Page 207 "...likened it to a book by Arnold Bennett called The Old Wives' Tale"

Clockwise from top left: A youngish Arnold Bennett; a cover for The Old Wives' Tale; an older Bennett; another cover for The Old Wives' Tale.

Arnold Bennett is a significant influence on my literary thought.  I read Margaret Drabble's biography of Bennett years ago and I highly recommend it, especially if you're a post-modern romantic like myself.  Bennett's novel "These Twain," which I read more than a decade ago, was great, and I'm looking forward to reading "Clayhanger."  I'm reading that trilogy out of order but, honestly I can manage it.  "Riceyman Steps" was a profound book for me back in 2004, I can't tell you.

The Old Wives' Tale, when I read it many years ago, was a new style for me to get used to; and it wasn't the same for his later novels.  However, the portions of the book dealing with the Siege of Paris were intense.  I think I had just recently read Henri Barbusse's "Under Fire", so the two together gave me a horrendous picture of the stupidity of the French military and the indescribable daily horrors of World War I, which I was to read more about vis-a-vis Martin Gilbert and John Keegan and others.

Hence my inclusion of the following images about the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71:

Two French children killed during the Prussian bombardment of Paris.



A Paris street scene showing the sale of rats, because food was so scarce during the Siege.



French battery station.

Painting of a soup kitchen in a Paris neighborhood during the Siege. It was a common occurrence.

 




From page 207-208 of the book:  "...I thought about Sarah's day with Mme. Cendre and likened it to a book by Arnold Bennett called The Old Wives Tale: where Mme. Cendre could easily have been the character Sophia Baines, who leaves England and elopes to Paris at the horror of her parents.  She is deserted by her husband, buys a boarding house, and struggles to stay alive during the Franco-Prussian War."

Page 194 "...Shanzenbach and I arrived at the Cabro du Roi..."



Although this is not actually the Cabro du Roi (because I made up the restaurant),
it does have everything I was imagining for the scene in which Shanzenbach
seduces Walter.  The bottom left photo is one of many lovely neighborhoods
in Pertuis.



From page 194 of the book:  "...When Shanzenbach and I arrived at the entrance to the Cabro du Roi, or in English, 'the King's Goat,' the chauffeur promptly ejected himself from the car and helped the old man out."

Page 183 "...walked to Fort Hamilton, to Thomas's office."




Images  of the Verrazano Narrows, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, and Fort Hamilton, Brooklyn.

Clockwise from top left:  Aerial view of the Narrows; Ft. Hamilton Parkway; Verrazano Bridge; memorial site in Ft. Hamilton; entrance to the Ft. Hamilton Officers' Club;  Ft. Hamilton neighborhood; Main Gate to Fort Hamilton U.S. Army base; soldiers onboard the USS Maurice Rose (which, at the time the character Thomas was serving at Ft. Hamilton, was the USS Admiral Rodman); the battery at Ft. Hamilton.



Fort Hamilton as it is today:

From page 183 of the book:  "...I walked over to Union Square and took the F train to Brooklyn, got off at the end of the line, and walked to Fort Hamilton, to Thomas's office.  If I were to keep walking straight instead of turning toward Fort Hamilton, I would end up looking out at The Narrows, the strip of water connecting Upper New York Bay with Lower New York Bay, and across which spanned the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge."

Page 177 "...one more episode would have pushed him over the Reichenbach Falls"

Clockwise from top left: Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty battle at the top of the Falls;
The Reichenbach Falls, Switzerland; Sherlock Holmes climbing the Falls;
another view of the Falls.

From page 177 of the book: "...But because Owen had gone a little over the bend, the stories of his life which had been told in cold blood, had reached a point where if he didn't get sick from the telling, one more episode would have pushed him over the “Reichenbach Falls.” One more thing was going to drive him completely insane. Like Sherlock Holmes, it was going to be the final problem. And like Holmes, whose instinct was to survive and whose death over the Reichenbach Falls was a mere fiction, our instinct nevertheless was to survive. Owen's elemental impulse was to survive."

Page 176 "...reading Cobban's History of Modern France..."

Mid-19th century engraving of the storming of the Bastille

 Alfred Cobban (1901–1968)
Professor of French History, University College, London

From page 176 of the book: "...I was alone in the back yard, sitting between two kerosine lamps, reading Cobban's History of Modern France and fantasizing about the strange, romantic attachment I had to my mother's country."

Page 176 "...Aeneas' visit to hell in order to speak with his father"

Various images of the Aeneid

Aeneas visits the underworld

From page 176 of the book: "...As if to put a final topping on the discussion, relative to its meaning for fathers and sons, Ebert quoted from Virgil's Aeneid, a passage which spoke of Aeneas' visit to hell in order to speak with his father, Anchises. In translation, it said that the road to hell is easy, that the gate stands open night and day, but "to trace one's steps and return to the upper air, that is the toil, that the difficulty."

Page 174 "...our dinner table had an evolution that was nothing slight of spectacular"

A few images of Provence and its food.

From page 171 of the book:  "...In exchange for her volunteerism, Mme. Cendre was teaching her the French language and Provencal cooking.  The result of which was our dinner table had an evolution that was nothing slight of spectacular."


Some interesting links regarding Provencal cooking:

Life in Provence http://lifeinprovence.com/
Herbs and Spices of Provence www.beyond.fr/food/herbs.html

http://www.foodreference.com/html/art-provence.html

http://www.epiculinary.com/fra_valmouriane.html