Paris, City of Dreams: Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Creation of Paris - Hardcover

McAuliffe, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 153812128X ISBN 13: 9781538121283

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2020

Synopsis

Acclaimed historian Mary McAuliffe vividly recaptures the Paris of Napoleon III, Claude Monet, and Victor Hugo as Georges Haussmann tore down and rebuilt Paris into the beautiful City of Light we know today.

Paris, City of Dreams traces the transformation of the City of Light during Napoleon III’s Second Empire into the beloved city of today. Together, Napoleon III and his right-hand man, Georges Haussmann, completely rebuilt Paris in less than two decades—a breathtaking achievement made possible not only by the emperor’s vision and Haussmann’s determination, but by the regime’s unrelenting authoritarianism, augmented by the booming economy that Napoleon fostered.

Yet a number of Parisians refused to comply with the restrictions that censorship and entrenched institutional taste imposed. Mary McAuliffe follows the lives of artists such as Edouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, and Claude Monet, as well as writers such as Emile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, and the poet Charles Baudelaire, while from exile, Victor Hugo continued to fire literary broadsides at the emperor he detested.

McAuliffe brings to life a pivotal era encompassing not only the physical restructuring of Paris but also the innovative forms of banking and money-lending that financed industrialization as well as the city’s transformation. This in turn created new wealth and flaunted excess, even while producing extreme poverty. Even more deeply, change was occurring in the way people looked at and understood the world around them, given the new ease of transportation and communication, the popularization of photography, and the emergence of what would soon be known as Impressionism in art and Naturalism and Realism in literature—artistic yearnings that would flower in the Belle Epoque.

Napoleon III, whose reign abruptly ended after he led France into a devastating war against Germany, has been forgotten. But the Paris that he created has endured, brought to vivid life through McAuliffe’s rich illustrations and evocative narrative.

About this title

About the Author

Mary McAuliffe received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Maryland and has taught at several universities and lectured at the Smithsonian Institution. For many years she was a regular contributor to Paris Notes. She has traveled extensively in France and is the author of Dawn of the Belle Epoque: The Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau, and Their Friends. She lives in New York City with her husband.

Review

A brilliant social historian., The New York Times

McAuliffe has an eye for the evocative, using quotes—and salacious details—to bring [Paris] to life., Library Journal

Rich with the flavor of words taken from primary sources, [Mary McAuliffe’s books] provide an intimate look at the very human side of history., New York Journal of Books

McAuliffe’s knowledge of and enthusiasm for this time is evident on every page., Foreword Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2020
• ISBN 10: 153812128X
• ISBN 13: 9781538121283
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 344