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Odaların Tarihi
Michelle Perrot insanoğlunun en eski yerleşkesinin izlerini sürüyor.
Odaların Tarihi, yazar odalarından hasta odalarına, işçi odalarından otel odalarına, XIV. Louis’nin odasından çocuk odalarına varıncaya dek, çağlar boyu toplumsal değişimlerin süzgecinden geçerek çeşitlilik gösteren çetrefilli bir uzamın soykütüğünü inceliyor.
Edebi üslubundan ödün vermeyen Perrot’nun benzersiz çalışması Odaların Tarihi, kültür tarihi alanındaki “klasik” kitaplardan biri olmayı hak ediyor.
Odaların Tarihi, yazar odalarından hasta odalarına, işçi odalarından otel odalarına, XIV. Louis’nin odasından çocuk odalarına varıncaya dek, çağlar boyu toplumsal değişimlerin süzgecinden geçerek çeşitlilik gösteren çetrefilli bir uzamın soykütüğünü inceliyor.
Edebi üslubundan ödün vermeyen Perrot’nun benzersiz çalışması Odaların Tarihi, kültür tarihi alanındaki “klasik” kitaplardan biri olmayı hak ediyor.
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
27 people are currently reading
755 people want to read
About the author
Michelle Perrot
113 books74 followersMichelle Perrot is professor emeritus at Paris VII and one of France’s most distinguished cultural historians. She has received numerous awards and honors in France and abroad for her published histories of work, prisons, private life, and women.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 21, 2019
This is a good book in what it does cover - the history of the bedroom but, at the same time, it is really limited. Originally published in France in 2009, the English translation was only published in late 2018 and it could have really done with an update, considering how our relationship with our mobile phones, computers and tablets has affected our sleeping patterns and what we do in our bedrooms. Secondly, and this is my real problem, I'm not entirely sure why this book was translated. Perrot says at the start that she is mainly looking at the Western bedroom, so this already limits her research and sources but I think she quite overstates 'Western', she really focuses on France. The research and sources are all French too and I doubt many are translated in English. Anyone wanting to read further would have to be able to read French anyway. When she does use sources from outside of France, like Virginia Wolf (A Room of One's Own) or William Morris (beautiful/ useful), she overuses them.
On the positive side, Perrot is good on the working class (19th and early 20th c French), women like George Sand and on male French authors and how they wrote in or about bedrooms. Overall though, The Bedroom was somewhat frustrating read.
Examples: the first chapter, The King's Bedroom, is only about Louis XIV. I'm not particularly well read on Louis XIV but I knew most of this from Antonia Fraser's book. Nothing on other French kings, nothing on queens of France. Rousseau is quoted several times on bringing up children without a caveat that he wasn't any sort of a father to his own. The use of wallpaper, which she considers in a number of different chapters but not as a fashionable or luxurious item. She dates its first use to eighteenth century English working class (no source) but doesn't look at 19th century fashions for luxurious wallpapers inspired by travels to exotic locations (such as the Jean Gabriel Chavet's 1806 20 panel wallpaper inspired by Captain Cook's travels for example). She looks at hotel rooms but not at spaces for illicit encounters.
Often, there will be a tantalising sentence like "Repression raised to morality also reigns over our dreams.", which could have been expanded but Perrot moves onto something else. There is an occasional mention of paintings like Manet's Olympia "to round out the exquisite pleasures imagined by men" but nothing on women being objectified.
I'm going to stop complaining now. It's really not a bad book but it could have been a lot better.
On the positive side, Perrot is good on the working class (19th and early 20th c French), women like George Sand and on male French authors and how they wrote in or about bedrooms. Overall though, The Bedroom was somewhat frustrating read.
Examples: the first chapter, The King's Bedroom, is only about Louis XIV. I'm not particularly well read on Louis XIV but I knew most of this from Antonia Fraser's book. Nothing on other French kings, nothing on queens of France. Rousseau is quoted several times on bringing up children without a caveat that he wasn't any sort of a father to his own. The use of wallpaper, which she considers in a number of different chapters but not as a fashionable or luxurious item. She dates its first use to eighteenth century English working class (no source) but doesn't look at 19th century fashions for luxurious wallpapers inspired by travels to exotic locations (such as the Jean Gabriel Chavet's 1806 20 panel wallpaper inspired by Captain Cook's travels for example). She looks at hotel rooms but not at spaces for illicit encounters.
