Word: viansson
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Pierre Viansson-Ponte's anecdotal sketch of the DeGaulle regime has the usual shortcomings of books which capitalize on the General's imperious manner and medieval pride. The King and His Court adds little to the existing stock of useful insights into DeGaulle's personality, if only because it is impossible to increase infinity...
...special virtue of this book is that it digs far behind the public facade of the Fifth Republic, Viansson-Ponte confirms a startling number of cliches about De Gaulle's dictatorial techniques from the vantage-point of an insider. In crediting these cliches The King and His Court of course says nothing new, but is does give the American reader a renewed sense of how deeply De Gaulle's pretensions direct the fortunes of modern France...
...Viansson-Ponte is a court chronicler without being courtier. As political editor of the prestigious Le Monde, he has free access to inner government circles even though he is not a Gaullist. This position gives him a rare detachment: he is able to write knowledgeably about De Gaulle while avoiding both the admiration of a follower and the jealousy of an opponent. The King and His Court resembles the Duc de Saint-Simson's colorful Memoirs about life with Louis XIV, full of sympathy and gossip, yet it retains the ironical view-point of a journalist somewhat skeptical about...
...General's regal bearing amounts to much more than theatrical bravado. "Despite haughty denials, shrugs of the shoulder, feigned indignation, General De Gaulle is, by temperament, a monarchist." Viansson-Ponte believes that if De Gaulle could restore the French throne he would gladly do so. But as a matter of practical policy he is resigned to democratic forms, if not to democratic substance, in French politics. This in no way diminishes the General's self-esteem...
...first half of The King and His Court Viansson-Ponte describes the public rituals and private tactics by which De Gaulle exercises his enormous power. There is, for instance, the formal introduction, a clipped ceremony in which the subject is supposed to accept the General's greeting and then hold his peace. De Gaulle has an effective way of dismissing upstairs who presume to start a conversation with...