Seven Ages of Paris [Paperback]

Alistair Horne (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1400034469 | ISBN-13: 978-1400034468 | Publication Date: April 13, 2004

In this luminous portrait of Paris, celebrated historian Alistair Horne gives us the history, culture, disasters, and triumphs of one of the world’s truly great cities. Horne makes plain that while Paris may be many things, it is never boring.

From the rise of Philippe Auguste through the reigns of Henry IV and Louis XIV (who abandoned Paris for Versailles); Napoleon’s rise and fall; Baron Haussmann’s rebuilding of Paris (at the cost of much of the medieval city); the Belle Epoque and the Great War that brought it to an end; the Nazi Occupation, the Liberation, and the postwar period dominated by de Gaulle--Horne brings the city’s highs and lows, savagery and sophistication, and heroes and villains splendidly to life. With a keen eye for the telling anecdote and pivotal moment, he portrays an array of vivid incidents to show us how Paris endures through each age, is altered but always emerges more brilliant and beautiful than ever. The Seven Ages of Paris is a great historian’s tribute to a city he loves and has spent a lifetime learning to know.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

London is male, New York sexually ambivalent, writes Horne. But "has any sensible person ever doubted that Paris is fundamentally a woman?" The renowned historian (The Fall of Paris, etc.) thus conceives of his history of the city of lights as "linked biographical essays, depicting seven ages... in the long, exciting life of a sexy and beautiful, but also turbulent, troublesome and sometimes excessively violent woman." Horne's admittedly idiosyncratic seven ages begin in the 13th century, when King Philippe Auguste made Paris the administrative and cultural center of France. The second age was that of the Protestant Henri of Navarre (later King Henri IV) who, after unsuccessfully besieging the city, converted to Catholicism because, he said, "Paris is worth a mass," and began "to clear away the cluttered medieval quartiers... and replace them with an orderly, classical elegance." The third era was that of King Louis XIV, a period of amazing cultural flowering, though the Sun King moved the seat of government away from Paris, to Versailles. Napoleon brought to Paris a postrevolutionary stability and grandeur, and began to construct a modern sewer system. Under Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann, during the city's fifth age, Paris was remade, but the era ended with the bloodletting of the Commune. Age six took the city from the belle epoque through the beginning of WWII, and the last from the occupation to 1969. Horne brings to this brilliant and entertaining account the same urban passion that Peter Ackroyd brought to his recent "biography" of London-and it is sure to delight Francophiles everywhere. 8 pages of color and 16 pages of b&w illus. not seen by PW.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This highly readable narrative by celebrated journalist and historian Horne (The Fall of Paris; A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962) uses an admittedly idiosyncratic organizational scheme to trace the history of Paris through seven periods, beginning in the 12th century and ending with the death of Charles de Gaulle in 1969. His "ages" focus on medieval and Renaissance Paris; the era of King Henry IV; the 18th century and Louis XIV; revolutionary and Napoleonic Paris; the 19th century, culminating in the Bloody Week of the Commune; the Belle poque; and the age of war and occupation. While politics informs and guides his presentation, this is by no means a political history. Each section includes fascinating insights into the social and cultural life of the age, fashions in clothing, architectural developments, leading personalities, and lifestyles of rich and poor alike. With the verve of a master storyteller, Horne captures Parisians' "zest for living." While often depicting Paris itself as a beautiful woman, he does not neglect the famous female personalities of each era. This readable survey complements yet stands in sharp contrast to Patrice Higonnet's recent Paris: Capital of the World, which takes a more academic focus and eschews a chronological approach. Highly recommended for large public libraries.
Marie Marmo Mullaney, Caldwell Coll., NJ
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (April 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400034469
• ISBN-13: 978-1400034468
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 1 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #105,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 101 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Barricades, Balzac, Big Bertha and Josephine Baker, November 19, 2002

By 

Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Ages of Paris (Hardcover)