Often, there will be a tantalising sentence like "Repression raised to morality also reigns over our dreams.", which could have been expanded but Perrot moves onto something else. There is an occasional mention of paintings like Manet's Olympia "to round out the exquisite pleasures imagined by men" but nothing on women being objectified.
I'm going to stop complaining now. It's really not a bad book but it could have been a lot better.
June 26, 2021
El libro es interesante, y algo curioso, porqué como se ha mencionado, el libro se centra mucho en Francia y más que todo entre los siglos XVIII y XXI, no esperen que mencionen lugares alejados de Europa ni mucho menos menciones a la Edad Antigua o la Edad Media; no obstante, si las menciona y hay varias veces que desarrolla ideas en esas épocas, pero, no es el fuerte del libro.
Es cierto lo de las fuentes, por todo el libro habrán referencia a la literatura, esto puede generar visiones divididas, porqué para un amante de la literatura será interesante adentrarse más a ciertos autores como Baudelaire, Víctor Hugo o Flaubert, pero, el que quiere solo ver referencias históricas para la historia de las alcobas no son muchas.
La autora lo deja claro en la introducción las dos anteriores "problemáticas" dado qué, como todo estudio de la vida cotidiana, la fuentes no son fáciles de conseguir y la literatura es un buen insumo, además, que deja la puerta abierta para estudiar las alcobas en otros lugares.
Ahora bien, sobre los capítulos no se desarrollan de manera cronológica, sino desde las distintas dimensiones de la habitación, como lo pueden ser desde la infancia, el amor, el trabajo, las mujeres, la muerte, la vejes y el encierro.
Dentro de los capítulos hay apartados interesantes pero hay otros que resulta pesados de leerlo; sin embargo, se pueden rescatar elementos interesantes como la transformación que tienen las habitaciones en la "modernidad" por ejemplo en aquella época surgen elementos como el cuarto para el niño, las mujeres, una cama conyugal y un cuarto para la sirvienta. Cosas que en la Edad Media no había, ya qué no había el concepto de privacidad, cosa que anhelaba mucha gente.
El último capítulo, es interesante, en el sentido en que los cuartos han cambiado mucho, los espacios de sociabilidad son pocos, hay una gran individualización de cada habitación por culpa de los celulares y la televisión.
En conclusión, dentro de todo, el libro es bueno, si hay varias cosas a criticar, pero se pueden rescatar muchas cosas para futuros estudios relacionados con la vida cotidiana.
Es cierto lo de las fuentes, por todo el libro habrán referencia a la literatura, esto puede generar visiones divididas, porqué para un amante de la literatura será interesante adentrarse más a ciertos autores como Baudelaire, Víctor Hugo o Flaubert, pero, el que quiere solo ver referencias históricas para la historia de las alcobas no son muchas.
La autora lo deja claro en la introducción las dos anteriores "problemáticas" dado qué, como todo estudio de la vida cotidiana, la fuentes no son fáciles de conseguir y la literatura es un buen insumo, además, que deja la puerta abierta para estudiar las alcobas en otros lugares.
Ahora bien, sobre los capítulos no se desarrollan de manera cronológica, sino desde las distintas dimensiones de la habitación, como lo pueden ser desde la infancia, el amor, el trabajo, las mujeres, la muerte, la vejes y el encierro.
Dentro de los capítulos hay apartados interesantes pero hay otros que resulta pesados de leerlo; sin embargo, se pueden rescatar elementos interesantes como la transformación que tienen las habitaciones en la "modernidad" por ejemplo en aquella época surgen elementos como el cuarto para el niño, las mujeres, una cama conyugal y un cuarto para la sirvienta. Cosas que en la Edad Media no había, ya qué no había el concepto de privacidad, cosa que anhelaba mucha gente.
