This beautiful fresco adorns the exterior of the La Bibliotèque De La Cité (Library of the City) in Lyon, France.photos via
Attack of the Beast People, aka The Social-Animals’ Parade
In 1829, the beasts within humanity were exposed and let loose upon an unsuspecting Paris. The onslaught was merciless; no one was spared, not even the clergy. It was a slasher-movie in print - don’t turn that page; somebody is getting ripped to shreds. The book was a killer. The horror was greeted with laughter, though the Church and State experienced sharp pains not associated with split-sides or knee-slaps.Garçon, I’ll have the Metamorphosis du Jour, please, well-seasoned with satire.Les Metamorphoses du Jour by J.J. Grandville (1803-1847), one of the most celebrated caricaturists of his era, is amongst the rarest of...
When Jackie Met André: Jacqueline Kennedy’s Gift Book to Malraux
André Malraux (foreground, left) with Jacqueline Kennedyand JFK, state dinner at the White House, May 11, 1962.The personal gift of Jacqueline and President Kennedy to French Minister of Culture André Malraux, in celebration of his visit to Washington, D.C. in May of 1962, has surfaced.It is a book. Not just any book but a perfect copy of the great British caricaturist George Cruikshank's Remembrancer of a Tour on the Continent, a series of eight hand-colored aquatint engravings gently satirizing European travel.London: Published by H. Humphrey, June 30, 1821."[Jacqueline Kennedy] had a degree in French literature and was captivated by the...
Albert Camus in Grave Condition, France Holds Its Breath
The author at rest.Albert Camus is in the midst of a post-existential crisis.President Nicolas Sarkozy of France wants to transfer the remains of the writer and Nobel-laureate to the Panthéon, the Paris monument to some of the great men and women of France and one of the nation's most hallowed burial places. Camus is currently residing in the cemetery of Lourmarin, in the Luberon area of Provence, his birthplace.The gall, says Camus’s son, Jean, who asserts that interring his father’s remains at the Panthéon would be contrary to his father’s wishes and does not want to have his legacy put...