André Maurois (1885-1967)

" Through a presentation and analysis of aspects of the life of the French writer André Maurois, Gossman' s book sheds light on an impressive number of crucial historical, political, and cultural problems faced by France from World War I through the Cold War. Understated, suggestive, and balanced in its approach to a number of controversial issues, it succeeds in showing the interest in the life of a once popular, but now largely forgotten writer, whose previous celebrity, according to a contemporary of Maurois cited by Professor Gossman, had by the 1970s ' collapsed like a soufflé. ' This book could very well have the effect of encouraging the soufflé to rise again, even if undoubtedly not to its original height. " - David Carroll, Professor Emeritus, University of California, Irvine, USA