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The Invention of Paris: A History in Footsteps
The Invention of Paris is a tour through the streets and history of the French capital under the guidance of radical Parisian author and publisher Eric Hazan.
Hazan reveals a city whose squares echo with the riots, rebellions and revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Combining the raconteur’s ear for a story with a historian’s command of the facts, he introduces an incomparable cast of characters: the literati, the philosophers and the artists—Balzac, Baudelaire, Blanqui, Flaubert, Hugo, Maney, and Proust, of course; but also Doisneau, Nerval and Rousseau.
It is a Paris dyed a deep red in its convictions. It is haunted and vitalized by the history of the barricades, which Hazan retells in rich detail. The Invention of Paris opens a window on the forgotten byways of the capital’s vibrant and bloody past, revealing the city in striking new colors.
Hazan reveals a city whose squares echo with the riots, rebellions and revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Combining the raconteur’s ear for a story with a historian’s command of the facts, he introduces an incomparable cast of characters: the literati, the philosophers and the artists—Balzac, Baudelaire, Blanqui, Flaubert, Hugo, Maney, and Proust, of course; but also Doisneau, Nerval and Rousseau.
It is a Paris dyed a deep red in its convictions. It is haunted and vitalized by the history of the barricades, which Hazan retells in rich detail. The Invention of Paris opens a window on the forgotten byways of the capital’s vibrant and bloody past, revealing the city in striking new colors.
410 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 21, 2002
63 people are currently reading
877 people want to read
About the author
Eric Hazan
44 books30 followersEric Hazan is a writer, historian and founder of the independent publishing house La Fabrique. His most recent books in English include The Invention of Paris (2012) and A People's History of the French Revolution (2014).
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
October 30, 2024
Bizony, bizony, bele lehet fulladni a túl sok tudásba is. Hazan könyve alapján úgy tűnik, hogy írók százai a kora középkortól kezdve csak azért szőtték bele a párizsi helyeket és hangulatokat szövegeikbe, hogy hosszú évek múlva egy riasztóan olvasott pacák majd kollázst készíthessen belőlük. A végeredmény persze korlátozottan alkalmas útikönyvnek: ha valaki innen akarná megtudni, hol lehet az Île de la Cité-n megfizethető szállást találni, vagy melyik a legjobb crêpe az Eiffel-torony környékén, akkor valószínűleg ott hal éhen egy Szajna-híd alatt. Hazant ugyanis nem az érdekli, ami van, sőt: nem is az, ami volt, hanem maga a változás. Az az organikus mozgás, lüktetés, folyamatos átalakulás, ahogy az egykor volt város utcái hol erőszak nyomán, hol csak úgy maguktól levedlik bőrüket, és új alakot öltenek. Rút kiskacsából hattyú, néha meg hattyúból varasbéka. (Hülye modernista építészek, pfúj.) Mondhatjuk, Hazan Párizs forradalmi lelkének, permanens aktivizmusának a szerelmese.
No most én három napot töltöttem életemben Párizsban szerelmemmel, szóval a kötet jelentős része alaphangon csak ismeretlen és kimondhatatlan tulajdonnevek kazlának tűnt. Ezzel együtt élveztem azért, mert a koncepció sodrására még így is jó volt felfeküdni. De igazi értékét akkor sejtettem meg, amikor a szerző olyan helyszíneket tárgyalt, amelyeket személyesen is láttam: ilyenkor megértettem, micsoda tömör gyönyör lehet ezt a kötetet echte párizsiként olvasni. Amiről sajnos lecsúsztam. Marad a remény, hogy egyszer lesz ereje valakinek Budapestről is írni egy ilyen mélységű szerelmes levelet.
(Vagy már megírta valaki? Ha igen, becsszó, elolvasom.)
October 22, 2017
Hazan takes the reader on a tour of Paris across time and space, blending psychogeography and history with great panache. I have a longstanding fondness for Paris and its revolutionary upheavals, so found this fascinating. Hazan’s narrative is dense with references and quotations, which reignited my interest in 19th century French literature. (I still haven’t read any Proust and hardly any Balzac, etc.) The book is structured in three parts, the first and longest a geographical tour of Paris Old and New. It doesn’t matter whether you’re familiar enough with the city to follow this on a map, Hazan carries you along with a very evocative account of the roads, structures, and people that have made Paris over the centuries.
This is followed by section titled ‘Red Paris’ with a narrower focus on the revolution of 1848 that established the second republic. I wasn’t very familiar with the events of 1848 in Paris specifically, having mainly read about them in a wider context (Hobsbawm’s The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 and Gildea’s Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914). This section was therefore the highlight for me, as it demonstrated how the brutal suppression of a worker uprising prefigured the Commune two decades later. Hazan also links it with the 1851 coup d’etat and sees 1848 as the point of schism between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, who had managed a sometimes uneasy solidarity since 1789. Hazan skillfully conveys that the revolutionary ferment in Paris during the 19th century is literally inscribed in its streets, whose layout and names have changed as empire, monarchy, and republic succeeded one another. This is of course part of why Paris is so interesting. The tone here is sympathetic, which I approve of.
