PositiveThe Times Literary Supplement (UK)The book’s running fascination with \'events, places and people [that] have never before appeared in a history of France\' is not wilfully arcane, but is instead a creative connection of \'backroads\' to the familiar boulevards of \'the established curriculum\' ... while the book progresses chronologically, its chapters often leap across the ages in productively disarming ways, sometimes within the space of a sentence ... [a] compelling guide.
