Author: Alistair Horne Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0804151695 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 496
Book Description
In this luminous portrait of Paris, the celebrated historian gives us the history, culture, disasters, and triumphs of one of the world’s truly great cities. While Paris may be many things, it is never boring. From the rise of Philippe Auguste through the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIV (who abandoned Paris for Versailles); Napoleon’s rise and fall; Baron Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris (at the cost of much of the medieval city); the Belle Epoque and the Great War that brought it to an end; the Nazi Occupation, the Liberation, and the postwar period dominated by de Gaulle--Horne brings the city’s highs and lows, savagery and sophistication, and heroes and villains splendidly to life. With a keen eye for the telling anecdote and pivotal moment, he portrays an array of vivid incidents to show us how Paris endures through each age, is altered but always emerges more brilliant and beautiful than ever. The Seven Ages of Paris is a great historian’s tribute to a city he loves and has spent a lifetime learning to know. "Knowledgeable and colorful, written with gusto and love.... [An] ambitious and skillful narrative that covers the history of Paris with considerable brio and fervor." —LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW
Author: Alistair Horne Publisher: Pan Publishing ISBN: 9781509889259 Category : City planning Languages : en Pages : 544
Book Description
In this wonderfully readable book, Alistair Horne tells the huge and romantic story of Paris through seven ages of turmoil and change: the Middle Ages, the 100 years war, the Paris of Louis XIV, the age of Napoleon, the Commune, the Empire days of Louis-Napoleon and Eugenie, and the First World War and De Gaulle. Interweaving historical narrative with telling detail, this is a fluent and definitive work of social and cultural history. 'The best book I have read on Paris in a long time' Gregor Dallas, BBC History Books of the Year 'Reading Seven Ages of Paris is like taking an exciting trip in a French balloon' Antonia Fraser, New Statesman Books of the Year 'Provides not only a panorama of the capital, but also a well-crafted history of France with a nice balance between broad overviews and engaging episodes and details' Jonathan Fenby, The Times
Author: Joanna Biggar Publisher: Santa Fe Writers Project ISBN: 9780982625101 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 484
Book Description
In That Paris Year, five smart, adventurous young women arrive on the banks of the Seine in 1962 for their junior year abroad. What they get is an education of a different sort. As they move from the grueling demands of the Sorbonne by day to late nights of discovery in smoky cafes, the young Americans discover a mythical country shaped not only by the upheavals of history, but by the great French writers of the 20th Century, a place where seduction is intellectual as well as sexual. Ten years later, our narrator, J. J., is asked to speak at her old college on the virtues of going abroad. Drawing on the emotionally charged tools of memory and imagination, as well as old journals, letters, and telegrams, she chronicles and re-creates the story of that momentous year. Following in the footsteps of Marcel Proust, Joanna Biggar has written a novel in which intellect, eroticism, and art reverberate from the page to the heartbeat of the City of Light, an American book with the sweep and elegance of French literary tradition.
Author: Simone Roux Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press ISBN: 0812241592 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Centering on the streets of this metropolis, Simone Roux peers into the secret lives of people within their homes and the public world of affairs and entertainments, populating the book with laborers, shop keepers, magistrates, thieves, and strollers.
Author: Stanley Karnow Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0307761517 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 368
Book Description
In July 1947, fresh out of college and long before he would win the Pulitzer Prize and become known as one of America's finest historians, Stanley Karnow boarded a freighter bound for France, planning to stay for the summer. He stayed for ten years, first as a student and later as a correspondent for Time magazine. By the time he left, Karnow knew Paris so intimately that his French colleagues dubbed him "le plus parisien des Américains" --the most Parisian American. Now, Karnow returns to the France of his youth, perceptively and wittily illuminating a time and place like none other. Karnow came to France at a time when the French were striving to return to the life they had enjoyed before the devastation of World War II. Yet even during food shortages, political upheavals, and the struggle to come to terms with a world in which France was no longer the mighty power it had been, Paris remained a city of style, passion, and romance. Paris in the Fifties transports us to Latin Quarter cafés and basement jazz clubs, to unheated apartments and glorious ballrooms. We meet such prominent political figures as Charles de Gaulle and Pierre Mendès-France, as well as Communist hacks and the demagogic tax rebel Pierre Poujade. We get to know illustrious intellectuals, among them Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Albert Camus, and André Malraux, and visit the glittering salons where aristocrats with exquisite manners mingled with trendy novelists, poets, critics, artists, composers, playwrights, and actors. We meet Christian Dior, who taught Karnow the secrets of haute couture, and Prince Curnonsky, France's leading gourmet, who taught the young reporter to appreciate the complexities of haute cuisine. Karnow takes us to marathon murder trials in musty courtrooms, accompanies a group of tipsy wine connoisseurs on a tour of the Beaujolais vineyards, and recalls the famous automobile race at Le Mans when a catastrophic accident killed more than eighty spectators. Back in Paris, Karnow hung out with visiting celebrities like Ernest Hemingway, Orson Welles, and Audrey Hepburn, and in Paris in the Fifties we meet them too. A veteran reporter and historian, Karnow has written a vivid and delightful history of a charmed decade in the greatest city in the world.