El último capítulo, es interesante, en el sentido en que los cuartos han cambiado mucho, los espacios de sociabilidad son pocos, hay una gran individualización de cada habitación por culpa de los celulares y la televisión.
En conclusión, dentro de todo, el libro es bueno, si hay varias cosas a criticar, pero se pueden rescatar muchas cosas para futuros estudios relacionados con la vida cotidiana.
July 2, 2022
This is social and literary cultural history of rooms ("chambres") centered on the bedroom in 17th to 20th century France. It is not ordered chronologically but by topics, which makes it occasionally repetitive and relies heavily on literary scenes written by authors such as Balzac, Proust, Zola, Flaubert (particulary Madame Bovary), Simone de Beavoir and Perec. It is reminiscent of a collection of essays, rather like Zeldin´s volumes on "France 1848-1945". While centered on France, it does cover, albeit briefly, living spaces in Ancient Greece and Rome and mentions in passing, harems and seraglios (with a strong orientalist flavor) and includes descriptions of living quarters in Soviet Russia, italian prisons, and Swiss sanatoriums. It also quotes from Florence Nightingale's writings on hospital nursing, Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain¨, Virginia Woolf (in particular "A room of one´s own"), the diary of Alice James (William and Henry James' sister), Teresa del Ávila and Goncharov's Oblomov amongst others.
The translator’s note and the first chapter (Chamber Music explain what chambres, the book´s original title in Frech denotes, together with the ethymology of the word. This includes a very brief history of living quarters in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and, in passing, the Middle Ages (in France) and some thoughts on the politics of such spaces. It also covers more public uses of “chambres” as in court of justice chambers or parliamentary chambers. It also mentions the number of roles associated with “chambres”: chamber maids, parlor maids, ladies’ maids, ladies-in-waiting, valet de chambre, chamberlain or chambrier du couvent (officiate in the cloisters)
The next chapter, >i>The King´s Bedroom, is an extended essay on Louise XIV's chambers in Versaille, in which the centralized rituals of the Sun King's rising and retiring theatrically governed and controllled his entire court. Many readers will probably find this chapter to be full of excruciating, stifling, and frankly not very interesting detail, especially since the chapter is not linked very closely to the rest of the book.
Rooms for Sleeping is the chapter at the heart of the book and includes sections on
Two rather curious chapters round off the book before the conclusions wrap it up. These are the chapters Sickbeds and Deathbeds, which starts describing in detail the last days of George Sand as well as Simone de Beauvoir's A Versy Easy Death, her account of her mother's death in a parisian clinic. These two descriptions complement and contrast with the section on the death of Louise XIV in the chapter on The King's Bedroom. Sickbeds refers to the evolutions and transformations of sick beds at home, (private and shared) hospital and sanatorium rooms, living quarters for the bed-ridden -this includes a rather bizarre section, The Creative Illness: Joë Bosquet's Room who, in 1918, was "...paralyzed for life by a war wound in the spinal cord and became a paraplegic" until he died in 1950 . The chapter also includes an interesting essay on the role of nurses, extensively based on Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing as well as rather incongruous snippets on death masks, the erstwhile fad of photographing or painting recently deceased famous figures or their relatives and turning bedrooms into memorials for the deceased. In the penultimate chapter, No Exit, Perrott turn to prison cells and bizarre cases of self-confinement or sequestration.
In his Goodreads review, Neil Albert correctly claims this book is a "A sweeping, largely anecdotal account of the history of the bedroom from the point of view of a French cultural historian." There is in fact an anecdotal embarrassment of riches in this somewhat rambling, somewhat digressive, rather erudite book which will be of particular interest to historians of interior design, social and cultural mores, as well as social and literary historians.
