Member: Eustrabirbeonne

CollectionsYour library (1,204), Mes Pléiades (29), Music books (13), Autobiographies & biographies (26), Bandessinées (79), ebooks (56), Books in English (264), Wishlist (4), Currently reading (3), To read (15), Read but unowned (32), Lu dans édition intégrale (10), Favorites (106), All collections (1,251)

Reviews10 reviews

TagsLiterature (25), France (18), fiction (16), 20th century (14), friendship (10), love (10), death (9), novel (9), 19th century (9), witness (9) — see all tags

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Recommendations188 recommendations

GroupsAuthor Theme Reads, BBC Radio 3 Listeners, French Connection, Tea!, The Chapel of the Abyss

Favorite authorsSvetlana Alexievich, Hans Christian Andersen, Honoré de Balzac, Charles Baudelaire, Colette, Jules Barbey D'Aurevilly, Pierre Desproges, André Franquin, Sylvie Germain, Thomas Hardy, Yaşar Kemal, Omar Khayyam, Milan Kundera, Giuseppe di Lampedusa, Primo Levi, Molière, François Rabelais, William Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy, Herbjørg Wassmo (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresBooks Upstairs, FNAC Paris (Saint-Lazare), FNAC Paris (Ternes), Galignani, Gibert Joseph - Saint-Michel, Librairie Boulinier, Librairie Compagnie, Librairie de Paris, Librairie Delamain, Librairie du globe, lu & cie

Favorite librariesBibliothèque publique d'information (Bpi), Médiathèque de Suresnes, Médiathèque Pierre et Marie Curie

Other favoritesMaison de Balzac

About meLampedusa once wrote that among Shakespeare's plays the one he officially loved most was "Hamlet" but the one he secretly cherished most was "Measure for Measure". I can say the same, that the works I read again and again are not necessarily from my favourite authors. My most cherished books are Lampedusa's "The Leopard", Barbey d'Aurevilly's "Les Diaboliques" and "Une vieille maîtresse" (though I admire "Un prêtre marié" most), Mauriac's "Le noeud de Vipères", Isabel Allende's "La maison aux esprits", Maupassant's Norman tales and fantastic tales, Emilie Carles's "Une soupe aux Herbes sauvages", Hardy's "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" (although my graduation memoir was about "Jude the Obscure", more admirable but more tedious), Julien Gracq's "En lisant en écrivant" (I haven't managed yet to get into his masterpiece, "Le rivage des Syrtes"), Fowles's "The French Lieutenant's woman"...

"Si nous voulons que tout reste comme avant, il faut que nous changions tout." (Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, "Le guépard")

"People always were getting ready for tomorrow. I didnt believe in that. Tomorrow wasnt getting ready for them. It didnt even know they were there." (Cormac McCarthy, "The Road")

"J'ai tendu des cordes de clocher à clocher; des guirlandes de fenêtre à fenêtre; des chaînes d'or d'étoile à étoile, et je danse". (Arthur Rimbaud, "Illuminations")

"You never know what is enough, unless you know what is more than enough". (William Blake, "Proverbs of Hell")

"Elle était tellement triste qu'on ne voyait même pas qu'elle était moche". (Romain Gary, "La vie devant soi")

"Outside, on the bough of a tree, sat the living nightingale. She had heard of the emperor’s illness, and was therefore come to sing to him of hope and trust. And as she sung, the shadows grew paler and paler; the blood in the emperor’s veins flowed more rapidly, and gave life to his weak limbs; and even Death himself listened, and said, “Go on, little nightingale, go on.”
“Then will you give me the beautiful golden sword and that rich banner? and will you give me the emperor’s crown?” said the bird.
So Death gave up each of these treasures for a song; and the nightingale continued her singing. She sung of the quiet churchyard, where the white roses grow, where the elder-tree wafts its perfume on the breeze, and the fresh, sweet grass is moistened by the mourners’ tears. Then Death longed to go and see his garden, and floated out through the window in the form of a cold, white mist." (H.C. Andersen, "The nightingale").

"Un lièvre en son gîte songeait :
(Car que faire en un gîte à moins que l'on ne songe?)"
(Jean de la Fontaine, "Le lièvre et les grenouilles")

"M'a-t-on compris? Dionysos en face du Crucifié..." (Nietzsche, "Ecce homo")

"Vois se pencher les défuntes Années,
Sur les balcons du ciel, en robes surannées ;
Surgir du fond des eaux le Regret souriant ;
Le Soleil moribond s'endormir sous une arche,
Et, comme un long linceul traînant à l'Orient,
Entends, ma chère, entends la douce Nuit qui marche!"

Charles Baudelaire, "Les Fleurs du Mal"

"Je vendais des canons
Dans les rues de la Terre
Mais mon commerce a trop marché
J'ai fait faire des affaires
A tous les fabricants de cimetières
Mais moi maintenant je me retrouve à pied
Tous mes bons clients
Sont morts en chantant
Et seul dans la vie
Je vais sans soucis
Aux coins des vieilles rues
Le coeur content, le pied léger
Je danse la carmagnole
Il y a plus personne sur le pavé
Canons en solde !
Canons en solde !"

(Boris Vian, "Le petit commerce")

"Un grand cri s'éleva, domina "La Marseillaise":
- Du pain! du pain! du pain!" (Emile Zola, "Germinal")

"Faut vous dire Monsieur
Que chez ces gens-là
On ne pense pas Monsieur on ne pense pas
On prie".
(Jacques Brel, "Ces gens-là"

About my libraryBiddy Mulligan's palace consists of one room, mine consists of two, and of course I spend a respectable amount of time devising the trickiest ways of dealing with an ever-increasing quantity of books, CDs and DVDs. Bless DVD encyclopaedias and such book collections as La Pléiade, Bouquins, Omnibus or Thésaurus : five books in one (eight in the Thésaurus volume which comprises Herbjorg Wassmo's "Dina trilogy"), but I haven't found a solution regarding videotapes yet, except disposing of them some time.

Emailhude.stephaniewanadoo.fr

Account typepublic, lifetime

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/Eustrabirbeonne (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Eustrabirbeonne (library)

Member sinceFeb 29, 2008

Currently readingRécits de la Kolyma by Varlam Chalamov
The Book Of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa
Ulysses by James Joyce