Stories Of Parisian Life

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Parisian Lives

Author : Deirdre Bair
Publisher : Anchor
ISBN 13 : 0385542461
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (855 download)

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Book Synopsis Parisian Lives by : Deirdre Bair

Download or read book Parisian Lives written by Deirdre Bair and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2019-11-12 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A PULITZER PRIZE FINALIST A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year National Book Award-winning biographer Deirdre Bair explores her fifteen remarkable years in Paris with Samuel Beckett and Simone de Beauvoir, painting intimate new portraits of two literary giants and revealing secrets of the biographical art. In 1971 Deirdre Bair was a journalist and recently minted Ph.D. who managed to secure access to Nobel Prize-winning author Samuel Beckett. He agreed that she could be his biographer despite her never having written—or even read—a biography before. The next seven years comprised of intimate conversations, intercontinental research, and peculiar cat-and-mouse games. Battling an elusive Beckett and a string of jealous, misogynistic male writers, Bair persevered. She wrote Samuel Beckett: A Biography, which went on to win the National Book Award and propel Deirdre to her next subject: Simone de Beauvoir. The catch? De Beauvoir and Beckett despised each other—and lived essentially on the same street. Bair learned that what works in terms of process for one biography rarely applies to the next. Her seven-year relationship with the domineering and difficult de Beauvoir required a radical change in approach, yielding another groundbreaking literary profile and influencing Bair’s own feminist beliefs. Parisian Lives draws on Bair’s extensive notes from the period, including never-before-told anecdotes. This gripping memoir is full of personality and warmth and gives us an entirely new window on the all-too-human side of these legendary thinkers.

Stories of Parisian Life

Author : Guy de Maupassant
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (319 download)

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Book Synopsis Stories of Parisian Life by : Guy de Maupassant

Download or read book Stories of Parisian Life written by Guy de Maupassant and published by . This book was released on 1922 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

History of Paris in Painting

Author : Georges Duby
Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0789210460
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (892 download)

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Book Synopsis History of Paris in Painting by : Georges Duby

Download or read book History of Paris in Painting written by Georges Duby and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2009-09-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sumptuous artistic tribute to the city of lights, this hardcover, slipcased volume brings Paris to life in paintings that range from the medieval to the modern. “Paris is a moveable feast,” Ernest Hemingway once proclaimed. The city of lights, or the city of love, Paris is indeed a feast for the senses. Paris’s rich history has been justly captured by the many artists sheltered by its garrets and supported by its patrons for centuries. Finally the story and grandeur of this beautiful city are revealed in this luxurious slipcased volume. The over 300 full-color illustrations, including four breathtaking gatefolds, present Paris from its days as a medieval city on the Ile de la Cité, in the middle of the Seine River, through the tumultuous days of the French Revolution, to the “Haussmannization” of Paris, when much of the city was razed to make way for broad boulevards emanating from the Arc de Triomphe. The rich heritage of painting in Paris is broadly represented in this collection. Home of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, Paris nurtured generations of French artists and displayed their work in the Salon. As the Impressionists broke with the authoritarian standards of the Academy, Parisian art became even more diverse and increasingly abstract—a trend that continued through the twentieth century. The History of Paris in Painting honors this celebrated city and its famous monuments by presenting readers with an artistic feast that will make anyone fall in love with Paris again and again.

My (Part-Time) Paris Life

Author : Lisa Anselmo
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 1466875828
Total Pages : 202 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis My (Part-Time) Paris Life by : Lisa Anselmo

Download or read book My (Part-Time) Paris Life written by Lisa Anselmo and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2016-10-11 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poignant, touching, and lively, this memoir of a woman who loses her mother and creates a new life for herself in Paris will speak to anyone who has lost a parent or reinvented themselves. Lisa Anselmo wrapped her entire life around her mother, a strong woman who was a defining force in her daughter’s life—maybe too defining. When her mother dies from breast cancer, Lisa realizes she hadn’t built a life of her own, and struggles to find her purpose. Who is she without her mother—and her mother’s expectations? Desperate for answers, she reaches for a lifeline in the form of an apartment in Paris, refusing to play it safe for the first time. What starts out as a lurching act of survival sets Lisa on a course that reshapes her life in ways she never could have imagined. But how can you imagine a life bigger than anything you’ve ever known? In the vein of Eat, Pray, Love and Wild, My (Part-time) Paris Life a story is for anyone who’s ever felt lost or hopeless, but still holds out hope of something more. This candid memoir explores one woman’s search for peace and meaning, and how the ups and downs of expat life in Paris taught her to let go of fear, find self-worth, and create real, lasting happiness.

