Chéri (1920): Colette

★★★★½

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?  Apologies again for flitting in and out rather a lot.  I’ve read quite a lot of books recently, but haven’t been doing much else; and I’ve just discovered the fantastic website LibraryThing, which has finally enabled me to catalogue my books and make a definitive record of what I actually own.  Hopefully it’ll enable me to avoid any duplicate purchases…  If you’re like me, and make a beeline for people’s bookcases on visiting their houses, feel free to take a look at my own collection here.

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A Song for Arbonne (1992): Guy Gavriel Kay

★★★★

This is the sixth book I’ve read by Guy Gavriel Kay and it is once again set in his distinctive parallel world with its single sun and twin moons – white and blue – though the names of the countries and the gods aren’t the same as in his other books.  Like the vast majority of his novels, A Song for Arbonne takes place in a context closely mirroring a historical period from our own world: in this case, Southern France in the age of the troubadours.

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La Princesse de Montpensier (2010)

La Princesse de Montpensier

★★★

(directed by Bertrand Tavernier, 2011)

Bertrand Tavernier’s new historical epic is a bit of a mixed bag.  Based on a short story published in 1662 by Madame de La Fayette, it tells the story of a young woman’s fall from grace during the wars of religion in 16th-century France. It looks fabulous, but somehow its Gallic charm never quite forges its way through the eye to the heart.

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