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Le Dossier: How to Survive the English!
 
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Le Dossier: How to Survive the English! (Hardcover)

by Long Sarah (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)

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Paperback £6.99 £5.49 44 used & new from £0.01

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 288 pages
  • Publisher: John Murray; First Edition edition (18 Oct 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0719568463
  • ISBN-13: 978-0719568466
  • Product Dimensions: 19.8 x 13.8 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 137,977 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review
‘Keep this by the bedside, so that if renovating a French chateau ever seems like a remotely appealing prospect, you’ll have the necessary antidote’

 

(Laura Tennant, First Post )

‘An affectionate tongue-in-cheek picture of her English neighbours’

 

 

 

(Good Book Guide )

Product Description

In this robust, insightful and hitherto only privately available handbook, Parisian wife and mother Hortense de Monplaisir shares with us the secrets of her survival amongst the English. Exiled to London for the sake of her husband’s career, pioneer Hortense delves into the many aspects of la perfide Albion that have long puzzled its closest neighbour and oldest enemy.

No one and nothing is safe from Hortense’s penetrating eye as she discusses a diverse range of topics from the inability of the English to speak their mind, their bizarre love of rituals such as the stag party and the country fete and their passion for long muddy walks, to their obsession with World War II, estate agents and incomprehensible fondness for the traditional English pantomime.

The result is a double-edged comedy: here are the foibles of the English, seen through the jaundiced gaze of a sophisticated Parisienne. Hortense’s confident interpretations of some of our best-loved national habits (jam with meat, anyone?) will only confirm our long-held view that the French are, indeed, very different.



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Customer Reviews

12 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
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 (2)
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1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellently written, self ironically and VERY funny book, 18 Nov 2007
Excellently written, self ironically and VERY funny book!
The tales about Brits are always fascinating, but this one is a special treat!
In fact the "translation" from French has nothing to do here! Sarah Long is the actual author of this most exuberant story and there is no doubt about this! That fact once again proves the truth that English humour is very good indeed
As a non English (I am Bulgarian) I find Sarah's "translator's approach" incredibly wicked and most definitely genuine.
Enjoy your reading
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11 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars spot on!, 8 Nov 2007
By Corky Newton (Buenos Aires) - See all my reviews
Very funny. Especially about how piously carried away the English tend to get about saving and earning, and their bizarre, righteous embrace of environmentalism. Although it is sure only to result in more misdirected English self-loathing, one of the charms of the book is how proudly silly and respectably self-deluded the French come off as. To be honest, I find Continental British bashing boring and overdone (for how many centuries now?), but this was a nicely recast version of the old trope.
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12 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Au Contraire!, 8 Nov 2007
By Badger "Badger" (Najac, France) - See all my reviews
Having read extracts I thought the concept opened up a great opportunity for a comparison of the similarities and differences between neighbours with such a rich history in common. Above all, as an Englishman living in France, I anticipated with bated breath a humour to which both nationalities would contribute and in which they would share equally. Now I have read the book and it is a huge let-down. It reads like the rant of an Englishwoman pretending to be French in which every paragraph, almost every line, is a forced put-down of the English, - without giving the French any benefit either. Above all, it is written largely without true wit and irony. An opportunity missed.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Funny but very cliché
The joke of the 'pretend' author being a French banker wife is nice at the beginning, but starts to wear thin after reading half of the book. Read more
Published 3 months ago by W. Magermans

1.0 out of 5 stars Terrible
The concept of the book is very intriguing unfortunately the content is neither accurate, funny or useful. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Nicola Merritt

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely funny insight into everyday British life!
Excellent- witty - funny - spot on! Just a few words to describe this book, which I just couldn't put down. Observations made are so true. Hugely entertaining! Read more
Published 7 months ago by Viola Sander

3.0 out of 5 stars She's having a laugh!
This woman is bitter about the english. I live in Paris and I am an American. The people I see in Paris are far from being on top of the fashion list and the odour in the metros... Read more
Published 10 months ago by M. Hansen

1.0 out of 5 stars ...but it's just not funny
There have been some very insightful and funny books written about the French and the English over the years and I was really looking forward to reading this book when I got it... Read more
Published 11 months ago by A. Richardson

1.0 out of 5 stars How to survive Sarah Long...
What a dissapointment! As an english woman in France I found the book bore no relation to the England I left behind and the character Hortense de Monplaisir bears no relation to... Read more
Published 17 months ago by ELD

5.0 out of 5 stars I wish to apologise on behalf of the English
I read this book in a parallel state of amusement and horror. Really the English are becoming self-satisfied, culturally sterile monsters ... Read more
Published 18 months ago by Meerkat

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Stuff
Hilarious hilarious book. Up there with "Watching the English," though this book has the distinction of successfully making fun of French and English people at the same time... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Tim Wu

1.0 out of 5 stars Sirmoor
How this book has received so many stars I cannot understand. It is neither amusing nor interesting. Try reading Stephen Clarke's books about the French. Read more
Published 20 months ago by Mr. F. D. Scotson

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