L'Alsace Est-Elle Allemande Ou Française? Réponse A M. Mommsen

After reading La cité antique, I knew I found a new favorite author, so I was researching around the internet for other books he wrote.

This little pamphlet, whose title translates into: Is Alsace German or French? was written during the Franco-Prussian war as a response to some letters to the Italian press written by German historian Theodore Mommsen, which justified the Prussians taking the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine by insisting that the provinces should be a part of Germany due to the race and language of their inhabitants.  Fustel de Coulanges demolishes Mommsen's argument that race and language are what determine nationality and shows how other factors are much more important.  Great reading for those interested in the Franco-Prussian war, the aftermath of the 1866 war of the German League against Prussia, and in the historical events and ideas leading up to World Wars I & II.

For those who don't read French, I translated de Coulanges's text into English and posted it online in blog form.  Feel free to check it out here.  I included links to Fustel de Coulanges's original French text as well as to an English translation of Theodore Mommsen's letters, so you can get both sides of the debate.

Shadows on the Rock

I learned about the existence of this novel (not one of Willa Cather's better known ones) while reading this article by Patricia Snow on First Things Magazine.  It is a historical novel covering a year in the life of Cecile Auclair, the twelve year old daughter of an apothecary in Quebec City in the 17th century.  Cecile and her family are originally from Paris, emigrating to Quebec when their aristocratic neighbor and patron, the Count de Frontenac, was appointed governor general by the king.  While Cecile and her family are fictional characters, the Count, the two bishops, and other persons of rank in the story are real, as are the events that are remembered and talked about so this is a believable picture of what everyday life might have been like on "the Rock" during French colonial times, when the Church had a strong influence on culture and lifestyle and when one had to depend on the infrequent visits of transatlantic ships from France to get word from home and much needed commodities not available in Canada.  Those who are familiar with Quebec City will recognize the landscape and architecture of the Upper and Lower Town, the Hotel-Dieu hospital, the church of Notre Dame des Victoires, and other historical landmarks.

Willa Cather has a great talent for creating realistic characters and environments, so it was easy to get engrossed in the story.

La cité antique / The Ancient City

This is a brilliant exposition of the religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks and Romans and how that shaped the way they lived, their ideas, their government, and the culture they developed.  When we think of Greek and Roman religion, we immediately think of gods like Zeus, Athena, Apollo, and Venus and such, but de Coulanges goes even further back than that, to the domestic gods that were the dead ancestors of each family, and that protected only that family and their property so long as the living members of the family faithfully carried out the proper rites and sacrifices and owned the property on which their tombs were located.  Apparently, this ancestor worship was a religion the ancient Greeks and Romans shared with the Hindus and dates back to their common roots before the different groups diverged and migrated out to India and to Europe.  As their beliefs and worldview changed, so did Greco-Roman culture change, giving rise to the Greek and Italian city states that later consolidated into the Roman Empire.  In the last chapter, de Coulanges provides a brief outline of how radically Christianity changed the culture and outlook of the Roman Empire and why it brought an end to the ancient conception of the city.

This book is invaluable for those with an interest in the history of ancient Greece and Rome, those who are planning to read the classics and want to understand the mindset of the authors better, and those who want to see how a religion can shape the culture and civilization of a people. De Coulanges's purpose in writing it was to show how different the worldview of the ancient Greeks and Romans was from our own, to prevent the common mistake of believing the ancients to be too much like ourselves.

Leporella

This novella is about a simple minded, hardworking, thrifty domestic servant named Crescenza, nicknamed Leporella after an operatic character by one of her employer's girlfriends.  Used to keeping her head down, working hard, minding her own business, and not expecting anything good from anyone, she becomes the housekeeper of an aristocratic married couple, where the husband earns her loyalty (and perhaps her love too), by being charming and considerate towards her.  This man finds his marriage, and his wife, unpleasant, so he embarks on a series of secret affairs whenever he gets the chance.  In her devotion to him and growing hatred for his wife, Leporella does what she can to cover for him and facilitate his happiness.  Eventually the husband finds out just how fiercely loyal she can be, and that's what destroys her.

As with other novellas and short stories of Stefan Zweig's, this one shows his talent for creating strong characters, interesting situations, and psychological insight.

