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The House I Loved
The House I Loved
The House I Loved
Audiobook5 hours

The House I Loved

Written by Tatiana de Rosnay

Narrated by Kate Reading

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

()

About this audiobook

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sarah's Key and A Secret Kept comes an absorbing new novel about one woman's resistance during an époque that shook Paris to its very core.

Paris, France: 1860's. Hundreds of houses are being razed, whole neighborhoods reduced to ashes. By order of Emperor Napoleon III, Baron Haussman has set into motion a series of large-scale renovations that will permanently alter the face of old Paris, moulding it into a "modern city." The reforms will erase generations of history—but in the midst of the tumult, one woman will take a stand.

Rose Bazelet is determined to fight against the destruction of her family home until the very end; as others flee, she stakes her claim in the basement of the old house on rue Childebert, ignoring the sounds of change that come closer and closer each day. Attempting to overcome the loneliness of her daily life, she begins to write letters to Armand, her beloved late husband. And as she delves into the ritual of remembering, Rose is forced to come to terms with a secret that has been buried deep in her heart for thirty years. Tatiana de Rosnay's The House I Loved is both a poignant story of one woman's indelible strength, and an ode to Paris, where houses harbor the joys and sorrows of their inhabitants, and secrets endure in the very walls...

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 14, 2012
ISBN9781427214867
The House I Loved
Author

Tatiana de Rosnay

Tatiana de Rosnay is the author of over ten novels, including the New York Times bestseller Sarah's Key, an international sensation with over 11 million copies in 44 countries worldwide. Together with Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyer, and Stieg Larsson, she has been named one of the top ten fiction writers in Europe. De Rosnay lives in Paris.

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Reviews for The House I Loved

Rating: 3.4 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An old woman muses on the significance of the house in which she spent her adult life in Paris in the early to mid-1800's. The house had been in her late husband's family since its construction a couple of hundred years earlier. Alas, it stands in the path of one of the grand boulevards that the Prefect wants to construct to beautify Paris. In a series of flashbacks, she relates episodes from her life in the house. Alas, this all becomes a bit wearisome by the time the book finishes and its rather surprising, but not unexpected, conclusion is revealed. It made me ponder the silliness of becoming so attached to a material thing like a house that really counts for nothing in the end.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I love the way Tatiana de Rosnay writes, this was a great story of one woman’s life told by her in letters to her dead husband. It is 1865 and Rose’s house is being torn down to make room for the streets to be widened, she doesn’t want to give up her house but has no choice but she is not ready to leave she sends her belongings to her daughter and says she will be there soon but is really living in the basement of her home and re-living her life through memories she puts down in letters to her dead husband. Throughout these letters you sense there is a secret, something she needs to tell her husband. Plus what she really plans to do is kind of just hanging there the whole time. (no spoilers). The author also brings the times to life through the descriptions of the demolition of Paris to make way for new and improved Paris.I found this a fascinating look at one woman’s life in time of such change I Paris. I thought this was very good story telling about well, simply about life. I went into this book expecting a good story and that is what I got , is it different from her other books, yes, why would you want an author to write the same book over and over. All of Tatiana’s books are different from each other and that’s what I like about her as an author you never know what the story will be but you know it will be written beautifully! I just really liked this one, the character of Rose telling her story it was so simple yet brilliant. Jennifer Mendenhall’s narration of this one was perfect I was glad she was there to pronounce all the French for me and because this book feels like story-telling I think listening to it on audio was the way to go, I found it beautifully written and narrated. This was my first book by this narrator and will definitely look for her again.4 Stars

