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Belle Epoque #1
Paris Requiem
Paris, 1899.
The city is electric with excitement. Preparations for the universal exhibition and the dawn of a new century have hit fever pitch. But the sensual spectacle of the belle epoque is overshadowed by racial and social tensions, as the Dreyfus affair unleashes a riotous surge of anti-semitism into its midst.
Enter James Norton, an American charged with bringing home his brother Raf and their high-spirited sister Ellie. When the body of the beautiful Jewish woman Raf turns up in the Seine, and her sister is discovered in the sprawling Salptrire asylum, the siblings are drawn into a dark web of violence, madness and death.
As James reluctantly tackles his mission, it emerges that he and Paris share a history - one that is not altogether unlinked to the turbulent present that now confronts him...
The city is electric with excitement. Preparations for the universal exhibition and the dawn of a new century have hit fever pitch. But the sensual spectacle of the belle epoque is overshadowed by racial and social tensions, as the Dreyfus affair unleashes a riotous surge of anti-semitism into its midst.
Enter James Norton, an American charged with bringing home his brother Raf and their high-spirited sister Ellie. When the body of the beautiful Jewish woman Raf turns up in the Seine, and her sister is discovered in the sprawling Salptrire asylum, the siblings are drawn into a dark web of violence, madness and death.
As James reluctantly tackles his mission, it emerges that he and Paris share a history - one that is not altogether unlinked to the turbulent present that now confronts him...
590 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
11 people are currently reading
289 people want to read
About the author
Lisa Appignanesi
59 books97 followersaka Jessica Ayre
Elżbieta Borensztejn was born on 4 January 1946 in Łódź, Poland, the daughter of Hena and Aaron Borensztejn with Jewish origin. Following her birth, her parents moved to Paris, France, and in 1951 they emigrating to Canada. She grew up in the province of Quebec - first in a small Laurentian town, subsequently in Montreal.
She graduated from McGill University with a B.A. degree in 1966 and her M.A. the following year. During 1970-71 she was a staff writer for the Centre for Community Research in New York City and is a former University of Essex lecturer in European Studies. She was a founding member and editorial director of the Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative. Through the eighties she was a Deputy Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK, for whom she also edited the seminal Documents Series and established ICA television and the video Writers in Conversation series.
She produced several made for television films and had written a number of books before devoting herself to writing fulltime in 1990. In recognition of her contribution to literature, Lisa Appignanesi has been honoured with a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. In 2004, she became Deputy President of English PEN and has run its highly successful 'Free Expression is No Offence Campaign' against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. In 2008 she became President of English PEN. She writes for The Guardian, The Independent and has made several series for BBC Radio 4, as well as frequently appearing as a cultural commentator.
In 1967, she married Richard Appignanesi, another writer, with whom she had one son in 1975, Josh Appignanesi, a film director. They divorced in 1984. With her life partner John Forrester, she had a daugther, Katrina Forrester, a Research Fellow in the history of modern political thought at St John's College, Cambridge. She lives in London.
Elżbieta Borensztejn was born on 4 January 1946 in Łódź, Poland, the daughter of Hena and Aaron Borensztejn with Jewish origin. Following her birth, her parents moved to Paris, France, and in 1951 they emigrating to Canada. She grew up in the province of Quebec - first in a small Laurentian town, subsequently in Montreal.
She graduated from McGill University with a B.A. degree in 1966 and her M.A. the following year. During 1970-71 she was a staff writer for the Centre for Community Research in New York City and is a former University of Essex lecturer in European Studies. She was a founding member and editorial director of the Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative. Through the eighties she was a Deputy Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, UK, for whom she also edited the seminal Documents Series and established ICA television and the video Writers in Conversation series.
She produced several made for television films and had written a number of books before devoting herself to writing fulltime in 1990. In recognition of her contribution to literature, Lisa Appignanesi has been honoured with a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government. In 2004, she became Deputy President of English PEN and has run its highly successful 'Free Expression is No Offence Campaign' against the Racial and Religious Hatred Bill. In 2008 she became President of English PEN. She writes for The Guardian, The Independent and has made several series for BBC Radio 4, as well as frequently appearing as a cultural commentator.
In 1967, she married Richard Appignanesi, another writer, with whom she had one son in 1975, Josh Appignanesi, a film director. They divorced in 1984. With her life partner John Forrester, she had a daugther, Katrina Forrester, a Research Fellow in the history of modern political thought at St John's College, Cambridge. She lives in London.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 42 reviews
April 25, 2012
During finals time, my undergraduate neighbor stopped by to have tea and to share her frustration with one of her term papers for art history. She was supposed to write on milliners as erotic subjects in belle epoque painting and could not find any sources. I remembered that years ago, I had read a novel that had described the odd sexual climate in Paris at the turn of the century. A quarter of the women in Paris had at some point engaged in casual prostitution and the authorities were so worried about venereal disease that a law had been passed allowing to police to detain any woman on the street and require she be inspected. Many of these women ended up in the Hopital Saltpetriere, where my great grandmother later worked as a psychiatrist, until the Dreyfus affair convinced her that New York was a better place for her.
This mystery takes the protagonist into Paris' heartbreaking past as he tries to discover what happened to his brother's dead fiance. I found myself transfixed by the psychological drama, absurdly grateful that I did not have to live in those times. James' research into Olympe's life shows us what life was like for Jews as well as for women. The tale may have stayed with me because of how it related to my own family's history, but I remembered enough of the novel's background that I could steer my neighbor towards the resources she needed to write her paper. She passed with flying colors.
