At God's Pleasure
In this evocative, hanting novel a lost world is recovered, a world both privileged and doomed, the world of an aristocratic family as it confronts, head on, the twentieth century. The narrator, an orphaned only son of a younger son, is our guide and through him we witness the dissolution of "my old and beloved family" as it comes face to face with modern life. Through the elegant, witty voice of his narrator, Jean d'Ormesson takes readers into the shimmering, ephemeral seemingly timeless world of the aristocrat. We are swept up in the lives of grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren, great and great-great grandchildren. We have visited the family's townhouses and estates, been privy to their scandals, been honored guests at their tea parties and soires. And lovingly, tenderly, nostalgically, d'Ormesson has shown us not only the weaknesses that brought this world to its end, but also the strengths and virtues that kept it viable so long.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Warm tone · Steady pace
Best when you want to settle into a longer reading experience.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3944-9899-7
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL4562297M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
Best when you want to settle into a longer reading experience.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
More Nonfiction books
These matches combine shared categories with author, publication-era, and reading-length signals.
In Defense of Globalization
by Jagdish Bhagwati
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length.
Political Thinking, Political Theory (3rd Edition)
by Steven M. DeLue, Timothy Dale
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length.
