Balzac's Paris: The City as Human Comedy
No Customer Reviews
Exploring Paris arm in arm with Balzac, nineteenth-century France's most famous novelist and observer In Balzac's vast Human Comedy, a body of ninety-one completed novels and stories, he endeavoured to create a complete picture of contemporary French society and manners. Within this work is a loving ode to Paris and an incomparable introduction to the first capital of the modern world. To this ageless city he makes a declaration of love in an accumulation of finely observed detail - the caf s, landmarks, avenues, parks - and captures the populace in countless meticulously drawn portraits: its lawyers, grisettes, journalists, concierges, usurers, salesmen, speculators. Balzac gathered the elements of this Paris by sauntering through it. 'To saunter is a science, ' he writes, 'it is the gastronomy of the eye. To take a walk is to vegetate; to saunter is to live.' Eric Hazan follows in Balzac's footsteps, criss-crossing the city in the novelist's outsize boots, running between printers, publishers, coffee merchants, mistresses and friends, stopping for a moment, struck by a detail that would be fixed in Balzac's photographic memory. More than a tour of the city, Balzac's Paris is an attempt to measure the soul of a city as recovered in its finest literature.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:1839767251
ISBN13:9781839767258
Release Date:June 2024
Publisher:Verso
Length:208 Pages
Weight:0.70 lbs.
Dimensions:0.8" x 5.7" x 8.4"
Customer Reviews
0 rating
Copyright © 2025 Thriftbooks.com
Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information | Cookie Policy | Cookie Preferences | Accessibility Statement
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
ThriftBooks ® and the ThriftBooks ® logo are registered trademarks of Thrift Books Global, LLC
