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The Life of a Simple Man by Émile Guillaumin
Here is a book jot from February, 2021: I just finished reading The Life of a Simple Man, written by Émile Guillaumin and published in 1904 (translated by Margaret Holden; revised translation by Margaret Crosland). It is a fictional memoir about Tiennon, a peasant born in 1823 in rural France. He tells the story of…
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The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter
I finished reading The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier by Jakob Walter (edited and with an introduction by Marc Raeff). This was an amazing read. The author was a German stonemason who was conscripted into Napoleon’s Grande Armée and served in multiple campaigns during the Napoleonic Wars, including the ill-fated 1812 Russian campaign. At…
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The Pioneers by James Fenimore Cooper
I just finished reading The Pioneers (1823) by James Fenimore Cooper. Although the fourth and penultimate volume in the narrative chronology of The Leatherstocking Tales, it was the first published. I had a wonderful time reading this chapter of the life of Natty Bumppo. The reader feels as if they are adventuring along with him…
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La Princesse Lointaine (The Princess Far-Away) by Edmond Rostand
I just finished reading La Princesse Lointaine (The Princess Far-Away) by Edmond Rostand (translated by Charles Renauld), first published in 1895, and I loved it. I stumbled across this play and went into it knowing practically nothing about the play or the author. It’s superbly crafted and I was drawn into it almost immediately. Rostand…
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Boris Godunov by Alexander Pushkin
Here is a book jot from 2022 (I’m getting close, I think, to being caught up with posting these older book jots)… I just finished reading Boris Godunov (1831) by Alexander Pushkin, translated by James E. Falen. This has been described as a “tragicomedy of history,” and is a play of more than twenty scenes…