In the third section of the book, the artists, writers, and in particular photographers of the city become the focus, as their works cannot be separated from the locales and times in which they lived. In particular, the discussion of Baudelaire and Manet reminded me of how much contextual information and nuance we miss today when reading or looking at 19th century artworks. Ridiculous as the comparison might seem, there is a similarity with internet memes. These rely on often quite obscure and detailed references to arouse an amused response. The turnover of images might be much faster these days, but it’s telling that Manet evoked vehement emotional responses with pictures that seem entirely innocuous today. Moreover, the political symbols now used on the internet owe something to Dada and the Surrealist photography of early 20th century Paris.
As with Hazan’s A People's History of the French Revolution, I found the frequent quotations and references gave the narrative an appealing texture and depth. Nonetheless, Hazan’s own words are equally striking and pull everything together well. I especially liked this comment near the end:
Hazan’s love for Paris and deep familiarity with it suffuse the whole book. After reading it, I feel as though I’ve walked the Parisian streets with him, peering back through the centuries to glimpse odd and sometimes hilarious details as well as tragedy, misery, and the sublime.
This is followed by section titled ‘Red Paris’ with a narrower focus on the revolution of 1848 that established the second republic. I wasn’t very familiar with the events of 1848 in Paris specifically, having mainly read about them in a wider context (Hobsbawm’s The Age of Revolution: 1789-1848 and Gildea’s Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914). This section was therefore the highlight for me, as it demonstrated how the brutal suppression of a worker uprising prefigured the Commune two decades later. Hazan also links it with the 1851 coup d’etat and sees 1848 as the point of schism between the bourgeoisie and proletariat, who had managed a sometimes uneasy solidarity since 1789. Hazan skillfully conveys that the revolutionary ferment in Paris during the 19th century is literally inscribed in its streets, whose layout and names have changed as empire, monarchy, and republic succeeded one another. This is of course part of why Paris is so interesting. The tone here is sympathetic, which I approve of.
In the third section of the book, the artists, writers, and in particular photographers of the city become the focus, as their works cannot be separated from the locales and times in which they lived. In particular, the discussion of Baudelaire and Manet reminded me of how much contextual information and nuance we miss today when reading or looking at 19th century artworks. Ridiculous as the comparison might seem, there is a similarity with internet memes. These rely on often quite obscure and detailed references to arouse an amused response. The turnover of images might be much faster these days, but it’s telling that Manet evoked vehement emotional responses with pictures that seem entirely innocuous today. Moreover, the political symbols now used on the internet owe something to Dada and the Surrealist photography of early 20th century Paris.
As with Hazan’s A People's History of the French Revolution, I found the frequent quotations and references gave the narrative an appealing texture and depth. Nonetheless, Hazan’s own words are equally striking and pull everything together well. I especially liked this comment near the end:
If it is true, as Michelet put it, that each epoch dreams the following one, it is even more clear that each epoch lives in nostalgia for its predecessor, above all in a period when this sentiment, promoted like washing powder, fits marvellously into an ideological scaffolding, the strategy of ‘ends’ - of history, of the book, of art, of utopias. Turbulent Paris is on this list of programmatic ‘ends’, which does not prevent the necessary measures being taken to conjure away those spectres that some people fear, not without reason, will return to haunt their streets.
Hazan’s love for Paris and deep familiarity with it suffuse the whole book. After reading it, I feel as though I’ve walked the Parisian streets with him, peering back through the centuries to glimpse odd and sometimes hilarious details as well as tragedy, misery, and the sublime.
August 21, 2023
Good work, especially because of the author's erudition; the book is interspersed with quotes from mainly 19th century French classics. In this sense, Hazan brings Paris to life, as a city that was always developing, sometimes in very radical ways. To my taste there is just a little too much melancholy in it, a longing for how Paris used to be. But which Paris?: the one of the revolutions, the one before Haussmann, or the one of the fifties of the twentieth century (youth years of the author)? As an introduction to the French capital this work is not suitable: it requires too much foreknowledge, is sometimes very selective with the material, and contains little or no maps.