The translator’s note and the first chapter (Chamber Music explain what chambres, the book´s original title in Frech denotes, together with the ethymology of the word. This includes a very brief history of living quarters in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome and, in passing, the Middle Ages (in France) and some thoughts on the politics of such spaces. It also covers more public uses of “chambres” as in court of justice chambers or parliamentary chambers. It also mentions the number of roles associated with “chambres”: chamber maids, parlor maids, ladies’ maids, ladies-in-waiting, valet de chambre, chamberlain or chambrier du couvent (officiate in the cloisters)
The next chapter, >i>The King´s Bedroom, is an extended essay on Louise XIV's chambers in Versaille, in which the centralized rituals of the Sun King's rising and retiring theatrically governed and controllled his entire court. Many readers will probably find this chapter to be full of excruciating, stifling, and frankly not very interesting detail, especially since the chapter is not linked very closely to the rest of the book.
Rooms for Sleeping is the chapter at the heart of the book and includes sections on
- Communal bedrooms;A careful look at the rise of a private room for one is covered in the chapter A Room of One's Own. Sections look at this topic from various perspectives:
- Communal apartments (which includes descriptions of communal apartments in tasarist and communist Russia);
- Conjugal bedrooms (an outstanding and long section)
- The Right to Secrecy;Children´s rooms naturally merit a chapter to themselves, as do living quarters for women, rooms for travellers (Hotel Rooms) and living quarters and housing for workers (Workers' Rooms.
- Sleeping Alone;
- Sleeping;
- Loving;
- Praying (which also covers monks and nuns cells);
- Reading;
- Writing;
- Writers' Rooms;
- Aesthetes and Collectors;
- Seeing the World from the Bedroom;
- Oblomov or a Man Asleep.
Two rather curious chapters round off the book before the conclusions wrap it up. These are the chapters Sickbeds and Deathbeds, which starts describing in detail the last days of George Sand as well as Simone de Beauvoir's A Versy Easy Death, her account of her mother's death in a parisian clinic. These two descriptions complement and contrast with the section on the death of Louise XIV in the chapter on The King's Bedroom. Sickbeds refers to the evolutions and transformations of sick beds at home, (private and shared) hospital and sanatorium rooms, living quarters for the bed-ridden -this includes a rather bizarre section, The Creative Illness: Joë Bosquet's Room who, in 1918, was "...paralyzed for life by a war wound in the spinal cord and became a paraplegic" until he died in 1950 . The chapter also includes an interesting essay on the role of nurses, extensively based on Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing as well as rather incongruous snippets on death masks, the erstwhile fad of photographing or painting recently deceased famous figures or their relatives and turning bedrooms into memorials for the deceased. In the penultimate chapter, No Exit, Perrott turn to prison cells and bizarre cases of self-confinement or sequestration.
In his Goodreads review, Neil Albert correctly claims this book is a "A sweeping, largely anecdotal account of the history of the bedroom from the point of view of a French cultural historian." There is in fact an anecdotal embarrassment of riches in this somewhat rambling, somewhat digressive, rather erudite book which will be of particular interest to historians of interior design, social and cultural mores, as well as social and literary historians.
February 22, 2022
A sweeping, largely anecdotal account of the history of the bedroom from the point of view of a French cultural historian. Her point of view is neither sociological or historical; she talks about what having a private space has meant in various cultures. It's a fascinating story, painted with a broad brush, from Louis XIV through the hovels of the poor. It was a book that made me very glad I am living in a century with not only space for privacy, but central heating and my very own bathroom. Her argument is that the concept of bedroom is far more fluid than we imagine and is dependent on a broad range of social, economic and architectural influences.
One feature of the book that I personally found charming but might not be to everyone's taste was the very strong French flavor of the text. Not just that most of the author's literary and cultural examples are French, but that the English reads like French. The translator, Lauren Elkin, took great care to retain the rhythm and sentence structure of the original. The effect is an elliptical English that lacks the blunt, declarative style of English nonfiction sentences. It made the book a somewhat slower read but I personally was happy for the challenge. But out of respect for readers who are more impatient to get to the point, I refrain from giving it the five stars I would otherwise award.
