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Natalia
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| Posted: Oct 19 2006 at 9:52pm | IP Logged
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Any good resources for the French Revolution? Any picture books, historical fiction,movies etc?
Thanks,
Natalia
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Maddie
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Tale of Two Cities
Not sure which age group you are looking for, but this is my favorite film version of the story, great for teens.
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~Maddie~
Wife to my dh and Momma of 9 dear ones
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Kelly
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Get Ann Carroll's cd lecture on the French Revolution. It is excellent. You can purchase it from Seton High School (not to be confused with Seton Home School) in Manassas, Virginia. Mrs. Carroll tells a great story, really putting a face on the French Revolution, and a not very pretty face, at that, especially for Catholics. Highly recommended cd. All my kids were glued to the lecture.
For reading (or for movies) you gotta read/see "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by d'Orzay, I think. Wonderful exciting read. The old movie, with Ashley from "Gone with the Wind" (Leslie...can't remember his real name) is great. Haven't seen the new version, but heard it was good. The book is GREAT!
"Song at the Scaffold", for highschoolers, tells the story of a group of Carmelite nuns who offer their lives as a sacrifice to bring an end to the Reign of Terror. Along with it, you have to listen to the opera "Dialogue of the Carmelites"---if only to the last Te Deum. It will bring goosebumps to you, as the nuns all sing the Te Deum, then one by one, the chorus diminishes as they each go to the scaffold. Haunting.
I think the second of the "Horatio Hornblower" books takes place in France during the time of the French Revolution, and was very good. I THINK the tv miniseries also follows Horatio to France, and was enjoyable. I love those Horatio Hornblower books as well as the tv series.
Kelly in FL
PS HOWARD! That's it. Leslie Howard.
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JennyMaine
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| Posted: Oct 20 2006 at 5:53am | IP Logged
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Don't forget to learn about our newly canonized Mother Theodore. . .she lived in France during that time before she came to America.
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--JennyMaine, Mom to Catherine (17) and Sam (15) "The countenance is a reflection of the soul. You should always have a calm and serene countenance." -- Therese of Lisieux
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Natalia
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| Posted: Oct 20 2006 at 7:57am | IP Logged
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Kelly,
Where can I find the Dialogue of the Carmelites?
My children are 9 and 13. My 13 read A Tale of Two Cities but I think it was bit much for her. She wouldn't finish. I have forgotten about the movie(s).
We read and watched the Scarlet Pimpernel last year and will watch it again soon. I was hoping to find some good picture books. But my library doesn't have much on this period :-( I like to use picture books even for my oldest.
Right now we are using
Learning Through History
I have also found some websites:
Student's
Friend
Mr. Donn's page
frenchrevolution_worksheets.shtml">School History
I would look into the Horation Hornblower series and Mother Theodore. Thanks,
Natalia
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ALmom
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I don't know if there would be very many picture books on that time period - not quite appropriate for children to be looking at pictures of mob violence and blood flowing through the street with goddess of wisdom enshrined in the cathedral.
However, there are some oop short chapter books for younger readers like your 13 yo (The Red Bonnet by Henry Garnett) which depicts the period. Also, there are some history books in Neumann Press catalogue over this time period. They have a book on the Uprising in the Verdun and also some others that I haven't read yet but are on my to buy as soon as we have some more to spend list. These are written for adults so I would preview them first.
You might find some short stories in lives of Saints - so look in collections. We just bought a collection of the martyrs from Roman Catholic Books that had a short section on the martyrs of the French Revolution - the priests that were asked to take the oath during the raid on the various convent/prisons and were executed as soon as they refused.
I'm looking to see if anyone has found books we aren't aware of yet.
Janet
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Natalia
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ALmom wrote:
| I don't know if there would be very many picture books on that time period - not quite appropriate for children to be looking at pictures of mob violence and blood flowing through the street with goddess of wisdom enshrined in the cathedral. |
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I guess you are right. When we were doing the American Revolution there were some beautiful picture books that, without depicting the battles or the conflict itself, portrayed how the war affected the life of people. I was thinking of something along those lines.
Natalia
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Kelly
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| Posted: Oct 21 2006 at 11:02pm | IP Logged
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Natalia, I honestly think the Anne Carrol cd would work fine for your 9 and 13 yo. I'm not exagerating when I say all my children listened to it avidly-the youngest, at that time, was 4! It really is interesting. It changed the way I look at the French Revolution.
"Dialogue of the Carmelites" is an opera by Poulenc. Maybe you could request it at your library? If you have an option, you'd probably do better getting the "Selections" version rather than the whole, long opera.
I don't know how you feel about "Great Illustrated Classics", but "Tale of Two Cities" is available in that edition. My take on GIC is I let my kids read them if it's a book they're sure to read later in its original version-by reading GIC, I don't really feel like it takes away from the original, instead my kids have a better understanding of the original when they read it. By then they're already familiar with the characters and the plot, and they can concentrate on the language and nuance in the original (harder) version. Just my 2cents worth. I used to get very bothered about letting them read GICs at all-in fact, I pulled "Tale of Two Cities" (speak of the devil) off the shelf and read out loud to dc the classic 'best-of-times-worst-of-times' intro, then read the very mundane GIC intro-(blandsville) out loud. "See" I said with great indignation, "How can you even compare them? Which one is obviously better?" and EVERY ONE of my dc said the GIC was better!  Granted, they were pretty little, but was I ever flustered.  Since then, I have taken a kinder, gentler view of GICs! 
Alexandre Dumas also wrote a book called "The Taking (or was it 'Storming') of the Bastille" which obviously has to do with the French Revolution. I haven't read it, know nothing about it, only know I loved his Musketeers, so Bastille may be worth investigating.
Kelly in FL
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4Real Forums : Across Time and Place
Topic: French Revolution
