Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris

by Graham Robb (Author)

• Used

  Paperback
  2010

  $3.27

  'Quirky, amused and tres British' JULIAN BARNES 'A collection of true stories, culled from Robb's insatiable historical reading and lit by his imagination ...So richly pleasurable that you feel it might emit a warm glow if you left it in a dark room' JOHN CAREY, Book of the Week, Sunday Times 'Robb has focused on what really matters, the human beings who shaped, or who were occasionally defeated by, their city ...Marvellously entertaining, boundingly energetic and original' PHILIP HENSHER, Daily Telegraph No-one knows a city like the people who live there so who better to relate the history of Paris than its inhabitants through the ages? Taking us from 1750 to the new millennium, Graham Robb's Parisians is at once a book to read from cover to cover, to lose yourself in, to dip in and out of at leisure, and a book to return to again and again rather like the city itself, in fact. 'If you delight in the historical equivalent of finding a tiny restaurant frequented only by locals ...then Robb will sate your appetite' Evening Standard 'The great and daring trick Robb pulls off is to make the familiar so unfamiliar that in every sense it is like seeing the city anew' Observer

• Used

  Hardcover
  2010

  $3.27

  No-one knows a city like the people who live there so who better to relate the history of Paris than its inhabitants through the ages? Taking us from 1750 to the new millennium, Parisians introduces us to some of those inhabitants: we meet spies, soldiers, scientists and alchemists; police commissioners, photographers and philosophers; adulterers, murderers, prisoners and prostitutes. We encounter political and sexual intrigues, witness real and would-be revolutions, assassination attempts and several all too successful executions; we visit underground caverns and catacombs, enjoy the view from the top of the Eiffel Tower, are there for the opening of the Metro, accompany Hitler on a flying visit to the French capital and much more besides. Entertaining and illuminating, and written with Graham Robb's customary attention to detail and, indeed, the unusual Parisians is both history and travel guide, yet also part memoir, part mystery. A book unlike any other, it is at once a book to read from cover to cover, to lose yourself in, to dip in and out of at leisure, and a book to return to again and again rather like the city itself, in fact. Praise for The Discovery of France: 'An extraordinary journey of discovery that will delight even the most indolent armchair traveller' Daily Telegraph 'A superior historical guidebook for the unhurried traveller, and altogether a book to savour' Independent