This mystery takes the protagonist into Paris' heartbreaking past as he tries to discover what happened to his brother's dead fiance. I found myself transfixed by the psychological drama, absurdly grateful that I did not have to live in those times. James' research into Olympe's life shows us what life was like for Jews as well as for women. The tale may have stayed with me because of how it related to my own family's history, but I remembered enough of the novel's background that I could steer my neighbor towards the resources she needed to write her paper. She passed with flying colors.
May 5, 2018
It's 1899 and Paris is readying itself for the Exposition Universelle of that year. Widowed lawyer James Norton arrives from Boston with strict instructions from his mother to extract his younger brother Raf from a potentially disastrous liaison with a -- gasp! -- Jewish actress, Olympe Fabre (the former Rachel Arnhem), and to bring both Raf and disabled sister Ellie back home to her. But James soon finds himself caught up in fin de siecle Paris as the two brothers, alongside Inspector Durand of the Paris Police Prefecture and the enigmatic aristocrat Marguerite de Landois, investigate the murder of Olympe and other Jewish women. With the Dreyfuss affair very much in the public attention, passions -- both antisemitic and liberal -- are rising high in the city as the investigation exposes the seamier elements of Parisian life: prostitution, sex trafficking, exploitation of the weak and feeble-minded, antisemitism, murder . . .
Appignanesi succeeded in plunging me entirely into the Paris that James discovers, so that I became entirely absorbed in this world -- one of which I'd known virtually nothing before. The plot itself moves at its own stately pace until the latter stages; I found this deliberateness added to the absorption. Although that plot is fairly complex, with ramifications galore, the mystery aspect of it is relatively simple: despite a full quota of red-herring suspicions, it's not hard to spot who murdered Olympe, and the motives for it. But that didn't overly bother me: I was enjoying the characters, their interactions and the flow of the story far too much.
That said, there were far too many examples of sloppiness at the level a good copyeditor should have been picking up. There were numerous missing question marks and occasional plurals rendered with apostrophes ("the Elliott's"), while the use of commas could be most charitably described as scattershot. Beyond the bare mechanics, though, there were lots of places where the author seemed to be coasting -- drawing upon previously used bits of description or characterization, for example -- and not infrequently I came across a sentence or paragraph that seemed to be very first draft. (As an aside, the edition I read, the first McArthur paperback issue, is printed on alarmingly stiff paper -- almost thin card. It's a fat book, and so my wrists and fingers literally grew weary holding the damn' thing open.)
Paris Requiem stimulated the same part of my reading mind as books I've read by authors like Joseph Karon and Caleb Carr, although it's got more intellectual heft than the latter and is less suffused by worthiness than the former. Another author whom it recalled is Charles Palliser, and maybe that's a better comparison. I'm really quite keen to read more of Appignanesi's work.
Appignanesi succeeded in plunging me entirely into the Paris that James discovers, so that I became entirely absorbed in this world -- one of which I'd known virtually nothing before. The plot itself moves at its own stately pace until the latter stages; I found this deliberateness added to the absorption. Although that plot is fairly complex, with ramifications galore, the mystery aspect of it is relatively simple: despite a full quota of red-herring suspicions, it's not hard to spot who murdered Olympe, and the motives for it. But that didn't overly bother me: I was enjoying the characters, their interactions and the flow of the story far too much.
That said, there were far too many examples of sloppiness at the level a good copyeditor should have been picking up. There were numerous missing question marks and occasional plurals rendered with apostrophes ("the Elliott's"), while the use of commas could be most charitably described as scattershot. Beyond the bare mechanics, though, there were lots of places where the author seemed to be coasting -- drawing upon previously used bits of description or characterization, for example -- and not infrequently I came across a sentence or paragraph that seemed to be very first draft. (As an aside, the edition I read, the first McArthur paperback issue, is printed on alarmingly stiff paper -- almost thin card. It's a fat book, and so my wrists and fingers literally grew weary holding the damn' thing open.)
Paris Requiem stimulated the same part of my reading mind as books I've read by authors like Joseph Karon and Caleb Carr, although it's got more intellectual heft than the latter and is less suffused by worthiness than the former. Another author whom it recalled is Charles Palliser, and maybe that's a better comparison. I'm really quite keen to read more of Appignanesi's work.
June 1, 2018
This book sounded like it was written for me: fin de siecle Paris, the Dreyfus Affair, political unrest, women struggling against oppression and restrictions--all things that interest me--with a boatload of Henry James references thrown in for good measure. But it bored me out of my mind. I got halfway through and I just couldn't come up with a good enough reason to keep going. Maybe a good rigorous editor could have tightened up the structure and cleaned up the clunky sentences and wooden dialogue and fulfilled the book's initial promise, but as it is I found myself avoiding reading it, coming up with other things to do to avoid going back to it. After two days of that, I said enough. I almost never give up on a book--I even finish bad books because I'm just that stubborn. But this wasn't even interestingly, batshit-crazy bad, just tedious. And who has time for that?
May 15, 2023
I loved this book; it's so well written. Not only is it a brilliant crime story but it deals with historic and social issues at the eve of the 19th century in Paris, set against the preparations for the Great Exhibition.
January 13, 2015
I was extremely disapponited in this book. An interesting beginning turns into a neverending bore. The Paris depicted is false, untrue, like known only from books.
The author has good academic knowledge of her subject and feels compelled to jam everything in the novel, even forcing action to do so.
When we have read about 50% of the story, we know “whodunnit” and we expect -in vain- some interesting developments.