One feature of the book that I personally found charming but might not be to everyone's taste was the very strong French flavor of the text. Not just that most of the author's literary and cultural examples are French, but that the English reads like French. The translator, Lauren Elkin, took great care to retain the rhythm and sentence structure of the original. The effect is an elliptical English that lacks the blunt, declarative style of English nonfiction sentences. It made the book a somewhat slower read but I personally was happy for the challenge. But out of respect for readers who are more impatient to get to the point, I refrain from giving it the five stars I would otherwise award.
August 6, 2021
Chambres pour dormir, aimer, accoucher, mourir, chambres d’enfant, de jeune fille, refuge de femme, chambres témoins de sexualités diverses dans un lit ou deux, chambres où l’on viole, cellules où l’on prie ou emprisonne, chambres de bonnes, de promiscuité, chambres dortoirs d’ouvriers, de misère, pièce unique de la chaumière qui devient chambre commune la nuit, espace démesuré de suite royale, paillasses d’hospices, chambres d’hôpital… Les chambres à travers le temps, selon les sexes et les âges, Michelle Perrot les étudie et à travers elles, nous apprend comment on vivait, comment on vit encore. C’est une étude complète et passionnante qui nous en apprend sur l’histoire, les autres, sur soi.
August 15, 2015
Una historiadora de raza. Como todo francés, solo habla de Francia y solo cita a autores franceses. Preo es una obra arrolladora, nunca pensé que hubiera tantos tipos de "alcobas" (qué palabra graciosa, en francés es chambre, que también se puede traducir como "cámara" (en fotografía) o como habitación (el inglés room, aclara la autora, tiene un sentido más amplio).
Me gustaron las cosas de los escritores, Proust, George Sand, así como las Conclusiones, donde reflexiona acerca de la disminución de la importancia de las habitaciones en el mundo de hoy.
Me gustaron las cosas de los escritores, Proust, George Sand, así como las Conclusiones, donde reflexiona acerca de la disminución de la importancia de las habitaciones en el mundo de hoy.
August 30, 2024
A propulsive, dynamically-written portrait of the most important room in a person's life. Lauren Elkin's translation made the prose surprisingly modern and cutting edge, while maintaining Perrot's jaw-dropping lyricism. If only all historians could write this beautifully!
I agree with the critiques that this book focused too much on French literature and history (and also on the life of George Sand, for some reason). However, she did demarcate her scope very clearly in the introduction and also spent a couple sentences talking about Japan and the Middle East. In general, I wish that the structure of the book had been thought through a little bit more (specifically where and when she introduced information) and found her voice flagging toward the end of the book. Perhaps one chapter about the non-Western bedroom could have been good, in orderly for the book to really live up to its name--she probably could have completed all the research that she needed in a month or so.
Well, in any case, this book "blew my mind" at many points and want an extended version ASAP. I am definitely interested in reading more Perrot and Elkin after this.
I agree with the critiques that this book focused too much on French literature and history (and also on the life of George Sand, for some reason). However, she did demarcate her scope very clearly in the introduction and also spent a couple sentences talking about Japan and the Middle East. In general, I wish that the structure of the book had been thought through a little bit more (specifically where and when she introduced information) and found her voice flagging toward the end of the book. Perhaps one chapter about the non-Western bedroom could have been good, in orderly for the book to really live up to its name--she probably could have completed all the research that she needed in a month or so.
Well, in any case, this book "blew my mind" at many points and want an extended version ASAP. I am definitely interested in reading more Perrot and Elkin after this.
May 17, 2019
Okay, first of all, this isn't a history so much as it is a collection of anecdotes and philosophies surrounding the bedroom and the idea thereof. Or maybe it is a history, just separated out into different chunks, like a woman's room as isolation or freedom, or the king's bedroom as the center of the universe, or the bedroom as the sickroom or death room, or the prison cell. The title bills it as a sort of daily life thing, but that's not what it is at all.
There is definitely way more philosophy in here than I had anticipated, but I enjoyed it for all that. I also enjoyed that it drew mostly from French history (understandably as the author is French and the book was originally published there) rather than British history, like most of the daily life things I've read before. There were some bits of Greco-Roman culture, and some bits of British and other European culture, but it was almost entirely French-- which it did mention at the beginning, quite clearly stating that this is a Western history.
