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37th out of 100 books
—
567 voters
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
by
Graham Robb
The secrets of the City of Light, revealed in the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten—by the author of the acclaimed The Discovery of France.
This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction.
A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the...more
This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction.
A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the...more
Hardcover, 496 pages
Published
April 26th 2010
by W. W. Norton & Company
(first published January 1st 2010)
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Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris
I'm new to Good Reads! The book is non-fiction -- but a very intimate one! It's called Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb.
This is a very different history written by Graham Robb, a person fascinated by Paris. He's also written: Balzac, Victor Hugo, Rimbaud and The Discovery of France -- all before this particular book. This is a very unusual history -- in different time frames, all historically accurate, well researched -- stories from...more
I'm new to Good Reads! The book is non-fiction -- but a very intimate one! It's called Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb.
This is a very different history written by Graham Robb, a person fascinated by Paris. He's also written: Balzac, Victor Hugo, Rimbaud and The Discovery of France -- all before this particular book. This is a very unusual history -- in different time frames, all historically accurate, well researched -- stories from...more
Graham Robb is a fantastic writer and a historian like no other. The first few chapters of this book are completely fascinating, history as novellas. Inevitably with such a range of subjects and styles, some parts are more successful than others, and in general the earlier parts are better than the later. To enjoy it to the full you need a) some patience as he toys with you, letting slip key facts late on in each chapter, b) a strong interest in French history and c) ideally at least basic knowl...more
3 likes · like · see review
I almost ALWAYS feel guilty, when abandoning a book. I picked this up in anticipation of my upcoming trip with the hopes that it's a Bill Bryson-style history of Paris, with lots of interesting little obscure tidbits about Parisian history. I hoped it would give me some enlightenment into the lives of the great Parisians throughout history, as well as to help me relate some of it to my surroundings when I finally get there.
The thing that made me so mad about this book was the writing. I think G...more
The thing that made me so mad about this book was the writing. I think G...more
I'm only two chapters in and I'm already loving this book to pieces!
One of my books of the year: delight from first page to last.
Graham Robb's series of essays about Paris past and present are everything that most guide books are not: idiosyncratic, informative, amusing, provocative in the sense that the reader is provoked to explore, and (not least) beautifully written.
Who, for example, has read a book entitled L'Infection de Paris about the former village of Bondy where much of the city's sewage was dumped, the odour returning the foul stench whence it came?...more
Graham Robb's series of essays about Paris past and present are everything that most guide books are not: idiosyncratic, informative, amusing, provocative in the sense that the reader is provoked to explore, and (not least) beautifully written.
Who, for example, has read a book entitled L'Infection de Paris about the former village of Bondy where much of the city's sewage was dumped, the odour returning the foul stench whence it came?...more
I bought this for research and found a delightful read. Graham Robb had laid out Paris in chapters devoted to the events surrounding certain historical events, but told from an obscure point of view. For instance, Hitler's one and only tour of the city is depicted through the eyes of one of the artists he had chosen to use Paris as a template for a reconstructed Berlin. Then there is the section on Marcel Proust and his refusal, ever, to use the Metro, and his comical disorientation whenever he...more
Paris, without a doubt, is never boring. And this book focuses on various 'moments' in the city's moody history. Graham Robb's book is heavy curated in the sense that he tells various narratives dealing with Paris at a point of crisis of some point.
Each chapter focuses on a particular narrative, and the one's that work for me is the chapter on Napoleon flirting with a whore at the Museum, the Occupation seen through a Parisian child's eye which is terrifying and horrible at the same time, and t...more
Each chapter focuses on a particular narrative, and the one's that work for me is the chapter on Napoleon flirting with a whore at the Museum, the Occupation seen through a Parisian child's eye which is terrifying and horrible at the same time, and t...more
1 like · like · see review
There is nothing traditional about Graham Robb's approach to history, and Parisians, like his previous works, reflects his exceptional creativity and wonderful writing. Robb introduces each personality as a mystery for readers to unravel, all the while evoking the sights and sounds of Paris. Although he narrates many of the sections from his characters' perspectives, he also presents each in different form; the tale of the student revolt, for example, takes the shape of a course outline, and the...more
As a lover of Paris, and a Francophile in general, I was looking forward to reading Robb's anecdotal account of the history of the City of Light - especially as I'd enjoyed his previous history of France ('The Discovery of France).
