Is Paris Burning? (New Portway Reprints) [Hardcover]

Larry Collins (Author), Dominique Lapierre (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 1985 | ISBN-10: 0862205484 | ISBN-13: 978-0862205485 | Edition: New edition

[This is the Audiobook CASSETTE Library Edition in vinyl case.]

[Read by Frederick Davidson]

''Is Paris burning?'' is the question Hitler asked over and over as the French Second and American Fourth Divisions battered their way into the city.

Few moments in history are as stirring as the Allied liberation of Paris, yet few people are aware of how narrowly -- and how miraculously -- the city escaped Hitler's secret plan to reduce it to ashes. Is Paris Burning? reconstructs, in meticulous and riveting detail, the network of fateful events -- day by day, moment by moment -- that saved the City of Light.

Bestselling authors and renowned journalists Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre spent three years researching this book, drawing on French Resistance radio messages, German military records, countless interviews, and secret correspondence between de Gaulle, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Eisenhower. Here they re-create the drama, the fervor, and the triumph that heralded one of the most dramatic events of our time.

--This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

''Thanks to the authors, we can live every dramatic moment again. They have not only written history but an exciting thriller.'' --Art Buchwald, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist

''A great story . . . Dramatic, exciting, and intensely human.'' --New York Times

''The most readable book of the year . . . it is a measure of the accomplishment, that knowing the end of the story as all of us do, we are still so immersed that the mounting action is as powerful as it must have been to the participants. We are directly aware of the tension, suspense, and irony of the experience.'' --Los Angeles Times

''Extraordinary…Absorbing.'' --Time

''One of the great cliff-hangers of all time…Heart-stopping!'' --Life

''Dramatic…Hundreds of characters are introduced to lend color and authenticity.'' --Christian Science Monitor

''One of the most dramatic stories of World War II . . . Exciting, stirring, skillfully dramatized, meticulously documented.'' --Saturday Review Syndicate

''You will be moved by the descriptions and want to see Paris to witness what history allowed to survive. Is Paris Burning? is researched with meticulous and riveting detail, well narrated, and certain to keep you intrigued.'' --AudioFile --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

About the Author

LARRY COLLINS (1929-2005) was born and raised in West Hartford, Connecticut, and is a graduate of Yale University. He was for more than ten years a foreign correspondent in North Africa, the Middle East, and Europe, first for UPI and then for Newsweek, for which he was Paris Bureau chief.

DOMINIQUE LAPIERRE was for many years senior reporter and editor for Paris Match. He is the author of several earlier books published in France, some of them based on his knowledge of the United States, where he attended Lafayette College and where his father served with the French diplomatic service. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Chivers Press; New edition edition (October 17, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0862205484
• ISBN-13: 978-0862205485
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,657,937 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Picture Paris Lost..., May 4, 2000

By 

Dixie Swanson MD "littlefoot" (Houston TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Is Paris Burning? (Hardcover)

If Hitler had his way, there would be no Notre Dame, none of Paris' beautiful bridges, no Eiffel Tower. The Allies didn't stop him, a brave German general did. At a tremendous personal risk, he resolved not to be the man to destroy the most beautiful city in the world.

The story is told with the in-your-face realism of two journalists. Yet it's full of humor and even downright silliness. Would-be soldier Enrnest Hemingway captured a German soldier and relieved him of his pants. Why? He figured no man would escape half-naked. He was right.

This isn't about troop movements, it's about real people risking their lives (and those of their families) to liberate Paris. After all, Eisenhower didn't think he had enough fuel or time to fight a mini-war for Paris. He desperately needed to push east to Germany.

So how did it all happen? Read the book, in Paris if you can, but whever you can find a good lamp. Is Paris Burning? will keep you up late at night.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book!, August 17, 2000

By 

Pedro Peters (Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires Argentina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is Paris Burning? (Hardcover)

Is Paris Burning? is one of the best books that Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins have wrote together. A huge job, a piece of history novel, good as only a few can be, with a great work of investigation; interviews with people like General Dietrich von Choltitz, (who recieved the order from Adolf Hitler, to burn Paris, in case that the defense couldn't be accomplish) or for example the Chief of Operations in Europe, the General Dwight Eisenhower. As usual in their books, Lapierre and Collins, put the reader inside of one of the most importants chapters in the history of the XX century, the liberation of Paris, with precisions of days, hours, and places. The order of Hitler, the beginning of the resistance, the slow arrival of the allied, the clear disobedience of General Von Choltitz.... in fact, a crucial moment in the history of one of the most beautiful citys in the world, a turning point in the development of the Second World War. A different way to learn history.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brennt Paris?, May 2, 2005

By 

Richard W Little "I am a maple leaf on the wind." (Huizhou, Guangdong Province, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Is Paris Burning (Paperback)

I just finished reading Is Paris Burning? by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. The book is the fascinating tale of how Paris evaded the fate Hitler envisioned for it at the end of the Second World War. It's a complex tale, , with characters including Hitler and his staff in his bunker, the last German military governor in Paris and his staff, the French freedom fighters in Paris (both the Gaullists and the Communists), de Gaulle himself, Eisenhower and Bradley and the various other members of the Allied command structure, the Swedish ambassador in Paris, and common people, in the armed forces and in the streets of Paris. The title is drawn from a question Hitler asked, when he found out that Allied troops were approaching Paris.

The tale starts with the uprising in Paris, and ends just after its liberation is celebrated in the streets. Hitler had hand-picked the last military governor of Paris, based upon his reputation from attacks against Rotterdam and Sevastapol, and he had the task of holding back the Allies at Paris, or, failing that, reducing Paris to ruins, much like Warsaw had recently suffered. The Allies had every intention of bypassing Paris and moving onwards, but the freedom fighters in Paris knew the Allies were nearby, and hoped to push things to their advantage. All of these things should have spelt disaster for the City of Lights, but opportunity and stubborn resistance and collusion and soldier's honour led to a different outcome.

The authors tell a spellbinding tale, based upon much research. My copy is a used copy, and dates back to the mid-1960s (bought it on amazon, used). There are a great deal of photos, documenting scenes from throughout the story. The authors, in my opinion, did a commendable job, and I would recommend this book to those interested in Paris, or in the Second World War.