The House of Fragile Things: Jewish Art Collectors and the Fall of France

James McAuley

Mar 2022 · Tantor Media Inc · Narrated by Derek Perkins

About this audiobook

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.

About the author

James McAuley is a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, and a writer for the New York Review of Books. He lives in Paris.

A native of the United Kingdom, Audie and AudioFile Earphones Award winner Derek Perkins's audiobook narration skills are augmented by a knowledge of three foreign languages and a facility with accents. He has narrated numerous titles in a wide range of fiction and nonfiction genres. He is a member of SAG-AFTRA.