Customer Reviews

Fragile Glory: A Portrait of France and the French

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deep, unbiased, well researched in all aspects of the review. Written with excellent litterary talent, the book, although extensive, is never boring. One of the best I have ever read about the French and their country.

As an American in France I am particularly interested, andreasonablyknowledgeable about, works on france. I found Bernstein's book to provide an accurate and lively portrayal of a subject which is all too often romanticized or written about in a condescending way.

The absolute BEST book I've ever read on France and the French. Enthusiastic though unbiased, extensive and extremely well-documented but never dry or boring, lively but not too "journalist-like", this is an absolute must-read for whoever has an interest in this fascinating - though sometimes hard to grasp - country. Readers will likely understand France better thanks to this book. A real masterpiece. The author's knowledge of France (its history, famous authors, historians, politics, cultural patterns) is simply astonishing.

Richard Bernstein uses the subject quote in his introductory chapter as a conclusion to the grousing of numerous expatriate residents of France, who complain how things are changing for the worse; that things are not as they use to be in France, but conclude that still: "..." This book confirms why those sentiments might be valid.

Bernstein chose to be an expert on China, long before that became a "career path," and he has received acclaim for both From the Center of the Earth: The Search for the Truth about China which was written in 1982, as well as The Coming Conflict with China published in 1997. The book on France grew out of his experiences as the former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times, during an unspecified period in the `80's. So, his "expertise" on France involved a bit of serendipity, but I was exceedingly impressed with his historical erudition of the country coupled with incisive vignettes covering a broad spectrum of matters involving daily life today. In terms of foreign observers, I'd place him at the same level as the British author, Theodore Zeldin, who wrote The French as well as other books on the country.

The author starts with solid explanations of the central dichotomy of France: Paris and "La France Profonde," the latter meaning literally "deep France", a reference to the countryside where the quintessential being of the French spirit is purportedly displayed. He covers regionalism, and the persistence of village life, but then returns to Paris, electing to quote from the German poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, who said the city had the "elan vital," a stronger "life force" than anywhere else.

In terms of history, consider this "factoid": "The historian Pierre Chaunu, cited by Braudel, estimate that the soil of France contains the mostly invisible tombs of fifteen billion people, who lived and died over the course of two million years of human habitation." Bernstein devotes a chapter to the Jews, Arabs, and other "foreigners" who are French. For sure, often with wit, he covers the "joie de vivre" aspects that are intrinsic to France, from the gastronomy to the more open acceptance of the display of the human body. A couple of centuries after the French Revolution, he devotes two chapters to the persistence of "class," and in one concludes that we have all become bourgeois.

There are several chapters that highlight the role of the political class, and France's place in the world. Almost forgotten now was the sinking of the Greenpeace ship, "Rainbow Warrior," in New Zealand, by French agents. One person was murdered in this bungled attempt to "defang" protests against French nuclear tests in the South Pacific. The conclusion has an extraordinarily contemporary ring, including a key verb: "The only criminal act ever punished by France in the entire affair was the leaking to the press of the information that had embarrassed the country in the eyes of the world."

This book was first published almost 20 years ago, but it remains one of the best guides in English to "real" France. It is solid and balanced, and I do wish the author had selected another title. This one, regrettably, conveys that Anglo "look down our noses at the weak and pompous French" which is, by and large, missing from the work. Concerning the French need to assert a slightly different path in life, Bernstein justly quotes Victor Hugo to conclude his work: "...without the French, we will be alone." A solid 5-star work that withstands the test of time.