Synopses & Reviews
If Adam Gopnik's
Paris to the Moon described daily life in contemporary Paris, this book describes daily life in Paris throughout its history: a history of the city from the point of view of the Parisians themselves. Paris captures everyone's imaginations: It's a backdrop for Proust's fictional pederast, Robert Doisneau's photographic kiss, and Edith Piaf's serenaded soldier-lovers; a home as much to romance and love poems as to prostitution and opium dens. The many pieces of the city coexist, each one as real as the next. What's more, the conflicted identity of the city is visible everywhere--between cobblestones, in bars, on the
métro.
In this lively and lucid volume, Andrew Hussey brings to life the urchins and artists who've left their marks on the city, filling in the gaps of a history that affected the disenfranchised as much as the nobility. Paris: The Secret History ranges across centuries, movements, and cultural and political beliefs, from Napoleon's overcrowded cemeteries to Balzac's nocturnal flight from his debts. For Hussey, Paris is a city whose long and conflicted history continues to thrive and change. The book's is a picaresque journey through royal palaces, brothels, and sidewalk cafés, uncovering the rich, exotic, and often lurid history of the world's most beloved city.
Review
"In the closing pages...Andrew Hussey notes, 'As violence and terror dominated the streets, sex and love somehow still remained central to the ethos and mythology of Paris.' As it happens, he is referring to the mid-1990's, but the description could apply to almost any period in the last 500 years. Paris, Mr. Hussey amply demonstrates, has always been a city of darkness as well as light." New York Times
Review
"This is a timely book, for Hussey observes that Paris is still being shaped by new arrivals who are playing a role in remaking the city yet again." Library Journal
Review
"An immensely readable, richly detailed and sometimes disturbing chronicle that explores much of the darkness in the City of Lights." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
If Adam Gopnik's
Paris to the Moon described daily life in contemporary Paris, this book describes daily life in Paris throughout its history: a history of the city from the point of view of the Parisians themselves. Paris captures everyone's imaginations: It's a backdrop for Proust's fictional pederast, Robert Doisneau's photographic kiss, and Edith Piaf's serenaded soldier-lovers; a home as much to romance and love poems as to prostitution and opium dens. The many pieces of the city coexist, each one as real as the next. What's more, the conflicted identity of the city is visible everywhere — between cobblestones, in bars, on the
métro.
In this lively and lucid volume, Andrew Hussey brings to life the urchins and artists who've left their marks on the city, filling in the gaps of a history that affected the disenfranchised as much as the nobility. Paris: The Secret History ranges across centuries, movements, and cultural and political beliefs, from Napoleon's overcrowded cemeteries to Balzac's nocturnal flight from his debts. For Hussey, Paris is a city whose long and conflicted history continues to thrive and change. The book's is a picaresque journey through royal palaces, brothels, and sidewalk cafés, uncovering the rich, exotic, and often lurid history of the world's most beloved city.
Synopsis
Describes daily life in Paris throughout history from the point of view of the Parisians themselves, including the working classes, criminals, insurrectionists, street urchins, artists, and prostitutes.
Synopsis
A lively chronicle of more than two thousand years of history from a Parisian point of view describes everyday life in Paris throughout the city's history, capturing the citizens, artists, political figures, counterculture gurus, anarchists, prostitutes, and others who have shaped the city. 40,000 first printing.
About the Author
Andrew Hussey is a cultural historian and biographer. His previous book, a critically acclaimed biography of Guy Debord, was published in 2001. He is Lecturer in French studies at the University of Aberystwyth and divides his time between Ireland, Wales and Paris.