In the past few years we've had a massive biography of New York City ("Gotham") and several only slightly less massive biographies of London (by Peter Ackroyd, Stephen Inwood, etc.). Alistair Horne, an Englishman who has spent most of his life writing about France, rightly decided that it's about time we gave equal time to the City Of Light. He has written a very good book. If you don't know much about France and the French, Mr. Horne's book covers so many different areas that it is sure to whet your appetite to learn more. Even if you're a longtime Francophile, the author has dug so deeply into his sources that you're bound to be delighted and/or surprised at many of the tidbits he's unearthed. For example, during the siege of Paris in the autumn of 1870, the Parisians were able to communicate with the rest of France by successfully sending out balloons. But the balloons were never able to make it back in to Paris. The solution? Mr. Horne takes up the story: "It was the humble carrier-pigeon that was to prove the only means of breaking the blockade in reverse. A microphotography unit was set up in Tours, and there government despatches were reduced to a minute size, printed on feathery collodion membranes, so that one pigeon could carry up to 40,000 despatches, equivalent to the contents of a complete book. On reaching Paris, the despatches were projected by magic lantern, their contents transcribed by a battery of clerks......As a counter-measure, the Prussians imported falcons, which prompted one of the many imaginative Parisian 'inventors' to suggest that the pigeons be equipped with whistles to frighten off the predators". And while many people know that the siege reduced Parisians to having to eat horses, dogs, cats, rats and even animals from the zoo.....where else could you find out that it's estimated that during the siege the Parisians consumed 65,000 horses, 5,000 cats, 1,200 dogs.....but only 300 rats! Depending on your interests (or the strength of your stomach!) this is either fascinating or maybe a bit TOO much information! Mr. Horne tries to let you sample various aspects of Parisian life. So, in each "Age" he tries to tell you what was going on in certain core areas: politics, architecture, relations between the sexes, culture (music, dance, theater, art, literature), etc. Heavyweight material (Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the Paris Commune, collaboration during WWII) is beautifully and seamlessly blended with lighter fare- such as the 1809 inventory of Josephine's wardrobe (which found 666 winter dresses, 230 summer dresses but only 2 pairs of knickers!). We learn that King Louis-Philippe kept 2 pairs of gloves "on hand"- a special dirty pair for shaking the hands of the "common people" and a cleaner kid glove pair for use with old aristocrats, bankers, etc. In the world of dance, we find out about the moral outrage expressed when, during the 1912 season, Nijinsky decided to perform in "Afternoon Of A Faun" in a manner that some people felt was not quite appropriate. (He went onstage "sans cup".) Mr. Horne wears his likes and dislikes on his sleeve: He clearly dislikes Louis XIV and admires Charles de Gaulle, for example. (But, he has a wonderful sense of humor and can't resist telling us that Jean-Paul Sartre used to call de Gaulle "Charles XI"!) Mr. Horne makes it clear that this is a "personal" history rather than a "scholarly" history. Fair enough....at least we know the groundrules. The reason I decided to give this book only 4 stars rather than 5 is that, if anything, Mr. Horne was not quite ambitious enough in his undertaking. Granted, 477 pages is not a short book......but it isn't long enough for a subject such as this. You feel a bit "rushed" in the first 3 "Ages", as approximately 600 years of history are compressed into 150 pages. And, for all intents and purposes, the Revolution of 1789 is ignored! The book doesn't hit it's stride until Napoleon struts onto the scene. So, the last 200 years are covered in 300 pages and the pace for that period seems more leisurely and appropriate. After all, we want to do full justice to such a rich, complex, story. To finish with a quote by Charles de Gaulle: "How can you govern a country that has 246 varieties of cheese!"

59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ahhhh Paris!, January 10, 2003

By 

Dana Keish (Ohio, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Ages of Paris (Hardcover)

One of the most beautiful cities in the world has finally found a worthy biographer in A. J. Horne. Paris has always held a fascination for most, being a center of not only political and commercial interest, but also home to the art and culture known throughout the world. Horne's book describes the history of the city, with particular interest on the architectural changes, by highlighting seven different time periods, beginning with an introduction of the early beginnings of the city culminating in the late 1960's riots which shook Paris. Wonderfully written, with snippets of information hard to find elsewhere. For example, I often wondered by St. Genevieve was the patron saint of the city. Horne supplies that information that very early during the history of the city an attack was feared from the invaders of the west and as the city prepared to flee, young Genevieve had a vision that the attack would not take place and halted the evacuation. It's little pieces of information such as this, which made the book an exceptionally fun as well as educating read.

Special attention is also paid to other significant historical events, especially those after the 1600's. What really strikes the read is one thing: the number of uprisings (the French Revolution of 1789 was only one in a series) that had struck the city, most of them organized on a grass roots level. This also helps explains why the cobblestones of the streets have been cemented into place...these make very good missiles for those fed up with the weak administration of the city. That is another point that the author stresses...sanitation and city planning came very late to Paris, and this led to unimaginable squalor in various quarters of the city.

The reader is also introduced to some of the great figures of French history, particularly Henri IV (famous for his "Paris is worth a mass") and Emperor Napoleon III (who fled the country immediately following the defeat of the French in the Franco-Prussian war). Other notables include Haussman who reinvented the look of the city we now see.

The writing is crisp and flows wonderfully from chapter to chapter. Not at all a technical march of statistics, but a story of one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Highly recommended for everyone who ever dreams of Paris.

42 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining selection, if somewhat incomplete, January 6, 2003

By 

Jared Gross (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Seven Ages of Paris (Hardcover)

The previous reveiwer does a good job of giving one the flavor of this book. I would describe it as the informative ramblings of a very knowledgable historian, writing with breezy informality and a corresponding lack of discipline. (Let me reiterate a point from the previous reviewer that left me incredulous: the revolution of 1789 is, in any meaningful sense, absent. Now, this ground has been well trod by others, but really! A few more pages were in order.

I bought this book as something to read in preparation for a brief visit to Paris. I learned a great deal and for the most part consider it a worthwhile exercise.

With one serious caveat. The illustrations are small and poorly chosen, and even worse, there is no map! This book brims with vivid descriptions of the city's growth, destruction and reconstruction yet there is no visual reference for any of this. Some of the historical plates are interesting, but add little to the experience. A major omission in an otherwise good work of history.