The Invention of Paris: A History Told in Footsteps - Hardcover

Hazan, Eric

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1844674118 ISBN 13: 9781844674114

Publisher: Verso, 2010

Synopsis

The Invention of Paris is a tour through the streets and history of the French capital under the guidance of radical Parisian author and publisher Eric Hazan.

Hazan reveals a city whose squares echo with the riots, rebellions and revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Combining the raconteur’s ear for a story with a historian’s command of the facts, he introduces an incomparable cast of characters: the literati, the philosophers and the artists—Balzac, Baudelaire, Blanqui, Flaubert, Hugo, Maney, and Proust, of course; but also Doisneau, Nerval and Rousseau.

It is a Paris dyed a deep red in its convictions. It is haunted and vitalized by the history of the barricades, which Hazan retells in rich detail. The Invention of Paris opens a window on the forgotten byways of the capital’s vibrant and bloody past, revealing the city in striking new colors.

About this title

About the Author

Eric Hazan is the founder of the publisher La Fabrique and the author of several books, including Notes on the Occupation and the highly acclaimed The Invention of Paris. He has lived in Paris, France, all his life.

Reviews

French writers from Balzac to Voltaire have bemoaned the slow deterioration of Paris, and Hazan gladly joins the cry, aiming his jaundiced eye at the "tragedy" of modernization currently holding the city in its grip. Still, even as the radical author bitterly ponders the future of the City of Lights, he proves himself an engaging guide to the Paris he knows best: the heart of an intellectual metropolis rarely known to outsiders. Hazan's brick-by-brick account of the city's history of strife and political posturing is riveting, as is his back-story of every arrondissement, corner café, and street beggar (including his favorite). The chapter "Red Paris" points a knowing finger at the memento mori of Occupied France: "Thanks to plaques showing where those who were shot or deported lived and met, it is possible to sketch the outline of a Resistance Paris..." Moving backwards through history, Hazan also traces the roots of revolt through several generations of Parisian society, touching upon such figures as Tocqueville and Raspail along the way. Finally, it's the city's most loveable fop, Baudelaire himself, through who's eyes readers see the flop-houses, carousels, graveyards, and the Seine, a not always beautiful sight that nonetheless few will be able to resist.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Verso
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1844674118
• ISBN 13: 9781844674114
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 400