The New Parisienne

Author : Lindsey Tramuta
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 1683358783
Total Pages : 442 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (833 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Parisienne by : Lindsey Tramuta

Download or read book The New Parisienne written by Lindsey Tramuta and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Tramuta sweeps away the tired clichés of the Parisian woman with her vivid profiles of the dynamic and creative ‘femmes’ now powering the French capital.” —Eleanor Beardsley, NPR Paris correspondent The New Parisienne focuses on one of the city’s most prominent features, its women. Lifting the veil on the mythologized Parisian woman—white, lithe, ever fashionable—Lindsey Tramuta demystifies this oversimplified archetype and recasts the women of Paris as they truly are, in all their complexity. Featuring 50 activists, creators, educators, visionaries, and disruptors—like Leïla Slimani, Lauren Bastide, and Mayor Anne Hidalgo—the book reveals Paris as a blossoming cultural center of feminine power. Both the featured women and Tramuta herself offer up favorite destinations and women-owned businesses, including beloved shops, artistic venues, bistros, and more. The New Parisienne showcases “Parisianness” in all its multiplicity, highlighting those who are bucking tradition, making names for themselves, and transforming the city. “With stunning photographs and inspiring profiles, Lindsey Tramuta tramples the myths and takes us into the lives of real Parisiennes. Bravo!”—Pamela Druckerman, New York Times–bestselling author of Bringing Up Bébé “Like the subjects of her book, Lindsey Tramuta is a force. The New Parisienne is the go-to chronicle of the joyful, progressive, pioneering women of a city that Tramuta understands with deep intelligence.” —Lauren Collins, New York Times–bestselling author of When in French “Tramuta’s new book posits that Parisian women have been ahead of these radically changing times. But rather than being trendsetters in the stylish sense, they qualify as visionaries and agents of change across spheres of diversity, tech, culture, politics, and more.” —Vogue

The Parisian

Author : Isabella Hammad
Publisher : Grove Press
ISBN 13 : 0802147100
Total Pages : 636 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (21 download)

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Book Synopsis The Parisian by : Isabella Hammad

Download or read book The Parisian written by Isabella Hammad and published by Grove Press. This book was released on 2019-04-09 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful debut novel by Plimpton Prize winner Isabella Hammad, The Parisian illuminates a pivotal period of Palestinian history through the journey and romances of one young man, from his studies in France during World War I to his return to Palestine at the dawn of its battle for independence. Midhat Kamal is the son of a wealthy textile merchant from Nablus, a town in Ottoman Palestine. A dreamer, a romantic, an aesthete, in 1914 he leaves to study medicine in France, and falls in love. When Midhat returns to Nablus to find it under British rule, and the entire region erupting with nationalist fervor, he must find a way to cope with his conflicting loyalties and the expectations of his community. The story of Midhat’s life develops alongside the idea of a nation, as he and those close to him confront what it means to strive for independence in a world that seems on the verge of falling apart. Against a landscape of political change that continues to define the Middle East, The Parisian explores questions of power and identity, enduring love, and the uncanny ability of the past to disrupt the present. Lush and immersive, and devastating in its power, The Parisian is an elegant, richly-imagined debut from a dazzling new voice in fiction.

Maxim's - A Mirror of Parisian Life

Author : Jean-Pascal Hesse
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9782759405312
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (53 download)

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Book Synopsis Maxim's - A Mirror of Parisian Life by : Jean-Pascal Hesse

Download or read book Maxim's - A Mirror of Parisian Life written by Jean-Pascal Hesse and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The mythic Parisian restaurant Maxim's—owned and operated for the past twenty-five years by iconic designer Pierre Cardin—has hosted patrons from royalty and celebrities to courtesans and starving artists since opening its doors more than a century ago.

