France

Though he exercised little political influence, Victor Hugo’s genius and his ardent championship of liberty had made him a legendary figure long before his death.

In his memoirs Chateaubriand denounces Napoleon. But, asks Douglas Hilt, is it not a figure of grandeur and vision that emerges?

‘I sought in the Balzac...’ wrote the artist, ‘to represent in sculpture that which was not photographic... to imitate not only form but also life itself’. By Michael Greenhalgh.

The visit of the Baroque master in 1665, writes Michael Greenhalgh, coincided with a rejection of Italian influence by French taste.

Celia Goodman describes how one of the greatest French beauties of her day became the faithfully devoted companion of its most celebrated and gifted writer.

‘We shall never see his equal in any age’, wrote Madame de Sévigné of this simple and heroic soldier. By Aram Bakshian Jr.

In the wars with France from 1745 to 1815, writes Richard C. Saxby, the French naval base was blockaded from English Channel ports miles to its leeward.

John Lehmann presents the grim but fascinating impressions of post-Commune France, by an English schoolboy.

Daughter of Necker of Geneva, twice French Minister of Finance, Germaine de Staël reflected in her life and writings the enthusiasm of the Revolutionary Age. By Douglas Hilt.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century, writes D.R. Watson, an impeccable Republican from Alsace played a vital part in the politics of France.