Cross Channel - Hardcover

Barnes, Julian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0224043013 ISBN 13: 9780224043014

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 1996

Synopsis

This is a collection of ten short stories with a linking theme: the British in France through several centuries. It opens with a group of mercenary soldiers engaged in a punitive expedition against a Protestant village in southern France in the late seventeenth century, and closes with a journey on the antiquated Eurostar express to Paris in the year 2015.

In between the British appear in their various guises: as railway-builders in the 1840s, vineyard-owners at the turn of the century, artistic exiles in the 1920s. There is a story (based upon fact) about the departure of an English cricket team to play the Gentlemen of France in 1789; one about a literary conference in the Massif Central which may or may not have taken place; one about a Tour de France cyclist.

The stories are designed to play off one another and work exploring the British fascination with France, our various and mixed reasons for being there, and our sometimes ambiguous reception.

About this title

Review:

"Always intelligent and perceptive, but so beautifully written that it’s easy to understand." (Jancis Robinson Week)

"Intelligent and perceptive, but so beautifully written it’s easy to understand... He captures the complex relationship between the French and the English." (Jancis Robinson Waitrose Weekend)

From the Publisher:

Wise and witty collection of stories of British in France
In these exquisitely crafted and turned stories spanning several centuries, Julian Barnes takes as his universal theme the British in France, our fascination with that country, our various and mixed reasons for being there and our sometimes ambiguous reception. These clever, wise and imaginative stories are permeated with understanding of what it has meant for generations from these islands to cross the Channel. The No.1 bestseller from one of Britain's finest writers. "Love, sex, art, literature, wars, religion, wine, spirit, the steam engine and, yes, Eurostar: they are all there. All the emotions, attitudes, pursuits and endeavours that typically seem to link Britain to France feature in the first collection of short stories by Julian Barnes...A delightful book" Thierry Naudin, European; "The book is a delight...Undoubtedly Barnes's best book since Flaubert's Parrot" Allan Massie, Scotsman

About this edition

• Publisher: Jonathan Cape
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0224043013
• ISBN 13: 9780224043014
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224