The Flaneur
2001 • 224 pages

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Average rating3

15

**From Amazon.com:**

“One has the impression, reading *The Flâneur*, of having fallen into the hands of a highly distractible, somewhat eccentric poet and professor who is determined to show you a Paris you wouldn’t otherwise see…Edmund White tells such a good story that I’m ready to listen to anything he wants to talk about.”—*New York Times Book Review*

A flâneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through city streets in search of adventure and fulfillment. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. In the hands of the learned White, a walk through Paris is both a tour of its lush, sometimes prurient history and an evocation of the city’s spirit. The Flâneur leads us to bookshops and boutiques, monuments and palaces, giving us a glimpse into the inner human drama. Along the way we learn everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette’s life.

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Series

Series

8 released books

Writer and the City

Writer and the City is a 8-book series first released in 2001 with contributions by Edmund White, Peter Carey, and John Banville.


Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

April 24, 2011

This was lovely, and the cutest edition fitting perfectly in my hands (the tactile experience of reading is still a thing folks) a collection of essays on various pockets of history and culture in Paris.

July 15, 2018