Burning Secret

This is a brilliant short novel told through the eyes of a young boy, Edgar, who is on holiday with his mother at a resort.  A baron, who is a fellow guest at the hotel takes a fancy to his mother, and befriends Edgar in order to try to seduce her.  Edgar, well used to being dismissed and treated like a child by adults, is flattered that such a distinguished man would take the trouble to make friends and spend time with him as if he were an equal.  He learns a hard lesson when he realizes that the baron had an ulterior motive.  Edgar's mother also learns hard lessons when she weighs her marriage and her obligations to her family against the temptation to carry on an affair with an attractive stranger.

Amok, Star Above the Forest

I rank Amok up there with The Invisible Collection and Buchmendel, my favorite Stefan Zweig stories.  As in many of his other stories, it is told second hand, through the eyes of someone who met one of the protagonists, from whom he heard it.  This tends to keep the reader at a distance from the events, as if we were being told a legend.  It's the story of a doctor who takes a job at a colonial outpost.  He falls in love with a proud, aristocratic married woman who comes to him for a secret abortion, which he won't give her, not because it is immoral, but because her demeanor was too haughty for his tastes.  He changes his mind, goes into the city in search of her, but in her desperation she had already decided on a more dangerous remedy.

It's a tragic story about those who repent too late, those whose devotion fails the people to whom they are devoted, and those who get themselves into knotty situations that they try to cover up, when a little more strength of character would have enabled them to either resolve the problem in a more honest way or avoid it altogether.

This collection also has Leporella, which I had read before, and Star Above the Forest,  a beautiful but also tragic story about hopeless, one sided love across barriers of social class that leads to despair. Obviously, this is not the book for you if you are looking for happy endings!

Salt of the Earth: The Church at the End of the Millenium

Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI always did have a talent for explaining things clearly and concisely--he must have been an awesome teacher.  The interview in this book is no exception.  In it, he talks about his upbringing, his thoughts on salvation, on various ideas and ways of thinking widespread in the modern world, on the declining influence of the Church in Europe, with a special section on Germany, and on what it needs to do to continue carrying out its mission.  While maintaining a conversational tone, a lot of ideas are crammed in there and it covers plenty of ground for its size.  A re-read is definitely in the cards for this one.

Economic Facts and Fallacies

Thomas Sowell takes several instances of false ideas about how the economy works and shows how they are not supported by real life evidence.  He also shows how political policies based on these ideas often backfire and aggravate the problem they were supposed to solve.  In many ways, this book is like a more modern version of Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson written in the mid-1940's.  Not that Hazlitt's book is outdated, as many of the economic misconceptions being examined are stubborn ones that keep recurring no matter how many times they are debunked.  Many of these misconceptions are ones that politicians love to use in their election platforms to manipulate the populace into voting for them, so this book is invaluable for people who wish to exercise their citizen duties responsibly.

Nancy Drew: The Hidden Staircase

While housecleaning I came across my old Nancy Drew books and couldn't resist re-reading a couple. I first read them more than 20 years ago as a child and forgot the stories sufficiently so as not to remember how they turned out. I did not expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. Yes, the stories and dialogue do sometimes come across as formulaic and simple to an adult, but the story was good enough to hold my interest. I also enjoyed the mid-20th century vintage atmosphere that the story was set in. It reminded me of lots of good times spent reading these books with a flashlight in my room when my parents thought I was asleep! And then being barely able to get up in time to make it to school the next day. These books, along with the Anne of Green Gables series and Louisa May Alcott's books are responsible for developing my longstanding reading habit. Great choice for school age kids! Just make sure yours are not equipped with a flashlight if you don't want them acting like zombies in the morning.

Nancy Drew: The Secret of the Old Clock

I recently came across my old Nancy Drew set and couldn't resist rereading a couple of the books. My mom was a Nancy Drew fan when she was a child and she gave me her vintage set of about 25 books. These books are what helped instill a love of reading (and a love of detective stories) in me that continues to this day. I really did not expect to enjoy this as much as I did!The Secret of the Old Clock is the first in the series, and Nancy's later friends Bess and George and her boyfriend Ned have not made their appearance yet. Some of the characters and dialogue do seem simple and formulaic to me now as an adult, but the story was good enough to hold my interest. These books are a great choice for school age children just starting to read longer books. I remember first starting to read them when I was 8, and lending them to friends who were also Nancy Drew fans. Nice trip down memory lane.