Anyway, I did like it, but I'm not sure how to describe it further? Perrot took the bedroom and about five different nonfiction genres and put them in a blender. If you like literary histories, particularly ones that don't stick to strict chronological order, you will enjoy this. If you don't, or if you hate philosophy, find a different book.
There is definitely way more philosophy in here than I had anticipated, but I enjoyed it for all that. I also enjoyed that it drew mostly from French history (understandably as the author is French and the book was originally published there) rather than British history, like most of the daily life things I've read before. There were some bits of Greco-Roman culture, and some bits of British and other European culture, but it was almost entirely French-- which it did mention at the beginning, quite clearly stating that this is a Western history.
Anyway, I did like it, but I'm not sure how to describe it further? Perrot took the bedroom and about five different nonfiction genres and put them in a blender. If you like literary histories, particularly ones that don't stick to strict chronological order, you will enjoy this. If you don't, or if you hate philosophy, find a different book.
July 27, 2019
Interesting, but leaned way too much on literary references, which the author treats as fact too often. Because it was originally written in French, it is extremely French focused and the figures do not always come through in the translation. Not bad, but not great.
August 11, 2024
From a chamber to a room. From a bed to a bedchamber and a bedroom.
But that's just a facade. It's so much more than a history of 'architecture and design'.
It's:
An informative micro-history through the lens of a bedroom.
A meditative approach to humankind, sociology, anthropology, traditions, literature, sex, gender in/equality and more with the bedroom as a catalyst.
If you like historical non-fiction, that will broaden your horizons and enhance your perception of seemingly mundane and unimportamt objects, at the same time won't flood you with densely stuffed facts and dates, - give this a go. Granted, not all themes mentioned might win you over, but I think there's something for everyonbe here.
Another strong argument for reading this book is the writing style. Introspective yet not overwhelming, feminine in a rather demure way that allows for deep and personal insights of 'problematic' themes without dehuminazing them, and beautifully crafted, flowing, merging sentences with subtle metaphors.
The focus is on Western culture, in particular French, but the author merges themes from many places and people from Europe, the Orient as well as North America. Nothing really is said about Asia or Africa. Therefore, European and American authors hold a quite big chunk of this book and naturally there might be spoilers for some readers, since the author does an intricate work of commenting on and analyzing the most famous pieces of literature - all with the bedroom in mind...
I found this book to be not only interesting but almost hypnotizing. I thought of so many questions and problems the author pondered over in her work. It gave me a new perspective to somewhat known facts, and sparked interest in lesser known ones.
I listened to an audiobook and I'm buying the physcial copy for a reread!
I want to devour it word-by-word, I want the text to seep into my eyes and heart, I want to highlight passages of great importance and interest to me. I WANT this book to be a part of my daily life.
But that's just a facade. It's so much more than a history of 'architecture and design'.
It's:
An informative micro-history through the lens of a bedroom.
A meditative approach to humankind, sociology, anthropology, traditions, literature, sex, gender in/equality and more with the bedroom as a catalyst.
If you like historical non-fiction, that will broaden your horizons and enhance your perception of seemingly mundane and unimportamt objects, at the same time won't flood you with densely stuffed facts and dates, - give this a go. Granted, not all themes mentioned might win you over, but I think there's something for everyonbe here.
Another strong argument for reading this book is the writing style. Introspective yet not overwhelming, feminine in a rather demure way that allows for deep and personal insights of 'problematic' themes without dehuminazing them, and beautifully crafted, flowing, merging sentences with subtle metaphors.
The focus is on Western culture, in particular French, but the author merges themes from many places and people from Europe, the Orient as well as North America. Nothing really is said about Asia or Africa. Therefore, European and American authors hold a quite big chunk of this book and naturally there might be spoilers for some readers, since the author does an intricate work of commenting on and analyzing the most famous pieces of literature - all with the bedroom in mind...
I found this book to be not only interesting but almost hypnotizing. I thought of so many questions and problems the author pondered over in her work. It gave me a new perspective to somewhat known facts, and sparked interest in lesser known ones.
