From the Publisher
Praise for A History of France
An Amazon Best Book of the Month
“[Norwich] remembered that there was a public composed of people who read books of history for pleasure, not from duty . . . [A History of France is] a delightful book—engaging, enthusiastic, sympathetic, funny and sometimes, one has to add, quirky.”—Wall Street Journal
“The major achievement of this book is the very fact that Norwich takes each of the four rulers to be a piece of the same story . . . written with often humming literary verve.”—New York Times Book Review
“With characteristic deftness of touch, Norwich brings each character vividly to life and skillfully weaves their stories together . . . a genuinely inspired idea for a book, and Norwich executes it with typical aplomb.”―Tracy Borman, BBC History Magazine
“Norwich’s long career as a historian has given him a definite assurance of style, which allows him to present historical detail in a thoroughly engaging manner without sacrificing clarity.”―Library Journal
“A streamlined, merry romp through glorious Gaul.”—Washington Independent Review of Books
“Norwich’s strength is the colorful anecdote . . . [and A History of France is] informative and entertaining.”—Publishers Weekly
JUNE 2019 - AudioFile
Writer-narrator John Norwich brings a personal touch and a lifetime of experience to this breezy popular history of France from Roman times to the end of WWII. His voice, while aged, is pleasing and listenable. His narration is effortlessly clear, expressive, and well paced. His general manner is that of a cultured man of intelligence and learning who is indulging himself in a project close to his heart. Quotations, however, sound different from his narrative voice and tone—as if read by someone else or at another time—which is a bit distracting. While the audiobook is not scholarly, it is informative as well as enjoyable. As Norwich notes, it was written and read with love, a love of France that comes through to the listener. W.M. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2018-07-31
An eminent British historian weaves a vivid tapestry of France's past.
Capping a prolific writing and broadcasting career, Norwich (Four Princes: Henry VIII, Francis I, Charles V, Suleiman the Magnificent and the Obsession that Forged Modern Europe, 2016, etc.) deftly distills the history of France from the Gauls to de Gaulle. He gallops through the first 1,500 years of his story, peopled, he writes, with few "particularly colourful characters" though many devastating conflicts, particularly the Hundred Years' War, protracted by the reign of a "hopelessly insane" king, Charles VI. The author dispatches in a mere three pages the intrepid advent and fiery end of Joan of Arc. Finally, arriving at 1515, Norwich finds a character "to make the heart beat faster": the remarkable Francis I, who, Norwich exclaims, "hit France like a rocket." He counts Francis I, a lover of books, the arts, and, not least, women, and Louis XIV, the Sun King, who reigned from 1643 to 1715, as France's "two most dazzling rulers," indelibly stamping the nation's culture and identity. Before, after, and between them, however, were greedy, inept, ill-advised, and clumsy rulers whose escapades, travails, marriages—and many, many mistresses—Norwich chronicles with verve and wit. After Francis I, the nation roiled with religious wars between Catholics and Huguenots, which ended, after nearly half a century, in 1598 with the Edict of Nantes. It was not the end of France's involvement in wars, however. There was the Thirty Years' War, "the deadliest and most brutal upheaval the continent had ever seen," beginning in 1618; the Seven Years' War, lasting from 1756 to 1763; the Revolution and commune at the end of the 18th century; Napoleon's extraordinary military campaigns; and two world wars. The author ascribes his love of France to childhood travels there with his mother, Lady Diana Cooper, and living in France when his father, Duff Cooper, was ambassador in the 1940s. This book, he writes, is "a sort of thank-offering to France."
An engaging political history and affectionate homage.
