If this "sister work" of Horne's delightful Seven Ages of Paris
is "the culmination of some four decades of a love affair with France," the relationship between author and mistress shows no signs of waning. Horne takes his lover's story from the "yobbish louts" of the sixth-century Merovingian dynasty to the career of François Mitterrand and his "liaisons dangereuses
" (both political and private). The author fondly delves into a drawerful of narratives, historical snapshots and personal anecdotes, but lovers' quarrels resurface in entertainingly brusque judgments and occasional character assassinations. Valéry Giscard D'Estaing and Jean-Paul Sartre inspire some particularly choice language: "If there was ever a philosopher guilty of the sin Socrates was accused of, being a false corrupter of youth, Sartre seemed to be it." He smelled, says Horne, like a goat, a quality he apparently shared with Henri IV, whom the author conversely admires as a statesman. It's the compellingly subjective treatment of modern France, and the irreverent appraisal of its icons, that makes this book so worth reading. While Horne's medieval and early modern chapters are swift but superficial, the book's second half is reflective and charming. Horne's moving account of the dilemmas of resistance and collaboration under Nazi occupation and the vindictive purification that followed is an emotional climax. 24 pages of color illus., not seen by PW
; 4 maps. (Aug. 25)
