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Product Description
A BOOK FOR ANYONE WHO HAS BEEN IRRITATED, IGNORED, AMUSES, OR PERPLEXED BY THE FRENCH.
French cuisine, French style, and French wine are internationally renowned and familiar, but for most of the English-speaking world, the French people remain an enigma. In his engaging, eye-opening book, Theodore Zeldin introduces scores of French men, women, and children to answer the questions that confound every visitor to France: When do you laugh at a Frenchman's stories and when should you look solemn? How can you tell what a French person wants to achieve in a business negotiation? Why do they treat foreigners so rudely? These and other conundrums are resolved as Zeldin explores the emotions and assumptions behind the façade of this complex and contradictory society. Both erudite and entertaining, The French is illuminating to visitors, indispensable to anyone doing business in the country, and delightful reading for anyone fascinated by the land of Asterix, Descartes, Proust, and Bardot.
Amazon.com Review
There are a zillion guides to France jostling for position on travel shelves, but none gives more than a cursory Gallic nod to the people some people love to hate--the French themselves. Theodore Zeldin, an Englishman with great insight into his neighbors across the channel, has written the ultimate guide to the French, including how to laugh at their jokes, when to look solemn, how to appreciate French grandmothers, and how not to be intimidated by their intellectuals. It's a sympathetic, funny, serious, richly readable, charming book that hits the spot and fills a need.
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