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Hi everyone!
I suddenly got some free time
and I decided to film a review
of a book that has stricken me recently.
It's written by Stephen Clarke and entitled
"1000 Years of Annoying the French" (in Russian translation - England and France: We Love To Hate Each Other")
I'd like to mention the translation which is amazing...
Unfortunately, I didn't manage to find any information
about the translator.
It's written here that her name is I.Litvinova.
If briefly, this is a book about the history
of England and France not separately,
but about the history of their relationship.
Starting 1066…
until present days,
let's say until Sarkozy.
I don't have enough information about the author,
but considering what is written on the cover,
Stephen Clarke is a British writer and journalist
who moved to Paris.
So, he has tender feelings towards both England and France
and naturally we can see it in the book.
A lot of people say that
it is not the book for Francophiles,
cause France isn't shown in its brightest.
But I am a person who was even closer to the French language and culture,
cause I have been studying French since I was seven
and also French literature, French history and so on,
(my school was kind of weird),
and only a couple years ago I started
to learn more about the British culture...
So I would say that
there is some stuff about everyone.
He is not very kind to "the Britts" sometimes
and the French are shown like…
Well, every nation has its own negative side,
stereotypes and prejudices exist
and we can talk about that for hours...
But it's interesting that
he talks about how sometimes we interpret something as the truth
whilst you can find several sources with the exact opposite information.
So he compares the sources
and assumes what could actually happen.
Let me quote one passage
which shows how
the information from different sources
can lead to misunderstandings.
He talks about Napoleon.
*sorry I don't have the original English text and I didn't want to badly translate myself*
*Basically, Napoleon was called The Little Corporal because of his young age, and Britts started to make jokes concerning his height.*
What is also interesting is that
he doesn't only write about historic events
like battles, signing the pacts and so on.
There are also several chapters
that tell us about the invention of guillotine or champagne,
and the chapter which explains why the croissant and the baguette
are not exactly French.
I would like to quote one more passage
to show a little bit of the author's style.
*sorry I don't have the original English text and I didn't want to badly translate myself*
*just believe me that it can be called "original", "humorous", "satiric", etc.*
*Please wait a second and I will be back to the subtitled talking*
This book can be read as fantasy.
As for the lack of elves and magic,
it can easily be compensated by the abundance of feud and sword-battles.
So I recommend it to everyone.