The fact that James is allowed to investigate with the French detective, defies belief.
The author has good academic knowledge of her subject and feels compelled to jam everything in the novel, even forcing action to do so.
When we have read about 50% of the story, we know “whodunnit” and we expect -in vain- some interesting developments.
The fact that James is allowed to investigate with the French detective, defies belief.
August 30, 2010
It was good with an interesting ending.
December 27, 2013
By Lisa Appignanesi
Arcadia Books, 506 pgs
978-1-908129-99-4
Submitted by the publisher
Rating: Spectacular
Three ideas to consider:
"Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" - and what of Justice?
"Live as domestic a life as possible...And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live." Charlotte Perkins Gilman describing Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's rest cure prescription
"Too early a death implicates us all." - Marguerite de Landois
Paris Requiem by Lisa Appignanesi is a thrilling and intoxicating blend of history, psychology, politics, social caste, art, sex, madness and murder. Stirred by a lesser hand those ingredients too often don't blend but sit uncomfortably atop each other in their separate strata. I am developing a theory that Ms. Appignanesi is actually a master chemist, a world-class vintner, or a magician, because in her hands these elements produce a concoction as dangerous as sodium cyanide, as deliciously rich and smooth as Bordeaux, and as surprising as if she had indeed pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Perhaps she is all three.
Paris Requiem is the story of three families (two of which are family by birth, one of which is family by necessity), a city, two countries, generational change, and what happens when industrial and technological revolution both shrinks and expands the world simultaneously. Our first family is the Nortons of Boston: elder brother James, younger brother Rafe and their sister Elinor. Our second family is the Arnhems of Paris: sisters Judith and Rachel and their father. Our third family is the bohemian and artist community of Paris brought together by their patron Marguerite de Landois ("a thoroughly modern woman"). The city is Paris in 1899; the countries are France of the Belle Époque and the United States of 2013, by implication.
Our story begins in the spring of 1899 as James Norton (who is most comfortable wrapped "in the soft blanket of habit), Esquire and Harvard Law professor, reluctantly disembarks in Paris on an errand for his mother. The formidable lady has dispatched James to fetch his younger brother Rafe (he who "had always been so hungry for life in all its beauty and all its sordidness"), a journalist for the New York Times, and younger sister Elinor (Ellie) home with him. The good Puritan mother has decided that they've tarried too long in the City of Light. James arrives as several events coincide to threaten chaos: Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish man convicted of spying (the infamous Dreyfus Affair - look it up), is released from prison by the supreme court; the President of France is assaulted; there are demonstrations by anarchists (read: libertarians and/or libertines), Republicans (read: democrats and/or constitutionalists) and "patriots" (read: fascists, xenophobes and/or racists, also see Tea Party) in the streets; the government falls; women are disappearing and turning up dead. From Le Journal, Paris, le 30 mai, 1899 - "Police are quick to attribute these deaths to suicide. Why not? After all, two of the women were listed prostitutes whose degenerate lives, according to our guardians of morality, deserve no better end. Two others were homeless vagabonds." The latest of these women turns out to be Olympe Fabre, formerly Rachel Arnhem, actress and lover of Rafe Norton.
In no time flat James is swept up in the hunt for clues and a killer. Let me assure you that he and Rafe and various players, including a delightful chief inspector of the Paris gendarmes and a fairly shifty reporter friend of Rafe's, do discover the clues and find the culprit. But in my view that's not the most fascinating story of Paris Requiem, merely the narrative. The many things James finds in between are the actual story of Paris Requiem.
hysterical (adj.) 1610s, from Latin hystericus "of the womb," from Greek hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb" (see uterus). Originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. - Online Etymology Dictionary
hys·ter·i·cal /hiˈsterikəl/ adjective 1. deriving from or affected by uncontrolled extreme emotion. "hysterical laughter" synonyms: overwrought, overemotional, out of control, frenzied, frantic, wild, feverish, crazed. 2. PSYCHIATRY relating to, associated with, or suffering from hysteria. "the doctor thinks the condition is partly hysterical" another term for histrionic (denoting personality disorder). - Google
Cookie-cutter propriety (assume your shape!) dementedly insisting upon conformity at all costs, born and grown and malevolently nurtured during the period following the industrial revolution, has finally clashed violently, indeed fatally, with a resurgent individuality. And the women, by god the WOMEN, just won't stay in their assigned spaces. You say you were born female to who, where? Then you belong here. No, here. Right here. NOT over there. Come back this instant. You can't do that; you can't go there; you can't BE THAT. And if you insist on doing that, going there, being that, then the new rather squishy science of psychiatry will brand you with "hysterical." You will require a "rest cure." You will require drugging. If all else fails then you will require confinement. Deviations, most certainly sexual deviations, from the "norm" are pathological. I believe the true story Paris Requiem has to tell is the story of the Industrial Revolution and its effects on society. As Ellie laments, "Once I thought I would do something with my time on this earth, Jim. Something great. Something useful. Something beautiful. But nothing...nothing has come of it. There's nothing for a woman like me." As for me I believe that the mindset that allows this sort of sentiment, "...her eyes veiled in a sadness which only accentuated her beauty," is the real pathology. If I'm less beautiful when I'm strong and happy then you can scoot yourself right out the door. Move along, Monsieur. Rapidement!
