The Other Paris
An illustrated journey through a city's poor and Bohemian past
-
- 15,99 €
-
- 15,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
Paris, the City of Light. We think of it as the city of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, of white façades, discreet traffic and well-mannered exchanges. But there was another Paris, hidden from view and virtually extinct today - the Paris of the working and criminal classes that shaped the city over the past two centuries.
In the voices of Balzac and Hugo, assorted boulevardiers, barflies, rabble-rousers and tramps, Sante takes the reader on a vividjourney through the seamy underside of Paris: the improvised accommodations of the original bohemians; the flea markets, the rubbish tips, and the hovels.
The Other Paris is a lively tour of labour conditions, prostitution, drinking, crime, and popular entertainment, of the reporters, réaliste singers, pamphleteers, serial novelists, and poets who chronicled their evolution. It upends the story of the French capital, reclaiming the city from the bon vivants and the speculators, and lighting a candle to the works and days of the forgotten poor.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This vivid and thorough compendium describes the history of the Paris neighborhoods historically occupied by the poor, the dirty, and other undesirables. Focusing primarily on the 19th and 20th centuries, Sante zigzags through the arrondissements, touring the history of the hospitals, bordellos, cafes, and drinking establishments of the poor. He takes readers into the noisy arcades, past the guillotine, and by the cour des miracles, a cluster of dilapidated houses beyond the reach of the law. Nearly every page includes beautiful old photos, drawings, and accompanying images in the margins that help tell the story of the often unmentioned side of Paris. In a chapter on insurgents, Sante recounts the story of an anarchist named Ravachol, who planted two bombs (that killed no one) in March 1982 but was so feared that he was blamed for a long list of unsolved crimes and then publicly executed. Sante, a flaneur, does not want to glamorize the past but rather gives readers an intense "reminder of what life was like" when cities were wild and savage and survival was uncertain. The sheer volume and variety of the obscure stories gathered here make this eclectic history a rambunctious and wholly entertaining guide to Paris and an educational experience worth savoring. 377 illus.