I did enjoy this book but at the same time I came away rather dissatisfied; in the first place, I found it difficult to read due to what seems to me to be a not very flowing narrative. I've already mentioned Robb's device of maintaining each chapter's central figure an...more
I did enjoy this book but at the same time I came away rather dissatisfied; in the first place, I found it difficult to read due to what seems to me to be a not very flowing narrative. I've already mentioned Robb's device of maintaining each chapter's central figure an...more
Great history of Paris, told novelistically from the viewpoint of various people who lived or visited Paris at various points in history. Roughly chronological in order, the book moves from about the 1780s right up to the 21st century. Marie Antoinette, Napoleon, and Hitler all figure in as major historical figures; minor figures include a Nazi officer who accompanied Hitler when they occupied Paris, a man who saved Paris from its subterranean gypsum quarries (cave-ins were becoming frequent), a...more
I have traveled throughout Europe and Paris is one of my favorite cities. I was drawn to this book because of my love for the city. However, I am not a good nonfiction reader and this book could not hold my interest. The author's writing style was difficult to follow and I got bored with him naming every street in Paris in an attempt to make the reader feel like they were in Paris with the narrater during that time in history. The overuse of street names "Rue du Bac, Champs-Elysees, Rue de Montm...more
Jun 19, 2010
Lauren Albert
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Shelves:
history-european,
cities-and-urban-studies
This book is a series of narratives or vignettes, rather than one long narrative history. Robb uses individual events, small and large, to illuminate the larger history of Paris. The story of Marie Antoinette getting lost just outside the Tuilleries during her attempted escape gives him a chance to explain the confusing layout of the city and the lack at that time of a detailed map. A look at Notre Dame lets him reveal the history of Alchemy. ("one of the more conservative estimates puts the nju...more
'Si tu veux etre heureux, pends ton propietaire.'.
This work left me a bit perplexed. I feel that the idea behind the book was great but it has not been exploited fully.
Robb set out to produce "a story" of Paris and its temperamental inhabitants from 1750 to nowadays throughout episodes of some remarkable characters lives as well as the city 'urbanistic' development.
The book is structured in a number of independent chapters that progress chronologically through the different eras of the city of...more
This was a very enjoyable history of Paris as told in a series of chapters about different people who lived in or visited Paris over the past couple of centuries. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if I had already known something about Paris and its citizens. Some chapters were quite obscure because they were written in a way that assumed you knew who the people were and what events they had been involved in. This was particularly true for the post-World War II chapters. Still, the city...more
I cannot recommend this book. I suspect that Robb pilfered bits of history that didn't quite make it into his Birth of France book and so the effect of this book is one of piecemeal and choppiness. He has a quite annoying habit of beginning each chapter by refusing to name the protagonist ("The tall man walked down the left bank of the Seine . . .") so that the reader is left trying to guess who he is writing about. It seems a coy way of showing off his erudition. And then there are the silly fo...more
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The parts of this book that I enjoyed, I really enjoyed. The idea of writing a history of Paris through the stories of some famous and not-so-famous inhabitants from the late 1700s to the present is an interesting one and allows for a fairly wide-ranging discussion of the city. I found myself wishing that I had a better map of Paris in hand while reading, and I definitely felt as though I was simply piecing together some of the stories and that a better knowledge of Parisian history up front wou...more
I found this book to be interesting in general but perplexing in parts. The author Graham Robb presupposes the reader has a certain framework of context fairly grounded with a familiarity with France and certain aspects, historical and/or situational. Each chapter regards a separate event and oft Robb would write in a somewhat mysterious manner only letting on as to the primary character's identity or the primary point of the chapter until further into the chapter. This could be frustrating at t...more
Dit boek was een onverwachte meevaller. Robb is niet zomaar een verhaaltjesverteller. De man blijkt grondig historisch geschoold en beschikt blijkbaar over een groot literair talent. Parijs komt tot leven in een 15-tal stukjes, waarin telkens een periode uit de 19de en de 20ste eeuw (eigenlijk ook het begin van de 21ste) aan bod komen. Vooral de stukjes over de ondergrond van Parijs, over de opstand in Nieuw-Caledonië die is neergeslagen door verbannen deelnemers aan de Commune van 1871, en de r...more
Graham Robb is one of those rare birds: a British Francophile (well, maybe not all that rare). He as written about French writers (his Rimbaud bio rocks) as well as the history of France (again, brilliantly). His new book on the history of Paris is less a full-blown linear history of the city, and more a series of wonderfully told tales of peculiar moments in the life of a great metropolis. The stories extend from the time of the revolution to the present - from Napoleon to Sarkosy. I found Robb...more
Thorughout much of the book I felt like the author was a bit too clever, referring obliquely to events that the more educated reader would easily pick up on. Not me--my French history, especially more recent history, is spotty at best.
