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A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light
David Downie
May 2015
On Sale: April 28, 2015
ISBN: 1250043158 EAN: 9781250043153 Kindle: B00OO3NWA4 Hardcover / e-Book
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Non-Fiction
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.
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