Since today is July 14 - aka le quatorze de juillet, aka Bastille Day - the day celebrated in France and around the francophone world as synonymous with the French Revolution - and by extension, with liberation, with French culture and with freedoms of one sort or another - my simple subject for today is an old French novel -
Mémoires d'un âne - written by
la Comtesse de Ségur and first published in 1860. My mother's ancient edition was from 1879. Here it is, a book which has survived untold adventures - in honor of this day, July 14 - and the survival of the human spirit, embodied by
le 14 juillet.
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The book has additional resonance for me since its author, Sophie Rostopochine - aka the Countess of Ségur - began life as
Sofia Rostoptchina, but emigrated along with her family from her native Russia to France where she wound up becoming a recognized writer in the adopted tongue of her new homeland. She had been known to be a 'spirited' and 'rebellious' child - qualities which were frowned upon in young girls and women in the 19th century - and another reason why this book of hers seems a good choice for Bastille Day. She was also one of my mother's favorite authors. My mother's first language was French and her mother, my maternal grandmother, always insisted she was French herself - but in reality her family was Ukrainian and emigrated, first to France and later to the United States, to escape waves of persecutions.