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December 21, 2016An intricate, detailed journey through the space and time of Paris. For Hazan, there's not much in the way of accordionists and la belle époque and all the ooh-la-la bullshit. It's more bloodied walls, barricades, faubourg slums, Blanqui, the communards, Baudelaire in his gloom. Which was, of course, the Paris I romanticized in my early twenties, when I thought I would have been at my happiest gleefully spraypainting situationist slogans on Latin Quarter walls. A bit older, a lot soberer, I can still appreciate the revolutionary spirit, even if I don't have much romantic attachment. Now, Hazan seems to have a bit too much of said attachment, but hell, we can forgive him, he's a French leftist (the kind who are either militantly shabby or decked out in Dior Homme). And if you like the idea of a good, walking-journey kind of book (Sebald, Benjamin, Perec, Woolf, Iain Sinclair, etc.), you'll find something to love here.
September 29, 2013
Highly recommended for urban studies enthusiasts and footnote fetishists who have a working knowledge of Paris or a desire to acquire said knowledge. Have a good map of the city handy when you embark on this erudite voyage.
August 4, 2017
Couldn't finish. The first part is far too detailed to be of much interest, the second flits around the periods and relies on a strong basis of knowledge of all the 19th century revolutions and the occupation in the 1940s, and the third is just dull. One for the completist Parisophiles
February 26, 2018
Such a riveting theme, yet the text is not captivating. And to understand the book in its entirety and as it should be understood, one must know very well of Parisian history and geography. It is a book made for Parisians, and only those who have studied their city with passion.
June 11, 2021
In Zeiten der Pandemie-Reisebeschränkungen ist die wunderbare Neuausgabe von Hazans Paris-Spaziergangs-Schmöker genau das Richtige. Natürlich nicht unbedingt für unterwegs (zu schwer) – aber eine der schönsten Möglichkeiten, diese immer stärker werdende Sehnsucht – endlich wieder nach Paris fahren zu können – zu stillen….
Éric Hazan beleuchtet Paris facettenreich aus den unterschiedlichsten Blickwinkeln, immer wieder nimmt man als Leser das Buch zu Hand, um etwas darin zu blättern und einzelne Kapitel zu durchstöbern. Man entdeckt Neues, erfährt viele weitestgehend unbekannte Details und begegnet ebenso Altvertrautem. Ergänzt wird dieser schöne Band mit einem ausführlichen Register (Literatur, Orte, Personen) und interessanten Anmerkungen.
Dieser vor dreizehn Jahren erstmals bei Ammann auf Deutsch erschienene und lange vergriffene Klassiker der modernen Parisliteratur wird nun in einer aktualisierten und überarbeiteten Fassung vom Berliner Verlag Matthes & Seitz neu herausgegeben, versehen mit zusätzlichen Fotos in einer sehr schön gestalteten Ausgabe. Dieses Buch ist ein schönes Geschenk – aber am liebsten will man es doch für sich selbst behalten….
Éric Hazan beleuchtet Paris facettenreich aus den unterschiedlichsten Blickwinkeln, immer wieder nimmt man als Leser das Buch zu Hand, um etwas darin zu blättern und einzelne Kapitel zu durchstöbern. Man entdeckt Neues, erfährt viele weitestgehend unbekannte Details und begegnet ebenso Altvertrautem. Ergänzt wird dieser schöne Band mit einem ausführlichen Register (Literatur, Orte, Personen) und interessanten Anmerkungen.
Dieser vor dreizehn Jahren erstmals bei Ammann auf Deutsch erschienene und lange vergriffene Klassiker der modernen Parisliteratur wird nun in einer aktualisierten und überarbeiteten Fassung vom Berliner Verlag Matthes & Seitz neu herausgegeben, versehen mit zusätzlichen Fotos in einer sehr schön gestalteten Ausgabe. Dieses Buch ist ein schönes Geschenk – aber am liebsten will man es doch für sich selbst behalten….
December 30, 2024
A great history of Paris by radical historian Eric Hazan. I only twigged to it thanks to his recent obituary, and I’m glad.
This is especially strong on the revolutions and rebellions of the 19th century, in a section called “Red Paris”: 1830, 1848, up through the Communards, barricades rising in the working-class Faubourgs…and then their echo in May 1968. There’s also a lot on the writers, painters and photographers who defined a Parisian aesthetic for the world around the same time, on Baudelaire in particular.
It might only benefit from some illustratrative photos, and more precise maps, as Hazan seems to assume familiarity with the streetscape of Paris; but one can always Google images of the artworks and photographs he cites these days. An edifying read regardless, and recommended.
This is especially strong on the revolutions and rebellions of the 19th century, in a section called “Red Paris”: 1830, 1848, up through the Communards, barricades rising in the working-class Faubourgs…and then their echo in May 1968. There’s also a lot on the writers, painters and photographers who defined a Parisian aesthetic for the world around the same time, on Baudelaire in particular.
It might only benefit from some illustratrative photos, and more precise maps, as Hazan seems to assume familiarity with the streetscape of Paris; but one can always Google images of the artworks and photographs he cites these days. An edifying read regardless, and recommended.