I enojyed some bits a lot--the history of the hell road that suddenly caved in at the end of the 18th century, revealing the old mines that were like honeycombs under the streets of Paris; de Gaulle walking up the aisle of Notre Dame, unharmed despite a hail of bu...more
I enojyed some bits a lot--the history of the hell road that suddenly caved in at the end of the 18th century, revealing the old mines that were like honeycombs under the streets of Paris; de Gaulle walking up the aisle of Notre Dame, unharmed despite a hail of bu...more
Most of the characters in these stories do not have streets named after them, but many are essential to the history of Paris. In the 1770’s, for example, architect Charles-Axel Guillaumot saved Paris from falling into the quarries that the city had been built upon centuries before. Each chapter evokes a the city and period not only in the story but also in the language. The narrative of the student revolt in 1968, told in postmodern jargon is hysterically funny. I wish that I had read this book...more
Jul 27, 2011
Sarah Booth
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
History lovers who also like the smutty backstory
Robb seems to expect you to have some idea of History and even some of the French Language so I wouldn't say the book is an easy read, but it is a very entertaining one! His habit of setting a scene without letting you know who you are looking at can be a bit annoying at times. However the stories in here are wickedly fascinating and scandal/gore factor will get even the most upstanding of readers glued to the book like rubber-neckers to a traffic accident. It's intelligent yet throws in a tiny...more
It IS interesting in it's subject matter, I loved learning more about Paris, but it is really hard to follow if you don't have an in-depth knowledge of say, 17th-18th Century French history and a myriad of French authors and poets!
I was soooo lost when I first started reading, because the author thinks it is kind of cute to reveal the identity of the subject of the chapter at the END of the chapter - or sometimes not at all.
I had to do a lot of google-ing and wikipedia-ing just to keep up! I d...more
I was soooo lost when I first started reading, because the author thinks it is kind of cute to reveal the identity of the subject of the chapter at the END of the chapter - or sometimes not at all.
I had to do a lot of google-ing and wikipedia-ing just to keep up! I d...more
i wanted to read this because i thought the concept was interesting- a history of paris told through the years through the writings and bits of history of ordinary and not so ordinary people. with the exceptions of a few stories, i felt like it dragged and didn't include any explanation to actually interest me if i didn't already know something about the background. for example, the revolts at nanterre in the late 60s. i had never heard of them before and by the time i'd pieced together what was...more
I wanted to give this book at least 3 stars, but really, it was just okay.
The premise is great: follow key characters of Paris through defining moments of their lives (Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, etc.), in a series of vignettes that will ultimately form a narrative of the city itself. Unfortunately, the writer's style pretty much ruined the narrative for me. He had the annoying habit of trying to with hold information, such as the character's name, until the last moment. I think this was an effo...more
The premise is great: follow key characters of Paris through defining moments of their lives (Napoleon, Marie Antoinette, etc.), in a series of vignettes that will ultimately form a narrative of the city itself. Unfortunately, the writer's style pretty much ruined the narrative for me. He had the annoying habit of trying to with hold information, such as the character's name, until the last moment. I think this was an effo...more
This book traces the history of Paris through individual people's adventures with the city, including Napoleon, Marie Antoinette and other famous figures, but also less well known individuals such as Charles Marville, people who played their important parts, but less famously. The reader learns history in the most enjoyable way--through individuals' stories, with engaging detail. The book is aimed at adults, so the seedier side of Paris is there, as well, the Paris of thieves and prostitutes, th...more
Sep 09, 2010
Eleanor
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Non-fiction writers, Francophiles, lovers of paris and stories
Recommended to Eleanor by:
New York Times Book Review
Graham Robb is a thorough and talented historian and an excellent storyteller. The narrative voice is strong in the book and it reads like a gripping novel, or a collection of short stories with Paris as the central character. I just read Paris: A Biography of a City, which is a more straight ahead history and I thought it made an excellent companion to this book and helped me appreciate it more thoroughly. I love that Graham Robb ties cycling into his writing as well. The ending with a ride thr...more
"An Adventure History" is right! This takes a character from each era of Parisian history and follows him/her to shed light on what was happening in Paris at the time. it brings history alive and puts the characters directly into their milieu. Marie Antoinette trying to escape from her captivity in Paris when she has NO idea about the streets of Paris outside her window. Emile Zola and Dreyfus. Fascinating way to learn more about the magical city. (If you haven't already learned a lot about the...more
The secrets of the City of Light, revealed in the lives of the great, the near-great, and the forgotten—by the author of the acclaimed The Discovery of France.
