Charming, audacious Claudine is the heroine of Colette's finest stories. From the time she is matching wits with her schoolmistress through to taking in Paris as a young bride she amazes and delights with her precocious perceptions. Colette makes you care passionately what becomes of Claudine and her friends.

I have just completed a week long research trip to Cornwall New York and found this book invaluable. It is concise, accurate, and loaded with phtographs and factoids that make study of Cornwall a breeze. Colette Fulton and Janet Dempsey have done their homework. Highly recommend.

This book has been on my nightstand for over a year. Every evening, I read just a morsel of Colette's beautiful prose and savor it slowly, like a decadent piece of chocolate. Since this is an "un-biography" (because it was taken from her life's works and letters to personal friends), it doesn't have that pompous, omnipotent, movie-of-the-week quality of many celebrity biographies. And yet it paints a joyous, colorful, honest, lustful and mysterious life (was she or wasn't she bisexual?) lived very simply. I'm constantly amazed at how Colette can talk about something as elemental as her cats or her garden in such a tender, sensual way.

This is a rewarding treat for those who already adore Colette's work. And for those who are unfamiliar with her, it's a simple and elegant introduction! If you've only read Gigi, or The Vagabond, you'll find the woman who wrote them even more intriguing than her stories.

"France and Germany at Maastricht is simply political science at its best. Its analytical narrative of Franco-German negotiations on political and monetary union is the most thorough and balanced account of the pivotal episode in the current project of European unity. It combines a comprehensive understanding of the national and sectoral interests at stake in the Maastricht negotiations with a firm grasp of the institutional and electoral environment in which negotiations proceeded. The depth and breadth of the research material required by a study of this variety alone is impressive, but Mazzucelli's lucid explanation of its meaning makes the book a valuable addition to the fields of European studies, comparative politics and international relations." -Carl C. Hodge, Okanagan University College

"In the present context of the efforts to promote a European Union and Franco-German relations, Dr. Mazzucelli's book constitutes an extraordinarily useful contribution to the statesman's, diplomat's, scholar's and layman's reflections on these matters and provides extremely useful leads to all those who, in one way or another, are responsible for the destiny of the European continent and its relations with other parts of the world, in particular its transatlantic allies." -His Excellency Alfred Cahen, Secretary General, Atlantic Treaty Association

"This very informative and balanced volume, rich in factual content and documentary materials, is recommended to politicians, diplomats, experts in European Union affairs and those who would like insight into "corridor diplomacy" during the Maastricht process. This book is also suggested to those who feel responsible for the success of Hungary's negotiations with the European institutions." -Hungarian Foreign Affairs Journal, Spring '97

"Mazzucelli provides an extremely detailed analysis of the national decision-making processes of two of the principal players in the Maastricht negotiations, and a comprehensive discussion of the national, subnational and transnational actors central to the negotiating process...The book's focus and methodological sophistication make it most useful for specialists in the field." -Choice, September '97

"The story Mazzucelli narrates is a fascinating one. The reader is taken inside negotiations in cabinets, ministerial offices and presidential palaces; in national parliaments, government conclaves, Commission meetings, and Council deliberations. We are given a detailed picture of the relationships developed at every level of the bureaucracy and between regional, national and Brussels bureaucracies. This is one of the best documented accounts I have seen of the manifold intricacies of EU politics and negotiation. Mazzucelli has an impressive command of both the primary and secondary materials in French, German, Italian and English. She is also a skilled and assiduous interviewer and has woven into her narrative information obtained over a period of several years. The book is impeccably footnoted and the 33-page bibliography is a mine of information. It is a pleasure to read a book produced with such care." -Glenda G. Rosenthal, Columbia University ECSA Review, Fall '97

"The originality of this work, over and above the attentive look at French and German behavior during this IGC, is that it analyzes the negotiation - which was so difficult for several Member States at domestic level - combining three approaches: "Jean Monnet's practical and purposeful way of doing things," Putnam's "two-level games" (this approach...seems particularly useful in the case of Maastricht, given its emphasis on both "internal bargaining at the domestic level and external negotiations at the international level") and the "four images" of civil servants described by Aberbach, Putnam and Rockman...Anyone involved in another European Union IGC should be very interested in this analysis..." -"Europe" Bulletin, "European Library," Brussels, 15 & 16 December '97