Paris Requiem tells this story vividly by hanging it on the trope of a murder thriller. The characters are diverse and complex, their motivations sympathetic. The city itself becomes a character: Paris the Siren. You will smell the orange blossoms, taste the café au lait, hear the clop of hooves on cobblestone and the Seine rushing past. You will sense the urgency. The sentences are frequently powerful enough to stop your brain in its tracks; seemingly of its own accord it will return and read that sumptuous sentence again and again. I considered crafting this entire review of quotations from the book; no, seriously. I may still do that. For example, page 106:
Young men with unsavoury expressions and large hats lounged against door jambs and smoked, at once indolent and poised for action like so many cowhands. From the late afternoon gloom of a tavern came the sound of a guitar and a baritone drawling a song of insolent inflection.
Or this, page 354:
The air was thick with duplicity and something else, an unnaturalness. Through the miasma he sniffed at treacherous liaisons.
The plotting is impeccable although some may find the pacing a little slow for their personal taste. It is a long book, 506 pages, and we don't learn the ultimate secret until the very end. But I enjoyed it so much. The parallels between the political situation in Paris in 1899 and the political situation of the United States in 2013 are myriad and astonishing. The personal is political. Perhaps we can learn something. I do believe that for the truth we must turn to fiction. I was particularly proud of James, a man who at the beginning of this tale could be described as caring for nothing so much as "the trains running on time," who wished for nothing so much as "clear demarcation lines." By the end of this tale he was able to be described by a police officer as "altogether unruly."
Returning to Le Journal, Paris, le 30 mai, 1899: "...But what if prostitution and vagabondage are the symptoms of their plight and not its cause?...Were the lives of these women really worth so little that they could fling them away? Or are there foul forces at play here - as foul and murderous as those which condemned Captain Dreyfus...?"
Lisa Appignanesi is the author of seven previous works, including the prize-winning Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors, which I'm going to order here in about fifteen minutes. The research for that book directly relates to Paris Requiem. Appignanesi is a past-president of English PEN and is the chair of the Freud Museum, London, and Visiting Professor in Literature and the Medical Humanities at King's College London. She was awarded an OBE this year for her services to literature.
I'm going to close this review with the quotation that opens Paris Requiem.
Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had? - Henry James, The Ambassadors
Arcadia Books, 506 pgs
978-1-908129-99-4
Submitted by the publisher
Rating: Spectacular
Three ideas to consider:
"Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité" - and what of Justice?
"Live as domestic a life as possible...And never touch pen, brush, or pencil as long as you live." Charlotte Perkins Gilman describing Dr. S. Weir Mitchell's rest cure prescription
"Too early a death implicates us all." - Marguerite de Landois
Paris Requiem by Lisa Appignanesi is a thrilling and intoxicating blend of history, psychology, politics, social caste, art, sex, madness and murder. Stirred by a lesser hand those ingredients too often don't blend but sit uncomfortably atop each other in their separate strata. I am developing a theory that Ms. Appignanesi is actually a master chemist, a world-class vintner, or a magician, because in her hands these elements produce a concoction as dangerous as sodium cyanide, as deliciously rich and smooth as Bordeaux, and as surprising as if she had indeed pulled a rabbit out of a hat. Perhaps she is all three.
Paris Requiem is the story of three families (two of which are family by birth, one of which is family by necessity), a city, two countries, generational change, and what happens when industrial and technological revolution both shrinks and expands the world simultaneously. Our first family is the Nortons of Boston: elder brother James, younger brother Rafe and their sister Elinor. Our second family is the Arnhems of Paris: sisters Judith and Rachel and their father. Our third family is the bohemian and artist community of Paris brought together by their patron Marguerite de Landois ("a thoroughly modern woman"). The city is Paris in 1899; the countries are France of the Belle Époque and the United States of 2013, by implication.
Our story begins in the spring of 1899 as James Norton (who is most comfortable wrapped "in the soft blanket of habit), Esquire and Harvard Law professor, reluctantly disembarks in Paris on an errand for his mother. The formidable lady has dispatched James to fetch his younger brother Rafe (he who "had always been so hungry for life in all its beauty and all its sordidness"), a journalist for the New York Times, and younger sister Elinor (Ellie) home with him. The good Puritan mother has decided that they've tarried too long in the City of Light. James arrives as several events coincide to threaten chaos: Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish man convicted of spying (the infamous Dreyfus Affair - look it up), is released from prison by the supreme court; the President of France is assaulted; there are demonstrations by anarchists (read: libertarians and/or libertines), Republicans (read: democrats and/or constitutionalists) and "patriots" (read: fascists, xenophobes and/or racists, also see Tea Party) in the streets; the government falls; women are disappearing and turning up dead. From Le Journal, Paris, le 30 mai, 1899 - "Police are quick to attribute these deaths to suicide. Why not? After all, two of the women were listed prostitutes whose degenerate lives, according to our guardians of morality, deserve no better end. Two others were homeless vagabonds." The latest of these women turns out to be Olympe Fabre, formerly Rachel Arnhem, actress and lover of Rafe Norton.
