Product Description

One summer evening in central France, Gillian Tindall went on an errand into a deserted house. There she discovered a cache of letters in various hands, all written to the same woman. In piecing together the life of this extraordinary person, the author rediscovered a vanished village world and a remarkable period in French history. Celestine Chaumette, an innkeeper's daughter, lived from 1844 until 1933. Many changes occurred during her lifetime, but her story has more to do with the persistence of the past than the loss of it, and Gillian Tindall makes use of a number of sources, from archive material to works of literature, to recreate her life and the life of her village.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #88407 in Books
• Published on: 1996-03-25
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

Customer Reviews

A unique insight into the real rural history of France
Gillian Tindall has had a home in the French Department of Indre for some time. On the death of a local friend Tindall visited the house to collect an item that had been left for her. She also discovered an unwanted container in which she found a collection of love letters, written by different suitors to the same women around the turn of the century.

Celestine, the recipient, of the letters, came from a family of inn owners near to the French town of La Chatre, the pastural heart of France - the country made famous by the novels of George Sand.

Tindall set about researching the life of Celestine; this rapidly became a history of the small villageitself.

In compiling this history Tindall seems to have been aware that she was giving the village back its history, Not only do we learn about Celestine, and the life she would have lived, we experience the village's entry into the modern world through the eyes of the families that lived there.

Only 100 years ago the region was effectively cut off from the rest of France. Progress came slowly but steadily and Tindall provides a fascinating account of tjhe caution with which the area took on the modern world. For example, the village council worried about the coming of the railway for more than 20 years. When it arrived in changed life forever. But it was gone again after only a few years as the speed of change passed them by.

If you have even a passing interest in rural France, and the development of rural communities, you will enjoy this book. A well written, warm hearted and unique project.

thoughtful and sensitive
This book is an absorbing and thoughtful study of the motivating and controlling forces of French rural life, woven around the central figure of Celestine. I felt slightly disappointed that Celestine remained a somewhat shadowy figure - some facts about her were uncovered to put flesh on the bones of the letters, but I never really felt I knew what made her tick. I don't doubt that the discovery of the letters triggered Gillian Tindall's research, but cynically one could suggest that the 'Celestine' title was a marketing ploy to make a book on 'the development of society and economy in rural France' more saleable.

Nevertheless, this is a very interesting book, particularly because the author lets us follow the course of her research methods, and tells us honestly when she is unsure of her facts. Additionally, she is hugely sympathetic and sensitive to the people she writes about.

I felt the book would have been greatly enhanced by the addition of photographs and maps, particularly as at several points specific photos are mentioned in the text.

Overall, I found this an engrossing book which I am very glad to have read.

terrific book to read wherever you are
a marvelous book - as difficult to put down as a mystery-engrossing account of the past as a different country-I took it to read while visiting a farming village near Kyoto and it was not the least dissonant