An exceptionally well-researched text, McAuley really dives deeply into the history of Jewish art collectors and aristocrats in 19th and 20th century France. Thankfully, McAuley does not leave the story there, and does address the necessary second half of the story - that of the damage done by the Nazi occupation of France. He explores the theft of this art, the destruction of the families, and the death of many prominent collectors while their possessions went into the hands of their killers. He also discusses repatriation attempts and the overall stories of where art pieces have landed. Which is really the strength of this text, that he tells the stories of the people but also of the art, placing both as individuals and as part of a collective narrative.

A stunning book. It was interesting to read this after Edmund de Waal's Letters to Camondo, which features the same Jewish-French family, the same tragic history, the same lost works of art; but this was the serious, detailed, scholarly approach, the objective rather than the personal. There is still profound emotion here, in the treatment of the Camondo family especially; what was lost, and what was taken, the art and the lives, and the fact that only the art remains. Truly beautiful as well as detailed and researched.

i loved learning about Jewish history, this was a great read and was so well done and well researched. It was a beautiful tale that I didn't know a lot about.

This is a thoughtful, moving account of identity-the ones we choose for ourselves, the ones already chosen for us , and if the twain shall ever meet. The author explores this through the experiences of Jewish French families, from fin-de-siecle Paris, through World Wars 1 and 2. France had been through one political upheaval after another since the late 1700s, starting from the French Revolution to the Napoleonic Wars, the restoration of a monarch and its overthrow, the tumult of the Paris Commune, with finally a fragile democracy of sorts in place. THis time period had also seen the rise of a new social class, whose fortunes weren't linked to land, but to trade. As the political situation continued to be unstable, paradoxically, for a country that had executed its rulers, there was a nostalgia for what seemed like a simpler time, and antiques dating the ancien regime, specifically Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, were hugely in demand amongst collectors. The French Revolution had ostensibly ended discrimination against Jewish people in France, and many families had migrated to France over the subsequent centuries, from Turkey, and other parts of Europe. By the end of the 19th Century, they didn’t think they were immigrants any more-they were French citizens. And what better way to express this than indulge in what was then the national pastime of the rich-collecting. While the world was rapidly modernising, as there were increasingly more financially successful French Jews, participating in all spheres of French life, McAuley shows how anti-Semitic attitudes slowly started to seep into the popular discourse: in time-honoured traditions of politics, the easiest way to distract the electorate from economic problems, was to pick an “other” to demonise. Caught in this situation where the outside world was trying to impose an identity on them when they were trying their hardest to assimilate, McAuley theorises that some Jewish collectors retreated to an interior world, that they could control and impose a sense of order over. He explores this through the collections and lives of 4 specific families: the Camondos, the Reinachs, the Ephrussis and the Rothschilds. The author maintains a perfect balance in describing the collections without it merely being an inventory of objets d’art-you get a true sense of what they represented, and the time-consuming process of verifying provenance and authenticity. I found it fascinating that contemporary accounts by art critics and socialites ( foremost among them being the Goncourt brothers-after reading this book, you flinch at thought of a prestigious literary prize carrying that name) were contemptuous of these collectors, going so far as to accuse them of trying to mimic French tastes and failing. While some of the families tried valiantly to combat racist and anti-Semitic attitudes, to a large extent their privilege insulated them, in some cases blinding them to points of time when their lives were in danger. It’s heart-breaking to read their letters to the Vichy authorities, where they try to emphasize their French and not Jewish identity, along with all the contributions made to France-most of these collectors donated their collections to the French state as they believed these belonged to the people and not a wealthy few. It didn’t matter, though-none of these appeals were successful, and the only identity they were allowed to have was singular-Jewish, and therefore undesirable. All their efforts at reconciling the various parts of their identity-French, Jewish, modernist, rebellious child, art connoisseur, scholar; ultimately the State decided their fates. Reading this book at a period of time when politics and countries are increasingly being riven by identity, makes it a particularly harrowing but all the more profound read. We have always contained multitudes, and there’s never been one single way of belonging to a country

Sorry I didn't get to read it before the time ran out. I didnt know you couldnt renew once archived. I was looking forward to reading it aswell. I didnt know about archiving then sorry

Happy Publication Day!

I'm not an art collector myself, I wasn't born into such privilege and I haven't acquired that status yet. But I am a collector, if at all that counts, of things that are of a certain value to my family history - most of which is lost because I lost my guardians early on.

The House Of Fragile Things made me feel a lot of emotions at once. This is quite unlike anything I have read about the holocaust before, it makes you question even the tiny aspects of the families' decisions. The book is commendably researched and has this slow burning effect, something you would wanna pick up when you want to escape but not without pain.

The anti-semitism of the last 19th century and almost all of the 20th century is evident, even in the world of art. I try my best to empathise with those of Jewish heritage and I assure you, this book makes it 10x easier to do that because you realise the hopeless cruelty of the world, some governments like an overgrown bullying-child sacrificing lives and feelings and art at whim.

The documents attached give the book's authenticity a firm footing, sometimes heartbreakingly so. As a lover of history I am thrilled beyond measure to have read this.

Thank you Yale University Press and James McAuley for a copy of the book, I'm honoured.

I received this book from the publisher for review through NetGalley. All opinions are my own. The author writes a unique text on art and war history. He uses diaries, letters and historical accounts to provide insights into the French way of life during and after the war. The basis is the way the collecting of artifacts and French cultural items were appreciated and loved by the aristocratic Jewish families and the plunder of the artifacts with deportation of the owners. The information is little known and book was well written to inform of research gleaned from among the papers and memoirs as well as memories by surviving family members. Highly enjoyable read.