In no time flat James is swept up in the hunt for clues and a killer. Let me assure you that he and Rafe and various players, including a delightful chief inspector of the Paris gendarmes and a fairly shifty reporter friend of Rafe's, do discover the clues and find the culprit. But in my view that's not the most fascinating story of Paris Requiem, merely the narrative. The many things James finds in between are the actual story of Paris Requiem.
hysterical (adj.) 1610s, from Latin hystericus "of the womb," from Greek hysterikos "of the womb, suffering in the womb," from hystera "womb" (see uterus). Originally defined as a neurotic condition peculiar to women and thought to be caused by a dysfunction of the uterus. - Online Etymology Dictionary
hys·ter·i·cal /hiˈsterikəl/ adjective 1. deriving from or affected by uncontrolled extreme emotion. "hysterical laughter" synonyms: overwrought, overemotional, out of control, frenzied, frantic, wild, feverish, crazed. 2. PSYCHIATRY relating to, associated with, or suffering from hysteria. "the doctor thinks the condition is partly hysterical" another term for histrionic (denoting personality disorder). - Google
Cookie-cutter propriety (assume your shape!) dementedly insisting upon conformity at all costs, born and grown and malevolently nurtured during the period following the industrial revolution, has finally clashed violently, indeed fatally, with a resurgent individuality. And the women, by god the WOMEN, just won't stay in their assigned spaces. You say you were born female to who, where? Then you belong here. No, here. Right here. NOT over there. Come back this instant. You can't do that; you can't go there; you can't BE THAT. And if you insist on doing that, going there, being that, then the new rather squishy science of psychiatry will brand you with "hysterical." You will require a "rest cure." You will require drugging. If all else fails then you will require confinement. Deviations, most certainly sexual deviations, from the "norm" are pathological. I believe the true story Paris Requiem has to tell is the story of the Industrial Revolution and its effects on society. As Ellie laments, "Once I thought I would do something with my time on this earth, Jim. Something great. Something useful. Something beautiful. But nothing...nothing has come of it. There's nothing for a woman like me." As for me I believe that the mindset that allows this sort of sentiment, "...her eyes veiled in a sadness which only accentuated her beauty," is the real pathology. If I'm less beautiful when I'm strong and happy then you can scoot yourself right out the door. Move along, Monsieur. Rapidement!
Paris Requiem tells this story vividly by hanging it on the trope of a murder thriller. The characters are diverse and complex, their motivations sympathetic. The city itself becomes a character: Paris the Siren. You will smell the orange blossoms, taste the café au lait, hear the clop of hooves on cobblestone and the Seine rushing past. You will sense the urgency. The sentences are frequently powerful enough to stop your brain in its tracks; seemingly of its own accord it will return and read that sumptuous sentence again and again. I considered crafting this entire review of quotations from the book; no, seriously. I may still do that. For example, page 106:
Young men with unsavoury expressions and large hats lounged against door jambs and smoked, at once indolent and poised for action like so many cowhands. From the late afternoon gloom of a tavern came the sound of a guitar and a baritone drawling a song of insolent inflection.
Or this, page 354:
The air was thick with duplicity and something else, an unnaturalness. Through the miasma he sniffed at treacherous liaisons.
The plotting is impeccable although some may find the pacing a little slow for their personal taste. It is a long book, 506 pages, and we don't learn the ultimate secret until the very end. But I enjoyed it so much. The parallels between the political situation in Paris in 1899 and the political situation of the United States in 2013 are myriad and astonishing. The personal is political. Perhaps we can learn something. I do believe that for the truth we must turn to fiction. I was particularly proud of James, a man who at the beginning of this tale could be described as caring for nothing so much as "the trains running on time," who wished for nothing so much as "clear demarcation lines." By the end of this tale he was able to be described by a police officer as "altogether unruly."
Returning to Le Journal, Paris, le 30 mai, 1899: "...But what if prostitution and vagabondage are the symptoms of their plight and not its cause?...Were the lives of these women really worth so little that they could fling them away? Or are there foul forces at play here - as foul and murderous as those which condemned Captain Dreyfus...?"
Lisa Appignanesi is the author of seven previous works, including the prize-winning Mad, Bad and Sad: A History of Women and the Mind Doctors, which I'm going to order here in about fifteen minutes. The research for that book directly relates to Paris Requiem. Appignanesi is a past-president of English PEN and is the chair of the Freud Museum, London, and Visiting Professor in Literature and the Medical Humanities at King's College London. She was awarded an OBE this year for her services to literature.
I'm going to close this review with the quotation that opens Paris Requiem.
Live all you can; it's a mistake not to. It doesn't so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. If you haven't had that what have you had? - Henry James, The Ambassadors
December 17, 2018
Paris 1899. American James Norton investigates the death of a Jewish woman, and sees the worst of Paris: its racism, prostitution, madness, abject poverty and corruption. It’s all there, cold and stinking, and it reads like a catalogue of the city’s ailments during ‘la belle époque’. Due to this it’s a grim read, and it doesn’t help that the hero being so naive, it takes him many interviews to realise what most readers will have guessed by page 100.
Still, there is a French flair in the writing, which I enjoyed. Questions aren’t asked, they are posed, and the novel contains a good selection of French expressions.
Still, there is a French flair in the writing, which I enjoyed. Questions aren’t asked, they are posed, and the novel contains a good selection of French expressions.
October 20, 2024
A well-written novel with an intricate plot and good character development, set during the years of the Dreyfus case so famously dealt with by Proust, but in this work with a trio of American siblings at the center of the action, which pertains to the mysterious death of a Jewish actress. The only weakness is that it is too long with too many plot twists that end up being, if not red herrings, at least diversions from the main issue. The resolution and denouement, by contrast, end up seeming rather rushed and somewhat unsatisfying. Recommended with some reservations.
April 9, 2025
Like many of the other reviewers here, I too was seduced by the blurb, the title, the premise - and ultimately disappointed.
As someone who lives in Paris, loves a good mystery and loves period novels, I was pretty much Appignanesi's ideal reader: I should have LOVED this.