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April 12, 2020I am waiting to read this in French.
May 29, 2024
Read this with a map and wikipedia open. Be prepared to put it down to read other books to fill in the multiple gaps in your education this book will reveal to you. This is a stunning work.
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February 21, 2017Read by ACRL Member of the Week Piper Martin. Learn more about Piper on the ACRL Insider Blog.
February 22, 2014
As I read through the first section, I wanted to visit Paris and see for myself the places the author describes.
As I read through the second section, I wanted to move to Paris and live there for a month, doing nothing but wander the streets with the book in my hand, following the author's narrative.
By the end of the book, I realised that I'd have to live until I was 100 - and move to Paris tomorrow, never to leave - to fully explore the city and its history, culture, geography, mythology, people and panache that the author has crammed into this book.
A Paris of writers and revolutionaries, poverty and princes, Empires and Republics; a city of delights, of Terrors, above all of life lived at full tilt. In places this book left me breathless.
I've travelled through Paris on my way to other places, not stopping on the way to explore. My loss.
As I read through the second section, I wanted to move to Paris and live there for a month, doing nothing but wander the streets with the book in my hand, following the author's narrative.
By the end of the book, I realised that I'd have to live until I was 100 - and move to Paris tomorrow, never to leave - to fully explore the city and its history, culture, geography, mythology, people and panache that the author has crammed into this book.
A Paris of writers and revolutionaries, poverty and princes, Empires and Republics; a city of delights, of Terrors, above all of life lived at full tilt. In places this book left me breathless.
I've travelled through Paris on my way to other places, not stopping on the way to explore. My loss.
May 11, 2012
Reading this book will be most enjoyable if you have a comprehensive knowledge of Paris street layouts. I've lived in the city some years but still felt alienated. The trouble is just saying the names of the streets isn't really good enough if you don't tell the reader a story at the same time to orientate them. Plus I get a bit weary of endlessly hearing how cities lose their life because a certain area becomes more in demand. Or a cafe becomes unbearable because - heaven help us - 'ladies' who like shopping start going there. This is one for the hardcore psycho-geographers, but it wasn't for me.
January 10, 2013
An impassioned account of how revolutions and uprisings, especially, colour Paris’ past and shade its present. The book gives a powerful overview of how forces of control, revolution and reaction have literally shaped Paris and influenced its topography and structures.
On a personal note the book reinforced how weak is my detailed grasp of French history.
Unless you have an impressive photographic/cartographic recall of Paris streets the book is probably best read with a decent map at your side.
PS You get the sense that Hazan REALLY doesn’t like Mitterand’s Opera.
On a personal note the book reinforced how weak is my detailed grasp of French history.
Unless you have an impressive photographic/cartographic recall of Paris streets the book is probably best read with a decent map at your side.
PS You get the sense that Hazan REALLY doesn’t like Mitterand’s Opera.
August 10, 2011
Irresistible like a crême brûlée, it will make you want to book a trip to Paris tout de suite to see for yourself the incredible, beautiful, insane things it describes. It's primarily a book for hard-core Paris groupies. If you're not one yet, you will become one after reading it (there's a German translation, but I don't know if it is available in English).
March 21, 2022
Ik las "L'invention de Paris" zopas een tweede keer (mei 2019) en zou het nu minstens 4 sterren geven. Het is een uitstekende gids om Parijs te verkennen., zeker wat de eerste deel betreft , Les chemins de ronde. Spijtig dat er geen kaart van Parijs is in opgenomen en dat foto's ontbreken. Het zou een prachtige uitgave zijn met detailkaarten en foto's en het zou echt flaneren zijn.
November 2, 2011
This is no light read aimed at someone wanting a concise history of Paris. The quotes, casual references and throw-away tangental come thick and fast and unless you are familiar with every poet, writer and historical figure that has some association with the city, this book is very hard going.
December 27, 2011
I think that in order for this book to work one must have a significant background in Parisian arts, history, literature, and philosophy. A great undertaking and an excellent project for those with the knowledge.
March 4, 2015
This is super; heady mix of history, literature, and geography, as well as a hefty later chapter less on the general theme of the book and more specifically about the history of street revolutions in Parisian history.
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April 22, 2010Another 'hidden histories of Paris' type of book. Verso put this out, and they usually do great books - so I am looking forward to this one.
April 27, 2010
Fascinating and really well researched. It's a tour of the city over time.
July 28, 2011
Un livre sur l'histoire de Paris passionnant et foisonnant, engagé et éclairant. Indispensable pour tous les amoureux de la capitale.
December 30, 2014
Great book about Paris, especially the second part which deals with the social and political history of the city. A good knowledge of the city is mandatory to be able to enjoy the book.
March 29, 2016
Nice. Book. Need. More. Detail's
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews