Synopses & Reviews
Paris has been the center of French culture and politics, the great stage of kings, poets, and revolutionaries, the inspiration of artists, and the prize of armies since the Middle Ages. More distinguished than London, more central to world events than Rome, Paris has long been the world's capital of art, beauty, and ideas. British historian Colin Jones unfolds the entire history of Paris in a single splendid volume that is simultaneously exuberant and erudite.
Fluent in cultural as well as political history and keenly attuned to the ongoing drama of the city's evolution, Jones brings to life the people, ideas, social movements, and architectural upheavals that have made and remade Paris. Beginning with the late-Stone Age settlement, on the banks of a muddy river, Jones's brisk, authoritative narrative moves through every epoch from the Roman town loved by the Emperor Julian to the early Christian capital of Clovis and Clotilda, from the plague-infested alleys of the Middle Ages to the brilliant salons of the Enlightenment, and from the bloody epicenter of the revolution to the brilliant backdrop of Impressionism.
Caesar and Colette, Saint Louis and Gertrude Stein, Napoleon and Jacques Chirac take their places, along with hundreds of others, in this dazzling history of the world's most glorious city.
Review
"Imperfect but, still, entertaining and informative." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"As comprehensive in detail and scope as a one-volume history of an ages-old city can comfortably be, but written with a decidedly scholarly tone, this 'biography' will find its audience among history aficionados and ardent travelers unafraid to make a significant commitment to reading time and concentration." Booklist
Synopsis
A British historian unfolds the entire history of Paris in a single splendid volume that is simultaneously exuberant and erudite. Fluent in cultural as well as political history, Jones brings to life the people, ideas, social movements, and architectural upheavals that have made and remade Paris.
Synopsis
From the Roman Emperor Julian, who waxed rhapsodic about Parisian wine and figs, to Henry Miller, who relished its seductive bohemia, Paris has been a perennial source of fascination for 2,000 years. In this definitive and illuminating history, Colin Jones walks us through the city that was a plague-infested charnel house during the Middle Ages, the bloody epicenter of the French Revolution, the muse of nineteenth-century Impressionist painters, and much more. Jones’s masterful narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs and feature boxes—on the Bastille or Josephine Baker, for instance—that complete a colorful and comprehensive portrait of a place that has endured Vikings, Black Death, and the Nazis to emerge as the heart of a resurgent Europe. This is a thrilling companion for history buffs and backpack, or armchair, travelers alike.
About the Author
Colin Jones, a professor of history at Warwick University, has written widely on the social, economic, religious, political, medical, and cultural history of France. He is the author of The Cambridge Illustrated History of France and The Great Nation: France from Louis XV to Napoleon, also published by Penguin.