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Book Summary and Reviews of Resistance by Agnes Humbert

Resistance by Agnes Humbert

Resistance

by Agnes Humbert

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  • Published:
  • Sep 2008, 384 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

As the grip of the German Occupation tightened on Paris in the summer of 1940, Agnès Humbert, a respected art historian, took a leap of blind faith and reckless courage. With a handful of her distinguished colleagues at the Musée de l’Homme in Paris, she helped to form one of the first organised groups of the French Resistance. The unlikely but highly effective Musée de l’Homme network was also to earn a tragic place in history. In 1941 many of its members, including its charismatic leader Boris Vildé and Agnès herself, were betrayed to the Gestapo and imprisoned. Seven of the men were condemned to death and executed by firing squad. The women were deported to Germany as slave workers.

These are the events described with electrifying immediacy by Agnès Humbert in her secret journal, first published in France in 1946 and never before translated into English. With self-deprecating humour and acerbic intelligence, she offers a uniquely personal and candid perspective on this dark and dramatic period, while the striking images that draw her artist’s eye add a graphic, cinematic intensity to her diary entries. Refusing even in the grimmest days to surrender her compassion, humanity or talent for spotting the absurd, she writes with a deft touch and sardonic wit that belie the palpable depth of her conviction and outrage.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"In a fair-minded account, Humbert relays the atrocities of the Third Reich as well as the sympathy of some of the camp inmates' captors." - Publishers Weekly.

"This incredibly important publication will be welcomed by scholars and informed lay readers alike ... Translator Mellor, herself an expert in French culture, has included valuable complements to the original manuscript .... Highly recommended." - Library Journal.

"A vital historical document." - Kirkus Reviews.

This information about Resistance was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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