Customer Reviews

A Popular History of France from the Earliest Times, Volume 1

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I'd been looking for a history of France for the past year or so in bookstores, with no luck. Finally, I remembered Project Gutenberg on the Internet, and found this book, along with the other 5 volumes of the best history I've ever read. I've read a lot of history books written for the general reader over the years, and none has been as fascinating and as complete. These books were written in the middle 1800's by a brilliant, amazingly knowledgable, great storyteller - and translated from the French to English by a man whose translation abilities seem to be at least the equal of Robert Fitzgerald's translation of Homer. Half-way through this downloaded French history, I discovered it was again in print and available here, and bought the 6 volumes. One of my favorite discoveries in my life (68 years).

I was hoping for a readable, accurate, history of ancient France. This book does give some historical context, but is frustrating for the modern reader. No information is provided about the author, and the translator is not even identified. The book was originally written in the 1860's, and it's not clear when the translation was made - judging from the style it was not recently. The editing is haphazard, the illustrations are laughable and not credited, and the one map seems to be a b/w photo of something hanging on a wall.

While I did not want a scholarly work, this one does not bother to support for most of its statements presented as fact. In the 140 years since it was written, archaeological and historical understanding of many of the events portrayed has changed considerably, so the reader must take every statement with a grain of salt. Instead of the promised exciting stories from history, we get a jumble of names and tribes and battles, with little attempt at background or interpretation.

I bought the first two volumes, and am giving up halfway through the first one. I got a better understanding by reading Wikipedia. There must be something better out there.