Bohemian Paris: Culture, Politics, and the Boundaries of Bourgeois Life, 1830-1930 [Paperback]

Jerrold Seigel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0801860636 | ISBN-13: 978-0801860638

Exotic and yet familiar, rife with passion, immorality, hunger, and freedom, Bohemia was an object of both worry and fascination to workaday Parisians in the nineteenth century. No mere revolt against middle-class society, the Bohemia Seigel discovers was richer and more complex, the stage on which modern bourgeois acted out the conflicts of their social identities, testing the liberation promised by post-revolutionary society against the barriers set up to contain it. Turning life into art, Bohemia became a space where many innovative and original figures—some famous, some obscure—found a home.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Seigel has written an important work, one which monitors the development of an extraordinary counterculture through all its evolutions and ambiguities during a constantly changing period of French history. Bohemian Paris was, of course, a uniquely creative entity; its art, ideas, literature, and lifestyles influenced (and were influenced by) the bourgeois world that was simultaneously taking shape. The author combines a sophisticated command of French history with an authoritative understanding of those who populated Bohemian Paris, e.g., Courbet, Rimbaud, Zola, and Cocteau. Though not an easy book, this represents a major contribution to social and intellectual history. Most academic libraries will want it. Mark R. Yerburgh , Trinity Coll. Lib., Burlington, Vt.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

The central attraction of this study lies in its imaginative grasp of these remarkable denizens (both declared and undeclared) of bohemia. Mr. Seigel has written a cultural history that respects the complex entanglements found in both life and art, and that is no mean feat.

(Arnold Weinstein New York Times Book Review )

The research that went into Bohemian Paris turns up some treasures—the very stuff of history... This highly readable book probes further than any other I know into the reciprocating movements that connect and distinguish bohemia and bourgeois.

(Roger Shattuck New York Review of Books )

This is an enormously useful approach to a complex phenomenon... It also brings together a dazzling assortment of individuals, from such well-known figures as Baudelaire, Courbet, Zola, Manet, Verlaine, and Rimbaud to such relatively obscure figures as the writer Henry Murger and the cabaret owner Emile Goudeau.

(Jay Tolson Nation )

It deserves to be read... for the skill with which it explores an ever-interesting tract of cultural history.

(John Gross New York Times )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press (September 3, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801860636
• ISBN-13: 978-0801860638
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #512,051 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 35 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Bobos September 22, 2000

By Pat Lamken

Format:Paperback

I first came across this book several years ago when writing about Jacques Offenbach. At that time, I much enjoyed both the author's erudition and his dead-on social analysis. Seigel demonstrates how, in mid-nineteenth century Paris, the eager purchase by the bourgeois of "revolutionary" works of art (literature, paintings, drama, music, etc.) deadened the intended meaning of those works, and, by making their creators wealthy, changed the artists' own feelings about their society. Seigel sees this cooption as an intrinsic function of capitalism, and its own best defense against violent revolution. The parallels for our society seem clear to the reader (Seigel does not discuss them) - just as Henri Murger, author of "La Vie de Boheme", grew rich enough to buy a country estate (and then killed himself) so John Lennon took the money from "Revolution" and bought New York real estate. Mick Jagger is today one of the largest and wealthiest landowners in Britain - and one could extend this list indefinitely.

Over the years, I thought of Seigel's analysis on occasion - for instance, when reading plaintive complaints about the "misuse" of rock in TV commercials. But I didn't bother to pick up the book again until reading a new book with "bohemian" and "bourgeois" together - Brooks' "Bobos in Paradise" - which does not cite this book. Hmm. It's very true that Brooks may simply be a keen observer - after all, our intellectual culture is a direct descendant of that discussed by Seigel. So let's leave it at that - and suggest that anyone seriously interested in "Bobos" would do very well indeed to read this volume.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Male Bohemians in Paris May 28, 2010

By Jonathan

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This is unquestionably a very, very well researched book. The writing is also strong, if not terribly stylish. The reason for docking the book stars is threefold:

1. The book has a maddeningly repetitive rhythm. Each chapter focuses on a particular exemplar of Bohemia and analyzes his life and work. Each chapter draws the same conclusions about the conflicts between the individual and society, between artistic and financial advancement. After a while the stories all began to blur. And the trope of a single man (sometimes two) exemplifying Bohemia at a certain point in time is not terribly convincing.

2. I am fairly familiar with Parisian and French history, but this book assumes a great deal of knowledge that I didn't have. It was very hard to contextualize much of the book because the larger history was never laid out. This is clearly not the aim of the book - it traces a particular phenomenon, not a city or a country. But still, I could have benefited enormously from some sketches of the political and social situations in Paris over the course of the period treated here.

3. Even if women were only models and lovers in Bohemian Paris, even if those female artists and personalities that lived were overshadowed by their male peers, this book is glaringly uninterested in treating women in depth. Given the structure mentioned above (each chapter about a male figure) it is perhaps inevitable that women are not written about with anywhere near the complexity or interest as the men. Which is a shame, because it leaves out so much of the world of Bohemia.

The scholarship is impressive given its limits. But these limits are not insignificant.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars History with whimsy January 6, 2008

By Ava Victoria

Format:Hardcover

The cover of this book is so telling about the contents that I searched for the poster to hang it in my voice studio. The time and place of early Cabaret is very intriguing to me and this book gave the details of the social canvas behind the whimsy of the art form. This is one of the most wonderful ways to read history. It IS NOT DRY. It springs up your imagination. [e-mail]