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    My heart belongs to the beautiful streets of Paris and Rosnay conveys the essence of its beauty in this historic tale.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I was eager to read this book because is by the author of 'Sarah's Key', a book that I have been longing to read for such a long time. The story opens with woman around 60 years old (she kept saying that she is an old woman) who spends most of her time sitting in the basement of the house that she and her husband shared. It was the house that he was born in and had been in the family for a long time. He passed away and she writes letters to him. Out of those letters come her memories of her life. Everything in her life after she married is tied to the house. Emperor Napoleon III is having the buildings torn down in order to redesign part of Paris so that is more like London. As she sits each day, she hears the destructions sounds coming closer and closer and wonders when it wills this house that is torn down. In the first few chapters, it seemed the story was spinning and repeating itself, it felt like the story was going nowhere. Then the story finally took off. I did not feel close to the characters. I wanted to like Rose, the woman sitting in the basement but I could not. A secret held for 30 years in the house and in her memories comes out but I felt that was a predictable secret. I wanted to like this book and I see elements that I liked, the physical description of the places were vivid and the chapters short. But at the end I felt it was one gloomy tale. Some of the things that the author has the main character say are intriguing but I have thought of them before. I invite you to read this book and compare it to what I have just written; maybe you will have different impressions. I received this book from the Amazon Vine Program and that in no way influenced my review.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This a very interesting approach to a small piece of French history. I had to "stick with it" for a disc or two but then I didn't want it to stop. I liked the ending, a surprise within a foregone conclusion. I think I will be wondering about what actually happened to, and for, Madame Rose in her last few seconds/minutes. Bring it on Ms. De Rosnay, I'm waiting expectantly for your next foray into print. Somebody please translate her other books into English.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The letter writing style is a bit tedious. I found the main character, Rose, really annoying by the end of the book.Rose is heartbroken when she learns that the house that was in her husband's family for generations is to be torn down to make way for the new street, Rue St. Germain. Emperor Napoleon III wants a new clean, modern Paris and is razing anything in the way of his new layout for the streets of Paris.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Can't believe that one of my favorite authors wrote this. It seemed like a desperate try to write another book. I did love the main character and even the setting should have made a good story but it just lacked substance.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There are books where the beginning hints at the ending. The House I Loved is one such book but knowing how this one will end is what makes it so special. It builds very slowly and before you know it, you’ve been picked up and carried to the end. A Parisian widow in mourning for many years, Rose Bazelet still maintains a rather full life on the rue Childebert in the house left to her by her husband. She has her friends and her routines but when the Emperor, Napoleon III, decides to bring Paris into the modern age by destroying what’s considering quaint by her neighborhood’s standards and replacing it with modern and better functioning buildings and facilities, her world comes crashing down. Rose does not want her Paris, the one where memories of her deceased husband and son reside, to be torn down and rebuilt. She takes a stand and makes the decision to fight for her home, her life, and her street. Rose tells everyone she knows that she will not be leaving her family home and nothing, not money or destruction, will make her leave the house she feels she must protect at all costs for the husband she dearly misses. Hiding in the basement of her home, with frequent visits from Gilbert, a homeless man who has taken to protecting and helping Rose, she writes to her husband. In long letters, and short, she tells him about her fight and how the man at the office treated her as if her home and life meant nothing --- and indeed it meant nothing to him all. She reveals long held secrets to him, secrets she has never told another living person. Rose writes about her neighbors that have brought her joy over the years and have kept her company after his death. As the day of destruction nears, her letters become more heart wrenching, sad, and poignant. I’m the type of person that will read the last page of a book before I start. I love spoilers just that much. The House I Loved was the first book in a very long time where that didn’t happen. I had a feeling I knew how this one was going to end and I don’t say this as a way to ruin this book for anyone. The beauty is really in the letters and memories Rose is telling and reliving for her husband. Some of the memories were lovely --- for instance, when she begins her love of reading and how she tells her husband that she now finally understands how he could sit for hours absorbed in a book. A reader would love that! Others are awful, sad memories that only impending change would cause her to reveal. I don’t want you to think this book is only sad, it is in a way, but it’s also very heartwarming and the picture that de Rosnay paints of this little street in Paris in the 1860s is very vibrant. The parks, the buildings, and the people are alive in Rose’s letters. And while Rose’s world is very small, it feels much grander thanks to the words she writes to her beloved husband. Her description of a neighbor and friend, Alexandrine, a local florist, is wonderful and you can see how close the women are and how much they admire, and need, one another. It’s in these letters about Alexandrine that you catch glimpses of Rose’s relationship with the daughter she never felt close to and you see why she feels so loving toward Alexandrine. At first I thought of Rose as a stubborn old woman but soon found myself admiring the character for her strength and convictions. To her, the house was more than just simple bricks and mortar. It was her life and the memories that kept her going. She refused to part with it for reasons that only she understood but also out of love for a husband she wanted desperately to feel close to after his death. It’s a love story on more than one level.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as her previous book Sarah's key. I was expecting a lot more. I had just recently seen the art exhibition of d'Arget's work showing the old streets of Paris before the buildings began to be pulled down so had some understanding of the time period but the story and characters did not grab me at all and I found it a very predictable and boring plot