The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs

Author : Elaine Sciolino
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393242382
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (932 download)

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Book Synopsis The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by : Elaine Sciolino

Download or read book The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs written by Elaine Sciolino and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-11-02 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller "Sciolino’s sharply observed account serves as a testament to…Paris—the city of light, of literature, of life itself." —The New Yorker Elaine Sciolino, the former Paris Bureau Chief of the New York Times, invites us on a tour of her favorite Parisian street, offering an homage to street life and the pleasures of Parisian living. "I can never be sad on the rue des Martyrs," Sciolino explains, as she celebrates the neighborhood’s rich history and vibrant lives. While many cities suffer from the leveling effects of globalization, the rue des Martyrs maintains its distinct allure. On this street, the patron saint of France was beheaded and the Jesuits took their first vows. It was here that Edgar Degas and Pierre-Auguste Renoir painted circus acrobats, Emile Zola situated a lesbian dinner club in his novel Nana, and François Truffaut filmed scenes from The 400 Blows. Sciolino reveals the charms and idiosyncrasies of this street and its longtime residents—the Tunisian greengrocer, the husband-and-wife cheesemongers, the showman who’s been running a transvestite cabaret for more than half a century, the owner of a 100-year-old bookstore, the woman who repairs eighteenth-century mercury barometers—bringing Paris alive in all of its unique majesty. The Only Street in Paris will make readers hungry for Paris, for cheese and wine, and for the kind of street life that is all too quickly disappearing.

Paris

Author : Andrew Hussey
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1608192377
Total Pages : 696 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (81 download)

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Book Synopsis Paris by : Andrew Hussey

Download or read book Paris written by Andrew Hussey and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-07-22 with total page 696 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If Adam Gopnik's Paris to the Moon described daily life in contemporary Paris, this book describes daily life in Paris throughout its history: a history of the city from the point of view of the Parisians themselves. Paris captures everyone's imaginations: It's a backdrop for Proust's fictional pederast, Robert Doisneau's photographic kiss, and Edith Piaf's serenaded soldier-lovers; a home as much to romance and love poems as to prostitution and opium dens. The many pieces of the city coexist, each one as real as the next. What's more, the conflicted identity of the city is visible everywhere-between cobblestones, in bars, on the métro. In this lively and lucid volume, Andrew Hussey brings to life the urchins and artists who've left their marks on the city, filling in the gaps of a history that affected the disenfranchised as much as the nobility. Paris: The Secret History ranges across centuries, movements, and cultural and political beliefs, from Napoleon's overcrowded cemeteries to Balzac's nocturnal flight from his debts. For Hussey, Paris is a city whose long and conflicted history continues to thrive and change. The book's is a picaresque journey through royal palaces, brothels, and sidewalk cafés, uncovering the rich, exotic, and often lurid history of the world's most beloved city.

The Painting of Modern Life

Author : T.J. Clark
Publisher : Knopf
ISBN 13 : 0525520511
Total Pages : 636 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (255 download)

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Book Synopsis The Painting of Modern Life by : T.J. Clark

Download or read book The Painting of Modern Life written by T.J. Clark and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2017-06-28 with total page 636 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From T.J. Clark comes this provocative study of the origins of modern art in the painting of Parisian life by Edouard Manet and his followers. The Paris of the 1860s and 1870s was a brand-new city, recently adorned with boulevards, cafés, parks, Great Exhibitions, and suburban pleasure grounds—the birthplace of the habits of commerce and leisure that we ourselves know as "modern life." A new kind of culture quickly developed in this remade metropolis, sights and spectacles avidly appropriated by a new kind of "consumer": clerks and shopgirls, neither working class nor bourgeois, inventing their own social position in a system profoundly altered by their very existence. Emancipated and rootless, these men and women flocked to the bars and nightclubs of Paris, went boating on the Seine at Argenteuil, strolled the island of La Grande-Jatte—enacting a charade of community that was to be captured and scrutinized by Manet, Degas, and Seurat. It is Clark's cogently argued (and profusely illustrated) thesis that modern art emerged from these painters' attempts to represent this new city and its inhabitants. Concentrating on three of Manet's greatest works and Seurat's masterpiece, Clark traces the appearance and development of the artists' favorite themes and subjects, and the technical innovations that they employed to depict a way of life which, under its liberated, pleasure-seeking surface, was often awkward and anxious. Through their paintings, Manet and the Impressionists ask us, and force us to ask ourselves: Is the freedom offered by modernity a myth? Is modern life heroic or monotonous, glittering or tawdry, spectacular or dull? The Painting of Modern Life illuminates for us the ways, both forceful and subtle, in which Manet and his followers raised these questions and doubts, which are as valid for our time as for the age they portrayed.