And yet I hated it! The style was very stilted and affected, the dialogue clunky and the plot implausible (and I guessed who dunnit about 2/3 way through.
Not recommended.
As someone who lives in Paris, loves a good mystery and loves period novels, I was pretty much Appignanesi's ideal reader: I should have LOVED this.
And yet I hated it! The style was very stilted and affected, the dialogue clunky and the plot implausible (and I guessed who dunnit about 2/3 way through.
Not recommended.
May 26, 2018
Oh my God I wrote SUCH a detailed review of this book and it got lost in my crappy internet!
grrrrrrrr
The five stars I gave it sums up my main point but I will try to find the energy a bit later to rewrite my full review because I feel the book was intelligent enough to warrant honest and detailed consideration.
grrrrrrrr
The five stars I gave it sums up my main point but I will try to find the energy a bit later to rewrite my full review because I feel the book was intelligent enough to warrant honest and detailed consideration.
November 24, 2018
An interesting plot, though could have done with quite a bit of tightening up.
What surprised me, in an author who is also an academic, was the style - too many unnecessary repetitious adjectives, clichés, 'vague' waving of arms & hands, etc. Rather lazy writing, in short. In need of a good editor, in my view.
What surprised me, in an author who is also an academic, was the style - too many unnecessary repetitious adjectives, clichés, 'vague' waving of arms & hands, etc. Rather lazy writing, in short. In need of a good editor, in my view.
January 28, 2019
A new Author to me with a “who done it” from a bygone era so excuisitely written that it makes the reader feel dispatched back in time to watch the story unfold. Great characters, an atmospheric city and a gripping story. Altogether a great read!
December 5, 2021
This is not a "brilliant" work; it is not thrilling. It's taken me weeks to make it past the halfway point, and I don't care for any aspect of it.
It is certainly nothing resembling the works of Caleb Carr. It is an insult to that esteemed author to associate his works with this work.
It is certainly nothing resembling the works of Caleb Carr. It is an insult to that esteemed author to associate his works with this work.
October 19, 2017
Gave up on page 45.
May 29, 2018
Excellent writing. Evocative of the area without screaming "this is based in history". Wonderful characters. Now I have to read everything else by this author.
August 28, 2019
I really liked the background and found it quite a page-turner. This is the first book I have read by this author and would read more.
December 20, 2019
Enjoyed this well-rounded, evocative historical mystery, but it wasn't as brilliant as the reviews made it sound.
March 14, 2021
This was good. But hard to get into but once I was in I really loved the depth of the characters and how they intertwined.
June 18, 2015
Set in Paris prior to the Exposition Universelle of 1889, during the turmoil of Dreyfus Affair*, this well researched yet fictional suspense novel exposes a harsh underbelly of The City of Love as two brothers, a reporter and an attorney, search for answers to the unlikely seeming suicide of the reporter's fiancee. An ambitious challenge for a work of fiction, this book takes on women's rights (certainly showing what a profound need for these there has been and is for those), as well as exposing anti-semitism as a nasty blemish in French history. Non-the-less, this doorstop of a book (500 pages) is a page-turner, and I was scarcely able to put it down for the two days it took me to read it. And, "Who done it?", indeed! Included are a number of interesting characters, as well as interesting historical notes, and, of course, food and drink and a beautiful woman with an estate who befriends our heroes. As I put it down, I felt an urge to listen to the tune, 'The Poor People of Paris.'
*A scandal that rocked France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Dreyfus affair involved a Jewish artillery captain in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), who was falsely convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans. In 1894, after a French spy at the German Embassy in Paris discovered a ripped-up letter in a waste basket with handwriting said to resemble that of Dreyfus, he was court-martialed, found guilty of treason and sentenced to life behind bars on Devil’s Island off of French Guiana. In a public ceremony in Paris following his conviction, Dreyfus had the insignia torn from his uniform and his sword broken and was paraded before a crowd that shouted, “Death to Judas, death to the Jew.”
*A scandal that rocked France in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Dreyfus affair involved a Jewish artillery captain in the French army, Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), who was falsely convicted of passing military secrets to the Germans. In 1894, after a French spy at the German Embassy in Paris discovered a ripped-up letter in a waste basket with handwriting said to resemble that of Dreyfus, he was court-martialed, found guilty of treason and sentenced to life behind bars on Devil’s Island off of French Guiana. In a public ceremony in Paris following his conviction, Dreyfus had the insignia torn from his uniform and his sword broken and was paraded before a crowd that shouted, “Death to Judas, death to the Jew.”
March 20, 2020
Had you asked me a few weeks ago if I had been to Paris, I would have answered truthfully with no, however after reading this glorious novel I feel I could answer, just as honestly with ‘Yes, I was there just before 1900’. Such is the richness of the text within these pages that you are immersed in the city, you follow the Norton Brothers’ through the sometimes seedy streets, meeting the colourful characters who are their family, friends and foe.
The story takes you on a twisted path, weaving suspicion around each of the players in this suspense filled read – it thwarted my plans for an early night three days in a row! This book is a generous number of pages, but never felt long – each sentence was informative, every word needed to paint the scene and bring the story to life.
I have in the past struggled to read historical fiction, and I have tried but this was in a class of its own. We hear so much promotion around ‘five star reads’ – undoubtedly some of which are deserved – that we almost become desensitised but with Paris Requiem a 5 star award would be a disservice. This is so much more – the writing is rich, eloquent and descriptive – I feel I know the lead characters, that I have lived in that time and place with them. Although this was set over 100 years ago it never felt dated or ‘stuffy’ – the language was modern but believable and the conclusion was exquisitely drawn.
