Balzac

French Literature, History and Culture

Summary and Impressions of Kosei Ogura's "The Social History of "The Secret of Paris"" - What is Eugène Hsu's Newspaper Novel that Influenced Dostoevsky and Marx?

In this book, we will look at the work of Eugène Hsu and see what an outstanding achievement this man was.

It is a very exciting work that also gives us a behind-the-scenes look at the publishing and media industry in nineteenth-century France. It is interesting. I highly recommend it.

There are a series of points that are very interesting not only for French literature, but also for Russian literature, British literature, and Marx. Why not pick up a copy?
French Literature, History and Culture

Shigeru Kashima, "A Literary Guide to Paris" - A guidebook to Paris for fans of French literature! Read this and you will want to go to Paris!

This book will be a guide to Paris by Shigeru Kashima, a well-known French literary scholar on our blog.

The most unique feature of this work is that it allows visitors to see the places associated with literature in Paris, accompanied by Kashima's famous commentary.

This book is a must for fans of French literature, as he discusses each of Paris' famous landmarks in relation to its literature.

This book will definitely make you want to go to Paris. I highly recommend this book.
French Literature, History and Culture

W.D. Litt, "The Life of Stendhal" - Recommended biography of the leading French writer who served in Napoleon's expedition to Moscow!

I too was surprised by many of the things I read in this biography.

It was also very interesting to learn that the name Stendhal was a pseudonym to begin with and about his connection to Napoleon.

I was particularly taken aback by the fact that Stendhal had served in that Moscow expedition.

Stendhal is an inescapable part of 19th century French literature. I highly recommend this easy-to-understand biography of Stendhal's life. It is very interesting. I highly recommend you to pick up a copy.
French Literature, History and Culture

Mike Rapport, "The Napoleonic Wars" - A recommended reference book that looks at the characteristics of the Napoleonic Wars from various perspectives!

This book is not the type of book that explains the "military genius of Napoleon". Rather, it will be a work that takes a closer look at the background of this war and the various things necessary to carry it out.

The war was not caused by Napoleon alone, but the international situation in the 18th century had already triggered the war. And while the emphasis tends to be on Napoleon's genius, the individual soldiers behind his victories actually played a significant role. These are some of the things you can learn from this book.
French Literature, History and Culture

A. Horn, "The Napoleonic Era" - A recommended commentary for a compact study of Napoleon's life, characteristics, and impact on society!

The book features not only Napoleon himself, but also provides an insight into the state of society during this period. You can learn how society was affected by Napoleon's arrival and how people's lives changed.

It is very gratifying to see the wide range of cultural aspects as well as the footprints of the military Napoleon.

This was especially interesting to me because I did not see much about architecture in Chapter 5 or entertainment in Chapter 7 in other reference books.
French Literature, History and Culture

Visual Selection Napoleon" - A guidebook with many illustrations recommended as an introduction to Napoleon!

What makes this work unique is the richness of the illustrations. As the title suggests, the book follows the people and their characteristics along with the visuals.

I also appreciate that the explanatory text is written in a way that is easy to understand even for beginning students, and also talks about the historical background of the time.

I highly recommend this work as an introduction to Napoleon.

The volume is also very compact, at less than 150 pages.

I would highly recommend this work.
The Industrial Revolution and British and European Society

What is Brummel, the original Dundee, England - its history and historical background

This article will discuss the founder of dandies, Blummel, and the background of the birth of dandyism.

I was surprised to learn that the Dundee was developed and created from the shocking macaroni style of dress, and that its decline was influenced by the industrialization of England and Franklin's ideas of work frugality.

It was also interesting to see how Smiles' "The Theory of Self-help" was influenced by Franklin, and how it also shaped the moral values of the British workers. It is a very stimulating article, and by learning about Dandy, we can also learn about the spirit of the times in England!
French Literature, History and Culture

P. McPhee, "History of the French Revolution: Freedom or Death" - Recommended commentary on the background of the French Revolution from a larger perspective.

What I found particularly interesting about the book was the chaos of the revolution.

How to unite so many diverse people together? Every time you do one thing, there will always be people who are disadvantaged. And those people will become opponents of the government, making it difficult for the revolution to progress. So what do we do? The guillotine...

It made me think about whether it is the revolution that inevitably runs into these problems.

Also, when thinking about these things, I couldn't help but think of the Russian Revolution led by Lenin. I thought it would be important to think about the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution in comparison.
French Literature, History and Culture

P. McPhee, "Robespierre" - A recommended biography that traces what the dictator of the French Revolutionary terror politics was really like!

Because Robespierre's death was so dramatic, many stories have been told about him since his death from various perspectives. The intentions of the "teller" are inevitably reflected in these stories.

But McPhee, as a historian, tries to distance himself from that.

A power-hungry dictator, a ruthless butcher, a psychopath who ruthlessly decapitated his political enemies. It is not such a simple story that can be reduced to that.

That attitude was the most distinctive point of this book and what impressed me the most.

This book is a masterpiece that makes us think about the complexity of human beings and what we can become depending on the environment in which we are placed.
Tolstoy, the Russian Giant

Summary and Comments on Berlin's "The Hedgehog and the Fox" - A valuable reference on Tolstoy's "War and Peace".

When I study Tolstoy, I always think that the number of reference books on Tolstoy is obviously much smaller than those on Dostoevsky. Moreover, there are almost no reference books that specialize in individual works.

In this context, "The Hedgehog and the Fox," introduced here, is an extremely valuable reference book on Tolstoy's works.

In this work you will learn about Tolstoy's characteristics and his historical philosophy on the subject of "War and Peace". It is a stimulating and interesting book and we highly recommend this reference work.