The New Paris

Author : Lindsey Tramuta
Publisher : Abrams
ISBN 13 : 1683350146
Total Pages : 535 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (833 download)

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Book Synopsis The New Paris by : Lindsey Tramuta

Download or read book The New Paris written by Lindsey Tramuta and published by Abrams. This book was released on 2017-04-18 with total page 535 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “[Tramuta] draws back the curtain on the city’s hipper, more happening side—as obsessed with coffee, creativity, and brunch as Brooklyn or Berlin.” —My Little Paris The city long-adored for its medieval beauty, old-timey brasseries, and corner cafés has even more to offer today. In the last few years, a flood of new ideas and creative locals has infused a once-static, traditional city with a new open-minded sensibility and energy. Journalist Lindsey Tramuta offers detailed insight into the rapidly evolving worlds of food, wine, pastry, coffee, beer, fashion, and design in the delightful city of Paris. Tramuta puts the spotlight on the new trends and people that are making France’s capital a more whimsical, creative, vibrant, and curious place to explore than its classical reputation might suggest. With hundreds of striking photographs that capture this fresh, animated spirit—and a curated directory of Tramuta’s favorite places to eat, drink, stay, and shop—The New Paris shows us the storied City of Light as never before. “The author’s vibrant and precise command of English frames this lively collection of insights about cultural change and stories regarding multiple chefs and merchants.” —Forbes “As the culinary scene in Paris evolves, a new palate of flavors and styles of eating have emerged, redefining what is ‘French cuisine.’ The New Paris documents these changes through the lens of bakers, coffee roasters, ice cream makers, chefs, and even food truck owners. A thoughtful, and delicious, look at how Paris continues to delight and excite the palates of visitors and locals.” —David Lebovitz, author of My Paris Kitchen

Les Parisiennes

Author : Anne Sebba
Publisher : Macmillan + ORM
ISBN 13 : 1466849568
Total Pages : 601 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (668 download)

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Book Synopsis Les Parisiennes by : Anne Sebba

Download or read book Les Parisiennes written by Anne Sebba and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 601 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Anne Sebba has the nearly miraculous gift of combining the vivid intimacy of the lives of women during The Occupation with the history of the time. This is a remarkable book.” —Edmund de Waal, New York Times bestselling author of The Hare with the Amber Eyes New York Times bestselling author Anne Sebba explores a devastating period in Paris's history and tells the stories of how women survived—or didn’t—during the Nazi occupation. Paris in the 1940s was a place of fear, power, aggression, courage, deprivation, and secrets. During the occupation, the swastika flew from the Eiffel Tower and danger lurked on every corner. While Parisian men were either fighting at the front or captured and forced to work in German factories, the women of Paris were left behind where they would come face to face with the German conquerors on a daily basis, as waitresses, shop assistants, or wives and mothers, increasingly desperate to find food to feed their families as hunger became part of everyday life. When the Nazis and the puppet Vichy regime began rounding up Jews to ship east to concentration camps, the full horror of the war was brought home and the choice between collaboration and resistance became unavoidable. Sebba focuses on the role of women, many of whom faced life and death decisions every day. After the war ended, there would be a fierce settling of accounts between those who made peace with or, worse, helped the occupiers and those who fought the Nazis in any way they could.

Scenes of Parisian Life: History of the thirteen: Ferragus. La duchesse de Langeais

Author : Honoré de Balzac
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 434 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Scenes of Parisian Life: History of the thirteen: Ferragus. La duchesse de Langeais by : Honoré de Balzac

Download or read book Scenes of Parisian Life: History of the thirteen: Ferragus. La duchesse de Langeais written by Honoré de Balzac and published by . This book was released on 1896 with total page 434 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Paris by the Book

Author : Liam Callanan
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 110198628X
Total Pages : 349 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (19 download)

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Book Synopsis Paris by the Book by : Liam Callanan

Download or read book Paris by the Book written by Liam Callanan and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2018-04-03 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER A missing person, a grieving family, a curious clue: a half-finished manuscript set in Paris Once a week, I chase men who are not my husband. . . . When eccentric novelist Robert Eady abruptly vanishes, he leaves behind his wife, Leah, their daughters, and, hidden in an unexpected spot, plane tickets to Paris. Hoping to uncover clues--and her husband--Leah sets off for France with her girls. Upon their arrival, she discovers an unfinished manuscript, one Robert had been writing without her knowledge . . . and that he had set in Paris. The Eady girls follow the path of the manuscript to a small, floundering English-language bookstore whose weary proprietor is eager to sell. Leah finds herself accepting the offer on the spot. As the family settles into their new Parisian life, they trace the literary paths of some beloved Parisian classics, including Madeline and The Red Balloon, hoping more clues arise. But a series of startling discoveries forces Leah to consider that she may not be ready for what solving this mystery might do to her family--and the Paris she thought she knew. Charming, haunting, and triumphant, Paris by the Book follows one woman's journey as she writes her own story, exploring the power of family and the magic that hides within the pages of a book.

