Hermes in Paris [Hardcover]

Peter Vansittart (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 12, 2001

Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, likes to return to Earth now and again. He chooses to do so in Paris at the time of Napoleon III, a time of great frivolity and instability. Here he decides to play the most explosive practical joke in the world's history.

Hermes—God, trickster and mischief-maker—is also the protector of shepherds, travelers' guide, conductor of souls to the underworld, messenger of Zeus, bringer of good luck, and patron of orators, writers, athletes, merchants, and thieves. To indulge his curiosity he visits Earth from time to time looking for opportunities to play practical jokes and stir up the population. He chooses to holiday in Paris at the time of the brilliant but unstable court of Napoleon III—another opportunist, conspiratorial and outwardly amiable—and the beautiful, nervy Empress Eugenie. Hermes finds much to provoke his laughter—and such laughter is dangerous. Under his influence France enjoys a succession of illusions involving the highest in the land, the comfortable middle classes, and the journalists, poets, and intellectuals of Left Bank cafes, and everything flows inexorably towards the most explosive joke that Hermes can devise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sweeping, elegant and majestically cool, Hermes in Paris paints a glittering picture of Second Empire Paris under Napoleon III. Told from the perspective of Hermes, the Greek trickster-god here appearing as a dapper, detached gentleman in a crimson satin cravat, the tale skims almost plotless over the teeming, glamorous city. History is the true protagonist of British writer Peter Vansittart's jewel of a novel, and his sophisticated revisionist take on the era is intriguing. ( Apr.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Peter Vansittart was the author of 29 books including his autobiographical work, Paths from a White Horse. In 1969 he won the Society of Authors Traveling Scholarship, and in 1981 he was one of six recipients of the first Writers' Bursaries awarded by the Arts Council. He was also a recipient of an O.B.E. for services to literature and his mastery of historical fiction.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Peter Owen Ltd (April 12, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0720611067
• ISBN-13: 978-0720611069
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,544,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a Page-Turning Historical Novel, September 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Hermes in Paris (Hardcover)

Reading _Hermes in Paris_ is like looking at the stars through a telescope. They glitter, but are distant and ultimately, cold.

Set just before and during the beginning of the collapse of Napoleon III's empire, this book has tremendous potential for plot action. Which is unfulfilled, apparently as a conscious literary conceit. The author doesn't even tell readers what happened to the major characters, either the famous ones whose fate is recorded in history or others who are probably fictional. Well, he does give some (welcome) hints in the Afterword, but this is not the same as incorporating a real ending into the book. The characters fail to come to life or engage the reader's concern. The book's conceit is that the political collapse was engineered by Hermes, the trickster god, for no reason except amusement. Hermes truly does not care what happens to the human beings he manipulates. While this is probably meant as a comment on the randomness and unfairness of history, the viewpoint of an indifferent god too closely resembles the viewpoint of an indifferent author.

The prose does, as I said, glitter. So if you are willing to read a book mostly for the language, you might like _Hermes in Paris_.