"Mazzucelli's book sheds light on the history of Franco-German governmental relations as the Cold War ended..., situates Franco-German bilateralism within a process of multilateral negotiations in the European Union..., and empirically confirms that it is not possible to understand European integration without taking into account the institutional diversity of states....This volume deserves to be read with interest...,and offers leads for theoretical reflection to all those who work in the areas of integration, foreign policy and the political sociology of European states." -Christian Lequesne, CERI, Revue Française de Science Politique, décembre '97

"In light of the recent events in Brussels, this analysis of French-German relations in the framework of European integration is extremely topical....It examines whether the two European powers, which played a leading role in the period considered, will continue to play a similar role in the enlarged Europe of the future....It should be pointed out that the study is heavily based on primary and secondary sources, as well as interviews with personalities from the political and academic worlds carried out in various European countries between 1992 and 1994." -The International Spectator, Rome, April-June '98

"According to Mazzucelli the process of EU intergovernmental conferences is not subsumed under the intergovernmental approach ....Neofunctional and federal approaches are also not regarded by her as useful for this analysis. In the author's view, these approaches underestimate the complexity of the integration process and do not consider sufficiently the contradictory relations between Brussels and the member states....Furthermore since intergovernmental conferences will be an important element of European integration, i.e., Amsterdam, works like this one by Mazzucelli are important for the analysis of the process of European unity." -Paul Luif, Austrian Institute of International Affairs, Austrian Journal of Political Science, Issue Number 4 '98

This is an oversized book suitable for the coffee table. There are 157 beautiful pictures of France taken from the air. Many of the pictures are double paged in size. The book provides an excellent pictorial overview of France as it covers every region of France.
Adults and young adults will be amazed.

This novel is brilliant in its content and evocative imagery, Collette's eroticism rivals Anais Nin's own erotic literature, and this novel is a superb example of this.Highly recomended!

Gabrielle Colette died in 1954. She is most famous for writing "Gigi" which became a Broadway musical and Oscar winning film. Gabrielle was a talented, gifted writer, with aesthetic skills and a charming perception of humans, particularily the society she grew up in early twentieth century France. A fascinating woman, she wrote mainly short stories, dealing with women coming of age, older women making new decisions, relationships with intensity, and all of her characters have memorable nuances. She may have drawn from personal experience. Colette was clearly a woman with deep understanding of the nature of love and the course of human emotions.

Gigi is the story of a young woman brought up in a decadent, materialistic society. Her aunts have raised her to become a mistress, a courtesan for the wealthy. Gaston falls for Gigi, and attempts to make her his mistress. But Gigi refuses to be a part of the pretentious society in Paris, wanting an honest and open relationship based on love. In the end, she is granted this for remaining true to herself. Julie de Carneilha and Chance Encounters are striking tales of women in love, beautifully written and set in the opulence of Paris. Colette is a cosmopolitan writer, one can almost see her as she writes with a bottle of champagne on her writing desk, a view of the Eiffel tower from her window and a vivid imagination that takes flight.

This is the definitive reference for all things Irish in the New England States. Whether you're looking for events, education, artists, organizations or just a pub, here's the place to begin. It's very handily divided up by state and by category. The alphabetized index is extremely helpful too.

I definitely recommend this book to anyone either involved in "helping relationships" (e.g. teachers) or interested in understanding how the human mind works, or simply to better know their own mind and the way it works. Colette Portelance's book is an extremely helpful down-to-earth analysis of relationships and the consequences they have on ourselves. You want to understand others better ? You want to understand yourself better ? Order it immediately, learn it by heart, and then put it on the shelf beside M. Scott Peck's "The Road Less Travelled". Such a brilliant insight into the maze of the mind... It just can't be missed.

This "coming of age" story is told in the true lyrical style of Colette. Any fan of this French genius will be delighted with this "petite" masterpiece!The story follows the ingenue Minne, a girl of 14 with a wild imagination. We witness her becoming an adult and getting married, as her young husband tries everything to repress her creative thought, he succeeds.....in driving her away. She seeks aesthetic experiences and passions with artists and philosophers of the late 19th century Parisian society. When these romantic endeavors fail to feed her soul, she turns back to her old confidant, her imagination. She finds herself again, and renews a healthy relationship with her husband, as he realizes Minne is not a beautiful possession, but a young and brilliant woman that is full of life. I would highly recommend this book! If you are interested in other works of Colette, I would suggest "The Vagabond" and "The Shackle."