The Sweet Life in Paris

Author : David Lebovitz
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0767932129
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (679 download)

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Book Synopsis The Sweet Life in Paris by : David Lebovitz

Download or read book The Sweet Life in Paris written by David Lebovitz and published by Crown. This book was released on 2009-05-05 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of My Paris Kitchen and L'Appart, a deliciously funny, offbeat, and irreverent look at the city of lights, cheese, chocolate, and other confections. Like so many others, David Lebovitz dreamed about living in Paris ever since he first visited the city and after a nearly two-decade career as a pastry chef and cookbook author, he finally moved to Paris to start a new life. Having crammed all his worldly belongings into three suitcases, he arrived, hopes high, at his new apartment in the lively Bastille neighborhood. But he soon discovered it's a different world en France. From learning the ironclad rules of social conduct to the mysteries of men's footwear, from shopkeepers who work so hard not to sell you anything to the etiquette of working the right way around the cheese plate, here is David's story of how he came to fall in love with—and even understand—this glorious, yet sometimes maddening, city. When did he realize he had morphed into un vrai parisien? It might have been when he found himself considering a purchase of men's dress socks with cartoon characters on them. Or perhaps the time he went to a bank with 135 euros in hand to make a 134-euro payment, was told the bank had no change that day, and thought it was completely normal. Or when he found himself dressing up to take out the garbage because he had come to accept that in Paris appearances and image mean everything. Once you stop laughing, the more than fifty original recipes, for dishes both savory and sweet, such as Pork Loin with Brown Sugar–Bourbon Glaze, Braised Turkey in Beaujolais Nouveau with Prunes, Bacon and Bleu Cheese Cake, Chocolate-Coconut Marshmallows, Chocolate Spice Bread, Lemon-Glazed Madeleines, and Mocha–Crème Fraîche Cake, will have you running to the kitchen for your own taste of Parisian living.

Seven Ages of Paris

Author : Alistair Horne
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0804151695
Total Pages : 496 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Seven Ages of Paris by : Alistair Horne

Download or read book Seven Ages of Paris written by Alistair Horne and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2013-11-20 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this luminous portrait of Paris, the celebrated historian gives us the history, culture, disasters, and triumphs of one of the world’s truly great cities. 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. "Knowledgeable and colorful, written with gusto and love.... [An] ambitious and skillful narrative that covers the history of Paris with considerable brio and fervor." —LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK REVIEW

Monsieur Mediocre

Author : John von Sothen
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0735224846
Total Pages : 290 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (352 download)

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Book Synopsis Monsieur Mediocre by : John von Sothen

Download or read book Monsieur Mediocre written by John von Sothen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2019-05-07 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A hilarious, candid account of what life in France is actually like, from a writer for Vanity Fair and GQ Americans love to love Paris. We buy books about how the French parent, why French women don't get fat, and how to be Parisian wherever you are. While our work hours increase every year, we think longingly of the six weeks of vacation the French enjoy, imagining them at the seaside in stripes with plates of fruits de mer. John von Sothen fell in love with Paris through the stories his mother told of her year spent there as a student. And then, after falling for and marrying a French waitress he met in New York, von Sothen moved to Paris. But fifteen years in, he's finally ready to admit his mother's Paris is mostly a fantasy. In this hilarious and delightful collection of essays, von Sothen walks us through real life in Paris--not only myth-busting our Parisian daydreams but also revealing the inimitable and too often invisible pleasures of family life abroad. Relentlessly funny and full of incisive observations, Monsieur Mediocre is ultimately a love letter to France--to its absurdities, its history, its ideals--but it's a very French love letter: frank, smoky, unsentimental. It is a clear-eyed ode to a beautiful, complex, contradictory country from someone who both eagerly and grudgingly calls it home.