Here is our selection of recently published books worth reading, gifting and/or sharing, enhanced with a classic to rediscover. Happy reading to all.
“Horse in majesty – At the heart of a civilization”, Laurent Salomé and Hélène Delalex (Ed. Lienart)
504 pages. 55 €
© DR
Resulting from the eponymous exhibition hosted at the Château de Versailles since this summer and until November 3, this work of more than four hundred pages highlights the place and uses of equines in civil and military society, over a period ranging from from the 16th to the 20th century until the eve of the First World War, marking the end of horse-drawn civilization and the relegation of the horse to the realm of leisure. By presenting the history that links horses and men to art, Laurent Salomé and Hélène Delalex, director of the national museum of the castles of Versailles and Trianon for one and curator of their heritage for the other, give an account of the evolution of practices and visions in the Renaissance, with the monarchy, in Europe or even during the Ancien Régime.
“These horses to which I owe everything”, Alizée Froment (Ed. Larousse)
208 pages. 29,95 €
© DR
From her beginnings on pony with Pil-Pil to the selective world of dressage with Donatello, through the most demanding sporting competitions at the reins of Mistral and Naxos du Coussoul, Alizée Froment has worked with all types of horses. From the hours spent with them, the rider and artist from the south of France drew a philosophy of life that she shares today in this beautiful work. Accompanied by magnificent or moving photos, Alizée Froment’s testimony is aimed at all riders and horse riding enthusiasts… and even beyond!
“Coco, short story from the collection Contes du jour et de la nuit”, Guy de Maupassant, 1885 (Ed. LGF)
192 pages. 3,70 €
© DR
In this literary season, this is not a question of a novel, but of a short story by Guy de Maupassant published for the first time in the daily newspaper Le Gaulois on January 21, 1884. “Coco” thus describes the slow and sinister death of an old horse, mishandled by a young farm boy who is mocked daily and devoid of empathy. In a few lines, the author manages to reveal all of human barbarity. Thus, man is here bestial, when the animal becomes human, described as such with its hair which “looked like long white hair, and very long eyelashes [qui] gave his eyes a sad look”. Through these painful pages, it is indeed the drama of old age, lucid and oh so solitary, that the author invokes, just like the violence of men against the weak. That we are far, at the end of the 19th century, from the notion of animal welfare, and that it is good to remember it and to welcome its evolution to tend towards the end of all mistreatment towards animals. animals.
“Les Passeurs – The oral memory of the squires of the Cadre noir – Volume V”, Collective (Ed. IFCE)
115 pages. 20 €
© DR
Initiated in 2019, the project “Les Passeurs, the oral memory of the squires of the Cadre noir” continues its journey with a fifth volume devoted to four new riders who, in turn, deliver their unique testimony on traditional French horse riding through their life journeys: Charles de Certain, Nicolas Dugué, Dominique Flament and Francis Rebel . Discovery of horses and riding, journey towards the life of a squire and equestrian tradition: it is a real journey to the heart of their memories, as always richly illustrated, a heritage given to future generations, a trace of their passage through within an institution which contemplates their transmission from the height of two centuries of history.