Arcadia books have, once again, published a novel that leaves you feeling enriched for reading it. Bravo!
The story takes you on a twisted path, weaving suspicion around each of the players in this suspense filled read – it thwarted my plans for an early night three days in a row! This book is a generous number of pages, but never felt long – each sentence was informative, every word needed to paint the scene and bring the story to life.
I have in the past struggled to read historical fiction, and I have tried but this was in a class of its own. We hear so much promotion around ‘five star reads’ – undoubtedly some of which are deserved – that we almost become desensitised but with Paris Requiem a 5 star award would be a disservice. This is so much more – the writing is rich, eloquent and descriptive – I feel I know the lead characters, that I have lived in that time and place with them. Although this was set over 100 years ago it never felt dated or ‘stuffy’ – the language was modern but believable and the conclusion was exquisitely drawn.
Arcadia books have, once again, published a novel that leaves you feeling enriched for reading it. Bravo!
March 28, 2014
Based on a lot of research, Lisa Appignanesi's 'Paris Requiem' is a solid and carefully crafted fictional murder mystery that explores a family’s story, hidden secrets, Jewish people in France, crimes, political scandals and the search for the truth.
James Norton, a lawyer from Bostan, heads to Paris on his mother's command to bring his invalid sister, Ellie and his younger brother, Raf back home. Once in Paris, James finds himself on another mission. The mission to find the investigate the mystifying death of a young Jewish actress, Olympe Fabre. The more James investigates, more the crime seems to murkier and unsolvable. The vivid narration and the amount of detail transports you to that time and place. You find yourself on the streets of Paris looking for answers. You get as mystified as James and the police as the crimes keep increasing and so do the clues. All seemingly leading to dead ends.
The story takes unbelievable twists, throwing up new clues and suspects at every turn and weaving suspicion around each character. With leads spreading in different directions, it is impossible to figure it all out until the end.
Paris Requiem is a wonderfully written psychological thriller with serpentine twists, excellent character developments and the ability to keep you completely absorbed by what is happening. A tad long but thoroughly engrossing. You find yourself impatient and desperate to turn the pages, curious to find out- what next?
James Norton, a lawyer from Bostan, heads to Paris on his mother's command to bring his invalid sister, Ellie and his younger brother, Raf back home. Once in Paris, James finds himself on another mission. The mission to find the investigate the mystifying death of a young Jewish actress, Olympe Fabre. The more James investigates, more the crime seems to murkier and unsolvable. The vivid narration and the amount of detail transports you to that time and place. You find yourself on the streets of Paris looking for answers. You get as mystified as James and the police as the crimes keep increasing and so do the clues. All seemingly leading to dead ends.
The story takes unbelievable twists, throwing up new clues and suspects at every turn and weaving suspicion around each character. With leads spreading in different directions, it is impossible to figure it all out until the end.
Paris Requiem is a wonderfully written psychological thriller with serpentine twists, excellent character developments and the ability to keep you completely absorbed by what is happening. A tad long but thoroughly engrossing. You find yourself impatient and desperate to turn the pages, curious to find out- what next?
May 11, 2012
Paris Requiem is a superbly well-written psychological mystery set in Paris in 1899. The author uses the politics and social ills of the time period as a backdrop for her story. James Norton is sent from Boston to Paris by his mother to bring home his wayward brother Raphael and sister Ellie. When he arrives however, Raphael's lover, a Jewish actress has died under mysteriosu circumstances and the sister, Ellie, is ill, unable to leave her room. James helps his brother investigate what really happened to his lover Olympe and tries to nurse his sister back to health.
The writing itself is graceful and lyric, creating a vivid picture of the Paris underbelly the brothers are investigating. You also delve deeply into Jame's mind and how he feels about his family and their past and into some of Ellie's troubles. You don't get too much insight into Raphael. He seems to be charming, but not necessarily likable. There is a lot going on and many characters to keep track of. In fact, the mystery seems to go round and round at times and part of the resolution is not completely satisfying. The other part is not a surprise when revealed. The book could have been shortened and certain parts cut out to make it a tighter story, but in the end, Paris Requiem will keep you reading and wondering about the Norton family.
The writing itself is graceful and lyric, creating a vivid picture of the Paris underbelly the brothers are investigating. You also delve deeply into Jame's mind and how he feels about his family and their past and into some of Ellie's troubles. You don't get too much insight into Raphael. He seems to be charming, but not necessarily likable. There is a lot going on and many characters to keep track of. In fact, the mystery seems to go round and round at times and part of the resolution is not completely satisfying. The other part is not a surprise when revealed. The book could have been shortened and certain parts cut out to make it a tighter story, but in the end, Paris Requiem will keep you reading and wondering about the Norton family.
December 9, 2013
I'll start by quoting Sarah Dunant "Master story telling from a mistress of fiction".
This was an incredible book. From the very beginning Lisa Appignanesi brings Paris anno 1899 to live in such a brilliant way you feel like you've been there, like you were actually there the moment it all happened. The amount of detail and study that went into this story is just mind blowing.
When James Norton starts his personal investigation he's determined to "solve the case" and to take his brother and sister back home with him; the sooner the better. His investigation however meets one dead end after another and every new clue brings another new mystery, up to the point where it's just one big confusing, unsolved mess. Just when you're thinking things will never be solved or you think you have figured it out, Lisa Appignanesi surprises you, time and time again. Nothing in the characters' lives, nor in the case goes like you expected them to.
