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The Discovery of France

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The Discovery of France

By: Graham Robb
Narrated by: Saul Reichlin
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Illuminating, engrossing and full of surprises, The Discovery of France is a literary exploration of a country few will recognize; from maps and migration to magic, language and landscape, it's a book that reveals the 'real' past of France to tell the whole story - and history - of this remarkable nation.

©2007 Graham Robb (P)2018 Audible, Ltd Europe France Travel Writing & Commentary Imperialism
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Every bit as good as I'd heard - and hoped. Far more successful than the same author's book on Paris.

I knew a bit about how the French regions maintained a sense of difference until far more recently than one might think, given "France" has been around since the Middle Ages. I knew a bit about the other languages within what is now France - Breton the most obvious - and the attempts to force a standardised "French" on the country. I even knew a little about the birth of tourism - a key part of the creation of the modern concept of France, it turns out.

But the details are what make this book, rather than any general narrative. Heavily weighted to the 18th and 19th centuries, it really does bring the country to life in this period in all its diverse amusement and brutality - from packs of smuggler dogs to the astonishing numbers of unwanted babies dumped or shipped in baskets to Paris, dosed with wine to shut them up. Every page has something new and interesting.

The narrator is also excellent - albeit I had to speed him up a lot to make him sound normal. on 2x speed he sounds a little like Richard Briers, which can only be a good thing.

Popular history at its best

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An interesting listen to what is a rolling review of the lesser-talked of elements of french history from the last 500 years or so; how France came together as a nation from being disparate tribes, up to today.

Rolling review of the last 500 year history of France

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Absolutely loved the narrator's presentation, which made for a very involving and engaging listen of oftentimes quite dense material. He even does the voices and accents. The book itself was so interesting and full of information I had fun discovering about. Another piece of the puzzle that makes up French history and identity!

brilliant narration

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My knowledge of France was much less than I had believed. This audiobook took me into so many areas I was unaware of in both the French mind, ie their perception of themselves and their geography,, for example the Vedon Gorge.
Loved it, listened to it twice.

A new world in an old world

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Bit difficult to find good history books on audible but this goes hard. Really good history of the creation of the modern French nation. Aside from all the fascinating anecdotes Robb does a brilliant job of showing how nations are invented and lands are ‘discovered’. I read the book previously but couldn’t resist listening to it in audio format - very engagingly narrated it is too.

Le banger!

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