Sous Le Pied de L'Archange

by Roger Vercel

Rare book

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1938

Reviews

[Lawrene Hawthorne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was so lucky to get to read this book-made even better because I stayed over night on Mont St. Michel!

[John Lamb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book rather by accident, and it's fascinating think about the people (or person) that has owned and read it the last 80 years and what they might have thought of it. I found the parts about living on Mont St. Michel to be the most interesting. The "love" story at the center was unfair to both and had me wanting them to break up fairly early because they were not really good for each other. I really wondered why they had even married in the first place.

Read it for descriptions of one of the most beautiful places on Earth but don't expect much in the way of plot or character.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

This English translation of a French novel was one of my Father's favorites. I finally got it down from the shelf and read it. Set in the Great Depression, it tells a depressing tale of the disintegration of a marriage against the backdrop the Mont St.-Michel. A formerly wealthy woman comes to detest her husband because he is unable to support her accustomed lifestyle, while he begins to question what she means to him.

[Dayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved learning everything there is to know about Mont St. Michel, and Vercel's book is a lovely addition.

[IRA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!
Pulled this off my father in laws bookshelf.
There were so many great moments, and so many great lines.
I'll paraphrase the one. "A lonely woman is never the same person after she finishes a book."
Beginning with the vivid descriptions of the weather, then the architecture and the ocean landscape, then the people. So Good.
I will be on the lookout for more from this French author.

[Elizabeth Vanderesch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's the summary that was printed on the inside of the front and back covers:

"This is the Abbey of Mont S. Michel -- crowning glory of mediaeval architecture. Not only a shrine, it is also a fortress set boldly on a great rock in the Atlantic Ocean. At low tide the causeway to the French mainland ios passable; at high tide the water submerges it, and the Abbey becomes an island.

This modern novel tells of a drama enacted within the stone walls of the incredible structure that man and nature have created here -- a drama of a man and a woman, of strong opposing forces and of lofty aspiration"

The one thought I had upon finishing this book: I had no idea they used the word "slut" so liberally in 1938.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book gave me a feeling for the atmosphere of Mont St. Michel. I'm visiting there in a few weeks, and this helped me understand the people who once inhabited it --- even tourist back in that day!! The plot itself about a married couple forced to come to live there as the husband needed a job as one of the "Guardian" tourist guides.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is dated in its depiction of sexual roles, but it gives a wonderful sense of Mont St. Michel as a place, through the seasons, as well as of the personal tensions created by the Great Depression, through the story of a once-wealthy couple caught in the downdraft

[Lena · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my French fluency book for the past month or so. I read the bulk of it in the past week and to be honest, it wasn't a stellar book. I can say that it was incredibly atmospheric and I can tell that Roger Vercel wrote a lot of book that went to the silver screen. I also think it was interesting to read about Mont St Michel before the insane waves of tourism that exist today.

AND DINARD REFERENCE!!!!!!