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Did not enjoy this book but three stars for her writing. Through most of the book Rose Bazlet is writing to her husband who has been dead ten years. The "beloved, my dearest, Rose of my heart, all endearments were too much for me. Could not imagine it was the same writer who wrote Sarah's Key.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The House I Loved by Tatiana De Rosnay is a very big disappointment. I expected much more from the author of Sarah's Key. Once again, she embarks on an historical tale about Paris, France. This time about the era in Paris when Baron Hausmann has undertaken the modernization of the city. Rose Bazelet is a widow and has remained in her husband's family home after his death. Now that house stands in the way of the construction of The Boulevard Saint-Germain. She has vowed that she will never leave this house and has taken to living in the basement of the now desolate building. While there, she is writing her last letter to Armand detailing all that has happened since his passing. Believing the letter will never be found she shares her feelings and secrets as well.I would hardly call The House I Loved a novel. It felt more like a glorified short story. While historically factual, it is also rather unbelievable. I would pass on this one and hope for better from De Rosnay in the future.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is a book about a Parisian neighborhood, a woman and a house. But it is not just a house, it is a home that has seen much history by the mid 1880's, it has seen the riots, the end of the Bourbon monarchy and the glory of Napoleon Bonaparte, the crowning of his empress and the birth his son. Rose, isn't just a woman, she is a woman who has known love in this house, death in this house, tragedy and joy and she had promised her husband that she would take care of this house which was his childhood home. When I started reading this book I thought it was so melancholy, but I think that is the authors strength in her writing, she can make one feel as this woman does waiting to see her house destroyed, At 60, and keep in mind that in the 1800's, 60 was elderly, Rose is determined to not leave her house, her history just for the glory of a man who wants to change the face of Paris just for his glory. So no this is not another Sarah's Key but, it is a poignant, quiet, matter of fact story of a woman, faced with loosing the only thing left to her, can no longer see a future that she wants.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting story, but it moved so slowly. I'm not sure if it was just the speed of the reader, or if the story itself was slow moving.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    My thoughts as I started this book: “Huh, I didn’t know Napoleon remodeled Paris in this way. This should be interesting!”My thoughts as I finished this book: “Hmmm… well, that happened.”I guess I was expecting more than I got from this story. What I wanted was a story of a woman fighting against progress to save her beloved home. What I got was a story of a woman repeating herself over and over, visiting one city official, and then refusing to leave her home. But not in a “chain herself to her front door” sort of way.And Rose’s secret? Well, it’s blatantly telegraphed in the 3rd chapter, so nothing is a surprise. By the time Rose gets around to writing about it, all you can think is “yeah yeah yeah get on with it already!” And I had a very hard time buying her depth of feeling for her son, because she obviously didn’t care a lick about her daughter.No one’s actions in this book really make any sense at all, and I think that’s what’s most frustrating. This could have been so much better.I’ve heard great things about de Rosnay, even from others who have read this book and disliked it, so I’m sure I’ll read some of her other work. But if you skip over this one, you won’t be missing anything.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Loved this story. If you have ever loved a home, you would totally understand Rose's dilema. Great story with a great piece of history in there too!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Although things are continually happening and the tension tightens, the book has little plot, in my opinion, because it doesn't have a real ending or point. It explores old age caught in difficult circumstances with change being demanded. A lady remembers her first sight of the house and her future husband and all the memories collected in the house over the years, good and bad. So as the demolition crews move closer and closer, she refuses to move.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This one was frustrating. I felt it might have been better divided into a few short stories. Rose's love of books and her reading toward the end just didn't flow with the rest of the story and could have been a seperate short story and may have read better that way. I do love de Rosnay's writing but I did find some parts of this one dull and the language a little hard to follow. I did like the character of Rose but I was expecting so much more!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This was an enjoyable novel to listen to that brought us into historical Paris, not only through the letters of our dear main character Rose, but also the people that were dear to her heart. Kate Reading did a great job narrating this novel and to me embraced the characters and the time period that helped to create vivid images for me.As you can see from the summary above, the home that holds memories of Rose's full life is about to be turned into rubble. She doesn't seem to have any alternative but to accept the fact that her home will soon be destroyed. As she comes to terms with this fact, she also finds a way to reconcile with herself the many unfortunate events that took place there. Through her letters to her long-passed husband, she reveals secrets that have been hidden in her heart throughout her lifetime.We get to know other characters in the novel from the letters that they write to Rose. From these various letters we get to know Rose as the gentle and loving woman that she has become. This makes the secret she has been carrying around throughout her life that much more of an abomination.I did enjoy this audiobook filled with french accents and history. My only problem is that I would sometimes be confused if I wasn't paying close attention to whose letter was being read at the time. Quite often when reading a book like this I find myself going back to the beginning of the chapter to see who is speaking. Sometimes that is hard to do while listening to an audiobook. With themes of love, loss, friendship, and secrets, this was an enjoyable book to listen to and I also feel that it would make an interesting book club discussion.