Celestine: Voices from a French Village
by Gillian Tindall
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Description
Late on a summer afternoon in the very heart of rural France, in a small, centuries-old house newly abandoned to its ghosts, Gillian Tindall came upon a cache of letters dating from the 1860s. Neatly folded and carefully tucked away, all were addressed to the village innkeeper's daughter, Celestine. All but one were proposals of marriage. Celestine Chaumette (1844-1933) was to reject each of these suitors to wed another; yet she preserved the letters, keeping them throughout her long life. show more Something about the letters, about the woman who had so clearly cherished them, fired the historian's curiosity and the novelist's imagination. With a house in Chassignolles, Celestine's village, Ms. Tindall would spend years searching in dusty archives and farmhouse attics, probing the memories and myths of the men and women from the village and the surrounding countryside. The treasure she unearthed reaches far beyond the mystery of Celestine to tell of a vanished way of life, of a century of revolutionary change-and of the strange persistence, despite all, of the past. The result is both moving and profound. It is, as M.R.D. Foot wrote in the London Spectator, "a touching picture of a world we have lost [and] social history at its best.". show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Acquired via BookCrossing 27 Feb 2010 - at the Birmingham meetup
An amazing book based on real events when Tindall found a cache of old letters in a house in a French village, mainly asking for a woman's, Celestine's, hand in marriage in the 1860s. Knowing Celestine's grand-daughter lived in the village, she traces the interconnecting relationships between the villagers, the landscape, and wider French history, right up to their present-day lives in the village. Wonderful - warm and rich and the village seems really similar to the one we've been staying in, if in a different area.
An amazing book based on real events when Tindall found a cache of old letters in a house in a French village, mainly asking for a woman's, Celestine's, hand in marriage in the 1860s. Knowing Celestine's grand-daughter lived in the village, she traces the interconnecting relationships between the villagers, the landscape, and wider French history, right up to their present-day lives in the village. Wonderful - warm and rich and the village seems really similar to the one we've been staying in, if in a different area.
this book has stayed w me since 1997 - as I pick it up again in 2022 I realize I have nothing but admiration for Tindall and what she has accomplished here
Guardian obit 2025 mentions several of her books and her personal history ...
Guardian obit 2025 mentions several of her books and her personal history ...
Reconstructie van het leven op het Franse platteland in de 19e eeuw aan de hand van een pakketje liefdesbrieven uit die tijd.
May 24, 2009Dutch
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Author Information
33+ Works 918 Members
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Common Knowledge
- Important places*
- Chassignolles, Haute-Loire, Auvergne, Frankrijk; Auvergne, Frankrijk
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, History, Biography & Memoir, General Nonfiction, Travel
- DDC/MDS
- 944.551 — History & geography History of Europe France and Monaco Orléans, etc.; Auvergne Berry: Indre, Cher
- LCC
- DC801 .C4822 .T56 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania France – Andorra – Monaco History of France Local history and description Other cities, towns, etc., A-Z
- BISAC
Statistics
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- 150
- Popularity
- 216,167
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.16)
- Languages
- Dutch, English, French
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 1
