The Other Paris

Sante, Luc

ISBN 10: 1622319249 ISBN 13: 9781622319244

Publisher: HighBridge Company, 2015

Synopsis

Paris, the City of Light. The city of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, of soft cheese and fresh baguettes. Or so tourist brochures would have you believe. In The Other Paris: The People's City, Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Luc Sante reveals the city's hidden past, its seamy underside-one populated by working and criminal classes that, though virtually extinct today, have shaped Paris over the past two centuries.

Drawing on testimony from a great range of witnesses-from Balzac and Hugo to assorted boulevardiers, rabble-rousers, and tramps-Sante, whose thorough research is matched only by the vividness of his narration, takes the reader on a whirlwind tour. Richly illustrated with more than three hundred images, The Other Paris scuttles through the knotted streets of pre-Haussmann Paris; through the improvised accommodations of the original bohemians; through the massive garbage dump at Montfaucon, active until 1849, in which, "at any given time the carcasses of 12,000 horses . . . were left to rot."

A wildly lively survey of labor conditions, prostitution, drinking, crime, and popular entertainment, of the reporters, realiste singers, pamphleteers, and poets who chronicled their evolution, The Other Paris is a book meant to upend the story of the French capital, to reclaim the city from the bon vivants and the speculators, and to hold a light to the works and days of the forgotten poor.

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Review

“This brilliant, beautifully written essay is the finest book I have ever read about Paris. Ever. Thank you, Luc Sante.” ―Paul Auster

“Nowadays, the old crowded, swarming, surly cities are at least half-forgotten. But in this great chronicle Luc Sante recalls when Paris was rougher, when the poor, the tough, the unregulated, the underworld, thrived there; maybe the city was also less rough, in that there was room for nearly everyone all the way down the social ladder. Hanging over The Other Paris is the contemporary curse of cities that perhaps hit Paris first, of cities that have become bland transnational stopping places for the privileged. Magisterial as ever, Sante returns us to the flavor, texture, savor, shouts, and clashes of the bygone city.” ―Rebecca Solnit

“The Other Paris is a heartbreaking spectacle, immense in intellectual and political scope and emotional reach. Peopled by crooks and movie stars, gamblers and thinkers, the world's premier city of dreams is rendered, through Luc Sante's fine hand, historian's eye, and poet's heart, into a place we hardly knew-a world of hitherto unknown mysteries and realities. A grand journey in an epic work.” ―Hilton Als

“Sante’s knowledge of the voluminous Paris literature is prodigious . . . Sante’s great gift is his ability to draw on the ‘verbal photography’ of previous writers to send the reader back in time.” ―Arthur Goldhammer, BookForum

"Sante vividly captures this “other” Paris . . . The Other Paris is immersive and enjoyable. The abundant pictures are fascinating." ―Booklist

“'We have forgotten what a city was,' Luc Sante provocatively writes about Paris. By the last chapter of this absorbing book, we are convinced. Washerwomen and ragpickers, bohemians and clochards, anarchists and apaches, all play their part in this alternative urban history. This is not the Gay Paree of Maurice Chevalier, though he too makes an appearance.” ―Witold Rybczynski

“All who love Paris will love this book.” ―Kirkus Reviews

About this edition

• Publisher: HighBridge Company
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1622319249
• ISBN 13: 9781622319244
• Binding: Audio CD
• Language: English