Paris: A Literary Companion

by Ian Littlewood

Here is a book for anyone whose pulse quickens at the thought of a café terrasse at dusk or a métro sign on a crowded boulevard. The Paris that comes alive in this Literary Companion is the city that writers from Rabelais to Hemingway have observed and celebrated for the past five hundred years.

By interweaving extracts from their work with his own informative commentary Ian Littlewood offers the reader, district by district, a wonderfully evocative glimpse of the streets, squares and buildings of Paris.

Montaigne, Gibbon, Balzac, Hugo, Dickens, Thackeray, Flaubert, Zola, James, Miller, Rhys, Orwell, Simenon, Bellow are among the many writers whose work is represented here. The book also contains maps and illustrations.

‘A perfect book to remind one of the streets of Paris.’
Evening Standard

‘The only complaint is that it is too short.’
Spectator

‘Marvellously rich reading.’
Sunday Telegraph

Genres: France, Travel, Nonfiction

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 17, 2014

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

A tour map of Paris with excerpts from various Paris scenes in classic novels.

[Richard Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read while I was planning a trip to France that will end with a few days in Paris. I learned some things that I did not not know about literary Paris, and and I am looking forward to following Hemingway's steps on one particular stroll on the left bank from the river up to Montparnesse. The book isn't designed to provide walking tours, but that made it more enjoyable as reading while I was still at home planning my trip. The book goes through the city neighborhood by neighborhood and had something to say about every part of the city that I will be visiting during my stay there.

[Stephen Bywater · Rating 4 out of 5]

Affable style and a sensible, logical guide. Well chosen passages abound.