish #Bookstodon

“Don’t read him, as children do, for amusement. Nor, as the ambitious do, to be instructed. No, read him in order to live.” ~ Flaubert, referring to Montaigne

#montaigne #Flaubert #FrenchLiterature #essais

« J’ai toujours eu envie d’écrire des livres dont il me soit ensuite impossible de parler, qui rendent le regard d’autrui insoutenable. Mais quelle honte pourrait m’apporter l’écriture d’un livre qui soit à la hauteur de ce que j’ai éprouvé dans ma douzième année. »

Annie Ernaux, La honte, 1997.

#FrenchLiterature

« Il n’y a peut-être pas de rapport entre la scène du dimanche de juin et ce voyage autre que chronologique mais comment affirmer qu’un fait survenant après un autre n’est pas vécu dans l’ombre portée du premier, que la succession des choses n’a pas de sens. »

Annie Ernaux, La honte, 1997.

#FrenchLiterature

I've written about Jacques Poulin's AUTUMN ROUNDS on my blog - a charming, quiet, beautiful novel on books, travel and finding love late in life. Translated from the French by Sheila Fischman.

Here's the link to my review:
https://readersretreat2017.wordpress.com/2022/11/28/autumn-rounds-jacques-poulin-tr-sheila-fischman/

#ArchipelagoBooks #JacquesPoulin #AutumnRounds #frenchliterature #bookreview #bookstadon #books

Ganz zuletzt kommt Baudelaire mit Babykopfschutz-Frisur herein und bringt seine Fleurs du mal an.“ [2/2]

📷 Félicien Rops, Frontispiz zu Théophile Gautiers Les jeunes France.

#art #FrenchLiterature

A Meal in Winter by Hubert Mingarelli (trans. Sam Taylor) is a kick in the gut. Three German soldiers explore the limits of their consciences while hunting for Jews in the Polish countryside. Highly recommended. #novella #TranslatedBooks #FrenchLiterature

This would deserve a translation. Published in 1960 at the height of the war in Algeria. #Frenchliterature

Saturday afternoon reading: HAPPENING, by Annie Ernaux.

This essayistic memoir is two things: a brutal story of the author’s abortion in ‘sixties France (where the procedure was illegal); and a gentle discussion of the writerly urge to endure so that one might write.

#books #book #reading #literature #bookreview #annieernaux #frenchliterature https://instagram.com/p/CkkahjLrc3p/