Julia

Les gens de Mogador #1

by Élisabeth Barbier

En cette première moitié du XIXe siècle, Julia Angellier est loin de disposer de toutes les qualités rêvées chez une jeune docilité, patience, abnégation, respect des traditions. Mme Angellier le constate une fois de plus en écoutant sa fille aînée proclamer qu'elle refuse de se laisser marier avec quelqu'un qui ne lui plaît pas. Songe-t-elle à une autre alliance que n'approuverait pas son père, Alfred Angellier ? L'idée est presque inconcevable. Julia y pense pourtant, elle aime Rodolphe Vernet, fils d'un colonel d'Empire installé au domaine de Mogador depuis près de dix ans. Qui dit " bonapartiste " dit " racaille " pour un royaliste ultra tel qu'Alfred Angellier. Quand Rodolphe vient demander la main de Julia, il l'éconduit brutalement et envisage de sérieuses représailles contre sa fille rebelle...

Genres: Historical Fiction

411 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1952

About the author

Élisabeth Barbier, is the pen name of Renée Guérin, a French novelist. She grew up in Paris from her early childhood, but spent her summer months back in her native region of Provence.

She studied mental pathology, literature and law, and became a lawyer. She married an Avignon doctor in 1935, and began expanding her passion for the stage. She directed a company of amateur actors for years, and she played an integral part in the birth of the Festival d'Avignon.

At the same time, she took up writing. From 1950, she collaborated with Jean Vilar and, for 15 years, published chronicles on the Avignon Theater Festival.

In addition to her theatrical activity, her career as a novelist was set with her most famous book, "Les Gens de Mogador", published by Julliard in 1947. In 1972, this same saga would be made into an enormously popular television mini-series.

Reviews

[Julay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Autant en emporte le vent, version française. C'était incroyable

[Csilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

Let's say that I'm finished. The first tome. Reading more and more 'diagonally'.
So, my problems began almost at the beginning of the book. Our female protagonist was already in love, and the object of her love confessed to her and asked for her hand in marriage 20 pages in or so. What's the fun in that?
Then her angry father sends her to a convent (which is also a school it seems) and there is this endless (no, let's be fair, not endless, but plenty) misery, conversations about nothing consequential, and plenty of 'vierge mere'. just like real life. (hihi)
will Rodolphe stay true to her? yes, he sends messages - but he was seen with another girl! it's the end of the world! but than he somehow gets inside the covent's garden, taking not-so-enormous risks, and everything is all right. Except I don't have any sympathy and patience for these people, therefore I don't care. And by the time Julia gets out (let's not spoil how, just in case), my reading has already started to converge to skimming.