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Le Monde's 100 Books Of The Century
The 100 Books of the Century (french: Les cent livres du siècle) is a list of the one hundred most memorable books of the 20th century, according to a poll performed during the spring of 1999 by the French retailer Fnac and the Paris newspaper ''Le Monde''. Overview Starting from a preliminary list of 200 titles created by bookshops and journalists, 17,000 French participants responded to the question, "Which books have remained in your memory?" (''Quels livres sont restés dans votre mémoire?''). The list includes both classic novels and genre fiction (Tolkien, Agatha Christie, A. C. Doyle), as well as poetry, drama and nonfiction literature (Freud's essays and the diary of Anne Frank). There are also comic books on the list, one album from each of these five francophone or italian series: ''Asterix'', '' Tintin'', ''Blake and Mortimer'', '' Gaston'' and ''Corto Maltese''. The large number of French novels of the list is due to the demographics of the surveyed group. Likewi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fnac
Fnac () is a large French retail chain selling culture, cultural and consumer electronics, electronic products, founded by André Essel and Max Théret in 1954. Its head office is in ''Le Flavia'' in Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris. It is an abbreviation of Fédération Nationale d’Achats des Cadres ("National Purchasing Federation for Cadre (politics), Cadres"). It merged with Darty in 2016 to become Groupe Fnac Darty. Core values The company's founders were André Essel and Max Théret. Fnac was founded in 1954. Fnac holds "forums" throughout the year, which are opportunities for customers to have dialogue with people such as Pedro Almodóvar, George Lucas, and David Cronenberg, discussions with authors including Paul Auster, Pierre Bourdieu, and Françoise Giroud in addition to concerts. Musicians playing in these concerts have included Yann Tiersen, Ben Harper, Keane (band), Keane and David Bowie. Each year a "book fair" is held with discussions among writers, politicians and th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1927 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1927. Events *January – The Books Kinokuniya (紀伊國屋書店) bookstore business is established in Tokyo. * February 4 – Gertrude Stein is honored by the ''Académie des femmes'', an informal gathering for woman writers, founded by the expatriate American Natalie Clifford Barney starts at her Paris '' salon''. Others honored include Colette, Anna Wickham, Rachilde, Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Mina Loy, Djuna Barnes, and posthumously, Renée Vivien. * February 24 – The new John Golden Theatre ''(Theatre Masque)'' opens in New York City at 252 West 45th Street (George Abbott Way) in midtown Manhattan. * May 5 – Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness novel ''To the Lighthouse'' is published by Hogarth Press in London. A second impression follows in June. It is seen as a landmark of high modernism, *June 29 – T. S. Eliot, hitherto Unitarian, is baptised into the Church of England at F ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Grapes Of Wrath
''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962. Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California along with thousands of other " Okies" seeking jobs, land, dignity, and a future. ''The Grapes of Wrath'' is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes due to its historical context and enduring legacy. A celebrated Hollywood film version, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, was released in 1940. Plot The narrat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1932 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1932. Events *March – Captain W. E. Johns' character Biggles (James Bigglesworth) is introduced as an English World War I pilot in the short story "The White Fokker", in the first, April issue of ''Popular Flying'' magazine, edited by Johns. The first Biggles collection, ''The Camels Are Coming'', ensues in April. *April 23 – To mark Shakespeare's birthday: **The Royal Shakespeare Company's new theatre opens at Stratford-upon-Avon. **The Folger Shakespeare Library opens in Washington, D.C. *April 26 – The 32-year-old American poet Hart Crane, in a state of alcoholic depression, throws himself overboard from the ''Orizaba'' between Mexico and New York; his body is never recovered. *May – The first issue appears of the English journal of literary criticism '' Scrutiny: a quarterly review'', edited by F. R. Leavis. *June 28 – Alice Hargreaves, the inspiration for ''Alice's Adventures in Wond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis-Ferdinand Céline
Louis Ferdinand Auguste Destouches (27 May 1894 – 1 July 1961), better known by the pen name Louis-Ferdinand Céline ( , ) was a French novelist, polemicist and physician. His first novel ''Journey to the End of the Night'' (1932) won the '' Prix Renaudot'' but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of the human condition and his writing style based on working class speech. In subsequent novels such as '' Death on the Installment Plan'' (1936), '' Guignol's Band'' (1944) and '' Castle to Castle'' (1957) Céline further developed an innovative and distinctive literary style. Maurice Nadeau wrote: "What Joyce did for the English language…what the surrealists attempted to do for the French language, Céline achieved effortlessly and on a vast scale." From 1937 Céline wrote a series of antisemitic polemical works in which he advocated a military alliance with Nazi Germany. He continued to publicly espouse antisemitic views during the German occupation of Franc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Journey To The End Of The Night
