Fragile Glory: A Portrait of France and the French

The most penetrating account of contemporary France we're ever likely to own... a compendium of the best and most useful French thinking about France. --New York Times

An entertaining survey of the French life-style--the food, the mistresses, the love of aesthetics. --Kirkus Reviews

This well-rounded portrait of France today is a spirited introduction to a prosperous, complacent, Americanized people whom modernity has `leached out of their particularity.' --Publishers Weekly

Richard Bernstein has been a reporter, culture critic, and commentator for more than thirty years. He was a foreign correspondent in Asia and Europe for Time magazine and The New York Times, and was the first Beijing bureau chief for Time. He is the author of many books on Chinese and Asian themes, among them The Coming Conflict with China and Ultimate Journey, the latter of which was a New York Times Best Book of the Year. He is also the author of Out of the Blue: A Narrative of September 11, 2001, which was named by The Boston Globe as one of the seven best books of 2002. He lives in New York.