This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction.
A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the Palais-Royal, observes disapprovingly the courtesans plying their trade. A particular woman catches his eye; nature takes its...more
This is the Paris you never knew. From the Revolution to the present, Graham Robb has distilled a series of astonishing true narratives, all stranger than fiction.
A young artillery lieutenant, strolling through the Palais-Royal, observes disapprovingly the courtesans plying their trade. A particular woman catches his eye; nature takes its...more
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Graham Macdonald Robb FRSL (born June 2, 1958) is a British author.
Robb was born in Manchester and educated at the Royal Grammar School Worcester and Exeter College, Oxford, where he studied Modern Languages. He earned a PhD in French literature at Vanderbilt University.
He won the 1997 Whitbread Book Award for best biography (Victor Hugo) and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Rimbau...more
More about Graham Robb...
Robb was born in Manchester and educated at the Royal Grammar School Worcester and Exeter College, Oxford, where he studied Modern Languages. He earned a PhD in French literature at Vanderbilt University.
He won the 1997 Whitbread Book Award for best biography (Victor Hugo) and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize for Rimbau...more
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“In those days, long before, a view over the rooftops of Paris was an unaffordable luxury. The apartment he had shared with a mousy young writer from Laon had a view of the Jardin de Luxembourg – if he stuck his head out of the window as far as it would go and twisted it to the left, a smudge of green foliage appeared in the corner of one eye. That had been his best apartment to date. They had decorated it in the ‘Bohemian’ style of the 1830s : a few volumes of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo, a Phrygian cap, an Algerian hookah, a skull on a broomstick handle (from the brother of a friend, Charles Toubin, who was an intern at one of the big hospitals) and, of course, a window box of geraniums, which was not only pretty but also illegal. (Death by falling window box was always high up the official list of fatalities.) For a proper view of Paris, they visited Henry’s painter friends who lived in a warren of attic rooms near the Barriere d’Enfer and called themselves the Water-Drinkers. When the weather was fine and the smell of their own squalor became unbearable, they clambered onto the roof and sat on the gutters and ridges, sketching chimneyscapes, and sending up more smoke from their pipes than the fireplaces below.
Three of the Water-Drinkers had since died of various illnesses known collectively as ‘lack of money’. When the last of the three was buried, in the spring of 1844, Henry and the others had found themselves at the graveside without a sou to give a gravedigger. ‘Never mind’, said he, “you can pay me the next time, ‘ and then, to his collegue : ‘It’s all right – these gentlemen are a regular customers.”
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1 person liked it
Three of the Water-Drinkers had since died of various illnesses known collectively as ‘lack of money’. When the last of the three was buried, in the spring of 1844, Henry and the others had found themselves at the graveside without a sou to give a gravedigger. ‘Never mind’, said he, “you can pay me the next time, ‘ and then, to his collegue : ‘It’s all right – these gentlemen are a regular customers.”
“As the shabby section of the audience rose to its feet, waving its hats and food-wrappers, a rich, stale smell wafted through the auditorium. It had something of the fog on the boulevard outside, where the pavements were sticky with rain, but also something more intimate : it suggested old stew and course tobacco, the coat racks and bookshelves of a pawnshop, and damp straw mattresses impregnated with urine and patchouli. It was - as though the set designer had intended some ironical epilogue - the smell of the real Latin Quarter.”
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1 person liked it
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