Author: Francois Thomazeau Publisher: New York Review of Books ISBN: 9781892145499 Category : Travel Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
“A brasserie is where the pleasure of the eye is reunited with the pleasures of the table.” In the sparkling brasseries of Paris, waiters in traditional long white aprons balance overflowing trays as they weave their way through beautiful Art Deco and Art Nouveau dining rooms with stained glass windows, romantic femmes-fleurs murals, glistening mirrors. The traditional menu—a lighter version of the pricier dishes served in “real” restaurants—includes choucroute, steak-frites, towering fresh seafood platters, and soups from bouillabaise to onion. “Brasseries rustle with all that makes Parisian life Parisian,” writes the author in this charming guide, first published in France, which will lead travelers to the best of these beloved institutions.
Author: Alistair Horne Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 030742653X Category : History Languages : en Pages : 512
Book Description
"A useful and charming introduction to a nation that has oh-so-definitely helped make the modern world what it is... Horne does a service in helping the reading navigate the complexities of French history." —Los Angeles Times From the aclaimed British historian and author of Seven Ages of Paris comes a sweeping, grand narrative written with all the verve, erudition, and vividness that are his hallmarks. It recounts the hugely absorbing story of the country that has contributed to the world so much talent, style, and political innovation. Beginning with Julius Caesar’s division of Gaul into three parts, Horne leads us through the ages from Charlemagne to Chirac, touring battlefields from the Hundred Years’ War to Indochina and Algeria, and giving us luminous portraits of the nation’s leaders, philosophers, writers, artists, and composers. This is a captivating, beautifully illustrated, and comprehensive yet concise history of France.
Author: Penny Drue Baird Publisher: The Monacelli Press, LLC ISBN: 1580932053 Category : Architecture Languages : en Pages : 0
Book Description
Bringing Paris Home invites the reader to re-create the panache of French interior style in an American setting. Author Penny Drue Baird shares her love and knowledge of French history and decorative arts and describes the design elements essential to an elegant French interior—architectural details, furniture, paint and wall covering, fireplaces, lighting, and tabletop settings. A special chapter on shopping offers tips on finding treasures in the famed Marche aux Puces in Paris. Penny Drue Baird's highly engaging text, filled with reminiscences and anecdotes, brings the charm and pleasure of Paris to life. Lavishly illustrated with Parisian scenes and completed interiors by Baird, Bringing Paris Home is an essential resource for capturing the atmosphere of Paris.
Author: Alistair Horne Publisher: Penguin UK ISBN: 0141937726 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 736
Book Description
In 1940, the German army fought and won an extraordinary battle with France in six weeks of lightning warfare. With the subtlety and compulsion of a novel, Horne’s narrative shifts from minor battlefield incidents to high military and political decisions, stepping far beyond the confines of military history to form a major contribution to our understanding of the crises of the Franco-German rivalry. To Lose a Battle is the third part of the trilogy beginning with The Fall of Paris and continuing with The Price of Glory (already available in Penguin).
Author: Alistair Horne
Author: Alistair Horne
Author: Joan DeJean
Author: Joanna Biggar
Author: Simone Roux
Author: Stanley Karnow
Author: Francois Thomazeau
Author: Alistair Horne
Author: Penny Drue Baird
Author: Alistair Horne