''Journey to the End of the Night'' (french: Voyage au bout de la nuit, 1932) is the first novel by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. This semi-autobiographical work follows the adventures of Ferdinand Bardamu in the World War I, colonial Africa, the United States and the poor suburbs of Paris where he works as a doctor. The novel won the ''Prix Renaudot'' in 1932 but divided critics due to the author's pessimistic depiction of the human condition and his innovative writing style based on working class speech, slang and neologisms. It is now widely considered to be one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century. Background Céline began writing ''Journey to the End of the Night'', his first novel, in 1929 while he was working as a doctor in a public clinic in the working class Paris suburb of Clichy. The novel draws on his experience in the French cavalry during World War One, his time in colonial Africa as an employee of a French forestry company, his 1925 visit to the Unite ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1933 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1933. Events *February – Having joined the Japanese Communist Party, the Chinese novelist Hu Feng is arrested and "badly beaten" in Tokyo for his protests against imperialism. Returning to the Republic of China as a popular hero, he is nevertheless prevented from joining the Communist Party of China by the rejection of him by a rival, Zhou Yang. *February 17 – The magazine '' News-Week'' is published for the first time in New York. *March 8 – Première of Federico García Lorca's play ''Blood Wedding'' (''Bodas de Sangre'') is held at the Teatro Beatriz in Madrid. *April 23 – Millosh Gjergj Nikolla is appointed schoolteacher among the Serbs of Vraka, Kingdom of Albania. The next two years bring his creative period as a short story writer, describing his sense of despair at being isolated in a backward region. *May – Nazi book burnings take place in Germany by the German Student Union, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
André Malraux
Georges André Malraux ( , ; 3 November 1901 – 23 November 1976) was a French novelist, art theorist, and Minister of Culture (France), minister of cultural affairs. Malraux's novel ''La Condition Humaine'' (Man's Fate) (1933) won the Prix Goncourt. He was appointed by President Charles de Gaulle as information minister (1945–46) and subsequently as France's first cultural affairs minister during de Gaulle's presidency (1959–1969). Early years Malraux was born in Paris in 1901, the son of Fernand-Georges Malraux (1875–1930) and Berthe Félicie Lamy (1877–1932). His parents separated in 1905 and eventually divorced. There are suggestions that Malraux's paternal grandfather committed suicide in 1909."Biographie détaillée" , André Malraux Website, accessed 3 September 2010 Malraux was raise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Man's Fate
''Man's Fate'' (French: ''La Condition humaine'', "The Human Condition") is a 1933 novel written by André Malraux about the failed communist insurrection in Shanghai in 1927, and the existential quandaries facing a diverse group of people associated with the revolution. Along with Les Conquérants (1928 – "The Conquerors") and La Voie Royale (1930 – "The Royal Way"), it forms a trilogy on revolution in Asia. The novel was translated into English twice, both translations appearing in 1934, one by Haakon Chevalier under the title ''Man's Fate'', published by Harrison Smith & Robert Haas in New York and republished by Random House as part of their Modern Library from 1936 on, and the other by Alastair MacDonald under the title ''Storm in Shanghai'', published by Methuen in London and republished, still by Methuen, in 1948 as ''Man's Estate'', to become a Penguin pocket in 1961. Currently the Chevalier translation is the only one still in regular print. In 1958 Hannah Arendt pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1943 In Literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1943. Events *January 4 – Thomas Mann completes ''Joseph der Ernährer'' (Joseph the Provider) in California, the last of his '' Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph und seine Brüder)'' tetralogy, on which he began in December 1926. *February 4 – The première of Bertolt Brecht's ''The Good Person of Szechwan (Der gute Mensch von Sezuan)'' takes place at the Schauspielhaus Zürich in Switzerland, with Leonard Steckel directing. *March – The self-illustrated children's novella ''The Little Prince'' by the exiled French aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the all-time best-selling book originated in French, is published in New York. *May – A strongly antisemitic production of Shakespeare's ''The Merchant of Venice'' is staged at the Burgtheater in Vienna, with Werner Krauss as Shylock. *June 30 – Having transferred from the Merchant Marine to the United States Navy and served eight days of act ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antoine De Saint-Exupéry
Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, comte de Saint-Exupéry, simply known as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ; 29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), was a French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the United States National Book Award. He is best remembered for his novella ''The Little Prince'' (''Le Petit Prince'') and for his lyrical aviation writings, including '' Wind, Sand and Stars'' and '' Night Flight''. Saint-Exupéry was a successful commercial pilot before World War II, working airmail routes in Europe, Africa, and South America. He joined the French Air Force at the start of the war, flying reconnaissance missions until France's armistice with Germany in 1940. After being demobilised by the French Air Force, he travelled to the United States to help persuade its government to enter the war against Nazi Germany. Saint-Exupéry spent 28 months in America, during w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Little Prince
''The Little Prince'' (french: Le Petit Prince, ) is a novella by French aristocrat, writer, and military pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published posthumously in France following liberation; Saint-Exupéry's works had been banned by the Vichy Regime. The story follows a young prince who visits various planets in space, including Earth, and addresses themes of loneliness, friendship, love, and loss. Despite its style as a children's book, ''The Little Prince'' makes observations about life, adults and human nature. ''The Little Prince'' became Saint-Exupéry's most successful work, selling an estimated 140 million copies worldwide, which makes it one of the best-selling in history. The book has been translated into over 505 different languages and dialects worldwide, being the second most translated work ever published, trailing only the Bible. ''The Little Prince' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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