I listened to an audiobook and I'm buying the physcial copy for a reread!
I want to devour it word-by-word, I want the text to seep into my eyes and heart, I want to highlight passages of great importance and interest to me. I WANT this book to be a part of my daily life.
December 2, 2018
So there were parts of this book that were REALLY interesting and then other parts where I found myself wondering if I would continue much longer. I picked it up because I thought I would learn a lot - and overall I did. I had never contemplated the idea of a bedroom being almost a "status symbol" throughout history, but it really was. A lot of the book focused on the role of the bedroom in French culture (not shocking since the author is French and I was reading a translated copy), but since she did touch on Roman and Greek culture - and a few references to British - I expected that there might be more comparison.
Overall I think that it's a good book - if you've ever found yourself wondering about the historical or cultural significance of the bedroom this would be a book you might enjoy.
Overall I think that it's a good book - if you've ever found yourself wondering about the historical or cultural significance of the bedroom this would be a book you might enjoy.
February 25, 2021
I very very rarely give up on a book. This is the only one I have put down without finishing, in the last 10 years. I read about a quarter until I decided to stop torturing myself. I skimmed and browse the rest and realized that it was pretty much the same.
I get that this is an essay originally written in French, but I guess it all got lost in translation. In English, the narrative went nowhere, and the author (apparently an eminent historian) expects the reader to know all the historical figures (all French, of course) that she casually mentions.
Could have used a much better editor/translator for the English edition.
I get that this is an essay originally written in French, but I guess it all got lost in translation. In English, the narrative went nowhere, and the author (apparently an eminent historian) expects the reader to know all the historical figures (all French, of course) that she casually mentions.
Could have used a much better editor/translator for the English edition.
February 28, 2021
Excellent sociohistorical study. Wide-ranging look at the development of a room we associate with sleeping, whether at the King's levée or coucher, or as a prisoner's cell, the cell of a religious, etc. Top-notch research presented in an engaging book.
March 1, 2025
Lástima que no tenga ilustraciones para acompañar este libro
September 22, 2025
4.5 stars
Exceptionally well-researched and interesting microhistory with lots of historical and literary references.
Exceptionally well-researched and interesting microhistory with lots of historical and literary references.
October 23, 2020
This is how you do history: historicize something we take for granted.
March 14, 2015
Déçue par la faible densité du livre, très descriptif. Du coup, facile à lire. Mais j'avais l'impression que le seul effort de conceptualisation avait été fait en intro et je trouve ça court.
Des histoires, des personnages intéressants que j'ai envie de mieux connaître.
- Germaine Aziz, Les Chambres closes = témoignage autobio, devenue journaliste
- Gabrielle Suchon, (1632-1703), ex-religieuse qui s'illustre par des traités. Femme-philosophe ?
- Lucie Baud, qui mène une grêve dans un "couvent de la soie" de Lyon, où on enfermait des jf pour les faire travailler pendant plusieurs années, le temps qu'elles se constituent une dot. Univers concentrationnaire.
- Yoko Ogawa, Une parfaite chambre de malade (// ultime rencontre avec son frère cadet atteint d'une cancer)
- le mie prigioni, de Silvio Pellico : on ne serait jamais plus libre qu'en prison. Autobiogrphique
- Victor Klemperer Mes soldats de papier
Des histoires, des personnages intéressants que j'ai envie de mieux connaître.
- Germaine Aziz, Les Chambres closes = témoignage autobio, devenue journaliste
- Gabrielle Suchon, (1632-1703), ex-religieuse qui s'illustre par des traités. Femme-philosophe ?
- Lucie Baud, qui mène une grêve dans un "couvent de la soie" de Lyon, où on enfermait des jf pour les faire travailler pendant plusieurs années, le temps qu'elles se constituent une dot. Univers concentrationnaire.
- Yoko Ogawa, Une parfaite chambre de malade (// ultime rencontre avec son frère cadet atteint d'une cancer)
- le mie prigioni, de Silvio Pellico : on ne serait jamais plus libre qu'en prison. Autobiogrphique
- Victor Klemperer Mes soldats de papier
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