The House of Fragile Things

Jewish Art Collectors and the Fall of France

De: James McAuley

Narrado por: Derek Perkins

A powerful history of Jewish art collectors in France, and how an embrace of art and beauty was met with hatred and destruction

In the dramatic years between 1870 and the end of World War II, a number of prominent French Jews-pillars of an embattled community-invested their fortunes in France's cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country's army, and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps.

In this rich, evocative account, James McAuley explores the central role that art and material culture played in the assimilation and identity of French Jews in the fin-de-siecle. Weaving together narratives of various figures, some familiar from the works of Marcel Proust and the diaries of Jules and Edmond Goncourt-the Camondos, the Rothschilds, the Ephrussis, the Cahens d'Anvers-McAuley shows how Jewish art collectors contended with a powerful strain of anti-Semitism: they were often accused of "invading" France's cultural patrimony. The collections these families left behind-many ultimately donated to the French state-were their response, tragic attempts to celebrate a nation that later betrayed them.

©2021 James McAuley (P)2022 Tantor

Extraordinary book relating little known but extremely important

This book is extremely well researched and well written, it tells of a period of history through the lense of art and the great wealthy French Jewish families. Who, despite having amassed extraordinary art collections and were scions of society on so many levels, were at the end of the day regarded at best, as outsiders. Despite members of the families having fallen in battle in defense of France, at the end they were shipped off to Auschwitz.
The description of the families and their collections is absolutely fascinating.
The book relates the very deep antisemitism in France despite the tropes of equality etc.
The reader is excellent and the book is very illuminating. Highly recommended.