A passion for Paris
Ratings1
Average rating3
15
Ratings1
Average rating3
"'A top-notch walking tour of Paris. The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences'--Kirkus Reviews (starred); A unique combination of memoir, history, and travelogue, this is author David Downie's irreverent quest to uncover why Paris is the world's most romantic city--and has been for over 150 years. Abounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists' studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation. But the city's allure derives equally from hidden sources: querulous inhabitants, a bizarre culture of heroic negativity, and a rich historical past supplying enigmas, pleasures and challenges. Rarely do visitors suspect the glamor and chic and the carefree atmosphere of the City of Light grew from and still feed off the dark fountainheads of riot, rebellion, mayhem and melancholy--and the subversive literature, art and music of the Romantic Age. Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics, Downie delights in the city's secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking, Why Paris, not Venice or Rome--the tap root of 'romance'--or Berlin, Vienna and London--where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales? Read A Passion for Paris : Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light and find out"--
Reviews with the most likes.
I've just finished David Downie's A Passion for Paris, and I have to agree with an assessment of the flaws of Downie (albeit, flaws of the author in his writing of a different book) I ran across. There's no doubt that Downie is supercilious, that he throws in French words when English words are perfectly satisfactory, that he provides no bibliography for his books. Still...he writes about Paris, and I treat books about Paris like I do beloved grandchildren, and that seems justifiable to me, somehow.
Downie takes on the romantics and their romances—Hugo, Sand, Baudelaire, Balzac, and more—in this book. I must admit that I found myself skimming through the details of the various lovers these greats took on. I'm not much of a Romantic myself, and that probably skewed my feelings about this book. I had Expectations as well, and I think we all know that these are good for nothing except to be Quickly Dashed.
