Dramatised reading at the Hôtel de Sade

From 6.30 pm, the Hôtel de Sade opens its doors for a dramatised reading by Isabelle Mentré. Written between July and September 1940, *L’Etrange défaite* was, in Marc Bloch’s view, only to be published once France had been liberated from the occupying forces. This came to pass in 1946, but posthumously, as the author had been shot by the Gestapo on 16 June 1944. Regarded as one of the major works on the causes of the French collapse, *L’Etrange défaite* is also the testament of a veteran of both world wars, a citizen and, equally, a historian. Three qualities which he embodied to the highest degree and which enabled him to write: “We read, when we read, to educate ourselves: which is all very well. But we do not think enough about the fact that we can, and must, when we act, draw on our education.”