The Eleven
Registered by gypsysmom of Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada on 7/9/2012
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
This lovely looking book arrived in the mail today courtesy of LibraryThing's Early Reviewer program. It is the story of Corentin, a painter in revolutionary France. Looks good. Now to find time to read it.
I guess I should know better than to judge a book by its cover or even by its description. I thought this book would be something like The Girl with the Pearl Earring, an explanation of what went on behind the scenes of a painting. Boy, was I wrong.
For one thing, the painting The Eleven (or Les Onze) doesn't exist. I was about a third of the way into the book and I was struggling with it so I thought if I could see a reproduction of the painting it would help. But when I googled The Eleven all I got was reviews for this book. Even combining Corentin with The Eleven didn't help. Then I tried searching for Corentin Francois Elie and found some French language sites that referred to him but my French is good enough to learn that there was no such painter. So no painting, no painter, did the committee supposedly represented even exist? I knew enough about the French Revolution to recognize the name of Robespierre but none of the rest. Wikipedia has nice little article about The Committee of Public Safety and sure enough Robespierre and some of the others were named but the Committee when Robespierre was part consisted of 12 members. Many of the names were different from the ones Michon gives so I couldn't even determine who was missing. Arghhh! This was just too convoluted for my taste.
On top of that the writing often consists of long, multipart sentences which I had to read over and over again in order to get the meaning. It must have been a nightmare to translate. On the occasions when the writing was more straightforward I enjoyed the descriptions but mostly it just made my head ache.
Maybe someone else will find more of merit in this book. It was just too complicated for my linear brain.
For one thing, the painting The Eleven (or Les Onze) doesn't exist. I was about a third of the way into the book and I was struggling with it so I thought if I could see a reproduction of the painting it would help. But when I googled The Eleven all I got was reviews for this book. Even combining Corentin with The Eleven didn't help. Then I tried searching for Corentin Francois Elie and found some French language sites that referred to him but my French is good enough to learn that there was no such painter. So no painting, no painter, did the committee supposedly represented even exist? I knew enough about the French Revolution to recognize the name of Robespierre but none of the rest. Wikipedia has nice little article about The Committee of Public Safety and sure enough Robespierre and some of the others were named but the Committee when Robespierre was part consisted of 12 members. Many of the names were different from the ones Michon gives so I couldn't even determine who was missing. Arghhh! This was just too convoluted for my taste.
On top of that the writing often consists of long, multipart sentences which I had to read over and over again in order to get the meaning. It must have been a nightmare to translate. On the occasions when the writing was more straightforward I enjoyed the descriptions but mostly it just made my head ache.
Maybe someone else will find more of merit in this book. It was just too complicated for my linear brain.
Journal Entry 3 by gypsysmom at Sheraton Midtown Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA on Thursday, June 13, 2013
Released 10 yrs ago (6/13/2013 UTC) at Sheraton Midtown Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
I'll leave this book in the lobby before I check out. If you find it please let me know how and where you found it and if you read it let me know what you thought.
