Word: garde
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...There is no object so foul," Emerson says, "that intense light will not make it beautiful." This aphorism, reflecting the 19th century's core faith in progress and reason, could be the guiding premise behind Roger Martin du Gard's expansive novel, Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort. A memoir of the eponymous character, the novel is a testament to reflection and self-examination. Maumort, born in 1870 to an old landowning family in the Perche region of Northern France, strives to illuminate his past while his family estate serves as quarters for a Nazi regiment during the German occupation. Focusing...
Martin du Gard wrote his book over a span of 17 years--from 1941 until his death in 1958--and believed it would be his masterpiece. He had won the Nobel Prize in 1937 for his eight-volume novel Les Thibault, the story of two brothers--one a reckless adventurer, the other a sensible physician, during World War I. Du Gard stated often that Tolstoy was his greatest creditor; Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort displays the extent of this debt, with its high moral tone and extensive, incisive depictions of both country and city society. Despite this, Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort...
...Maumort never gets past the narrative of his childhood and young adulthood. The defining events of his life--his career as a soldier and colonialist in Morocco, his reaction to the Dreyfus affair and the death of his father--are only alluded to. Had there been time enough, du Gard's work would have been a complete study of a man's life, an exhaustive critique of human limitation and liability. However, Lieutenant-Colonel de Maumort is a testament to care. Du Gard took extreme pains to represent the times he wrote about. Trained as a historian, he filled...
Conservationists and local residents have managed to stop some developments. Last summer scores of people took to France's Gardon River in canoes to protest a government project that would have brought motorized trains, parking lots, a museum and even a shopping arcade close to the historic Pont du Gard, a 2,000-year-old Roman aqueduct near Remoulins. The Pont already draws more than 2 million visitors a year. Historians, environmentalists and locals also joined forces against a commercial project planned for Chambord, one of the most illustrious of the Loire Valley chateaus. The castle was scheduled to become...
...been associated with the Royal Ballet almost since its beginning in 1931 and has created dozens of works for it, including Symphonic Variations, Daphnis and Chloe, La Fille Mai Gardée and A Month in the Country. In this century there has been only one comparable partnership, George Balanchine's with the New York City Ballet. Since Ashton's rather premature retirement as director in 1970, the Royal has lacked direction and has had difficulty developing young stars. It would be good if he worked with the company more often. After last week's premiere, Ashton...