Paris Requiem is a brilliant psychological thriller, engaging from the moment you start reading until well after the moment you've finished it.
This review was first published @ M's Bookshelf http://mssbookshelf.blogspot.be
This was an incredible book. From the very beginning Lisa Appignanesi brings Paris anno 1899 to live in such a brilliant way you feel like you've been there, like you were actually there the moment it all happened. The amount of detail and study that went into this story is just mind blowing.
When James Norton starts his personal investigation he's determined to "solve the case" and to take his brother and sister back home with him; the sooner the better. His investigation however meets one dead end after another and every new clue brings another new mystery, up to the point where it's just one big confusing, unsolved mess. Just when you're thinking things will never be solved or you think you have figured it out, Lisa Appignanesi surprises you, time and time again. Nothing in the characters' lives, nor in the case goes like you expected them to.
Paris Requiem is a brilliant psychological thriller, engaging from the moment you start reading until well after the moment you've finished it.
This review was first published @ M's Bookshelf http://mssbookshelf.blogspot.be
February 5, 2014
Set in Paris in 1889 this is a dark, gritty and gothic style mystery.
From the very first paragraph we are thrust into the dirty, gritty, raw side of the city -
“Paris sizzled with the spectres of past and future danger. The Gare Saint-Lazare was a hellhole. The air burned. Engines hissed. smoke billowed. Whistles shrieked. Trains clanged and clattered like weary mechanical beasts. Everywhere was heat and noise and the crush of humanity.”
It is a superbly well-written psychological mystery with the social ills and political intrigue of the time adding a depth and breadth that add to the overall plot -
James Norton is sent by his mother from the US to Paris to bring home his wayward brother Raphael and sister Ellie. When he arrives however, Raphael’s lover, Olympe has died under mysterious circumstances and the sister, Ellie, is ill, unable to leave her room. James helps his brother investigate what really happened to Olympe who was a Jewish actress, whilst at the same time helping his sister recover.
Join us on a booktrail to Paris! - link: Paris Requiem
From the very first paragraph we are thrust into the dirty, gritty, raw side of the city -
“Paris sizzled with the spectres of past and future danger. The Gare Saint-Lazare was a hellhole. The air burned. Engines hissed. smoke billowed. Whistles shrieked. Trains clanged and clattered like weary mechanical beasts. Everywhere was heat and noise and the crush of humanity.”
It is a superbly well-written psychological mystery with the social ills and political intrigue of the time adding a depth and breadth that add to the overall plot -
James Norton is sent by his mother from the US to Paris to bring home his wayward brother Raphael and sister Ellie. When he arrives however, Raphael’s lover, Olympe has died under mysterious circumstances and the sister, Ellie, is ill, unable to leave her room. James helps his brother investigate what really happened to Olympe who was a Jewish actress, whilst at the same time helping his sister recover.
Join us on a booktrail to Paris! - link: Paris Requiem
March 12, 2013
This was an interesting book by a woman from Montreal. It is about fin-de-siecle Paris. Boston lawyer James Norton has been sent by his mother to bring home his invalid sister Ellie and his journalist brother Raf. Raf is writing about the Drefus Affair and is involved in leftist politis. Raf and Ellie's friend Olympe and her sister Judith are both violently killed and the brothers set to try to find the killers and how they died. The sisters are Jewish and there is a lot of anti-semitism in Paris at that time.
My thoughts: This is a long book and I found it a bit of a slog at times. However I did not even guess the killer until near the end. We never really find out what Ellie is suffering from. There are hints of lesbianism around the edges of some of the characters.
My thoughts: This is a long book and I found it a bit of a slog at times. However I did not even guess the killer until near the end. We never really find out what Ellie is suffering from. There are hints of lesbianism around the edges of some of the characters.
January 17, 2013
I like the concept a lot, I think the writing was better than average, and I love the history woven in - it's a fascinating city in an important time period. My complaint stems from the actual plot line - I think she had a so many good/interesting ideas that the attempt to incorporate them all effectively fell a bit short. The hysteria, mental asylums as institutions, the prostitution, the familial deaths, the anti-semitism, political corruption - those are all fascinating topics, each of which could probably propel a plot trajectory alone. Using all of them meant that a lot of the connections seemed slightly tenuous or unexplained, and too many Red Herrings spoil the plot.
November 25, 2015
I recently read a fictional account of the James siblings, and it was as atrocious as this. The James siblings have appeared in fiction as contorted caricatures of themselves, and often their presumed incestuous relationships are heavily played up. Well, while it worked in the former book, it failed to work here.
What I couldn't work out was if Ellie wanted both the girl and her brother...
Atrocious ending- confessed in her diary? Pffffft.
LAZY.
And also...WTF?
January 1, 2011
Although it is probably a good representation of Paris at the turn of the century (1899), it went a bit too far with dramatic visualization. I'll read one more of Ms Appignanesi's books before I determine how much more to take--just because I've already got one in the wings. I like period fiction, but I need for the story to take on more than the time of life.
January 31, 2014
Ay yi yi! I had high hopes for this book but it just bored me rigid! Every time I started reading it I fell asleep. It was hard work- I finished it but wonder why I bothered.
I think it was more the style than the content that I really struggled with. The author has written many academic books & I don't think she really knows how to "dumb down" to write in an engaging, fictional way.
I think it was more the style than the content that I really struggled with. The author has written many academic books & I don't think she really knows how to "dumb down" to write in an engaging, fictional way.
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