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Interwar Paris #1
When Paris Sizzled: The 1920s Paris of Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and Their Friends
When Paris Sizzled vividly portrays the City of Light during the fabulous 1920s, les Annees folles, when Parisians emerged from the horrors of war to find that a new world greeted them--one that reverberated with the hard metallic clang of the assembly line, the roar of automobiles, and the beat of jazz. Mary McAuliffe traces a decade that saw seismic change on almost every front, from art and architecture to music, literature, fashion, entertainment, transportation, and, most notably, behavior. The epicenter of all this creativity, as well as of the era's good times, was Montparnasse, where impoverished artists and writers found colleagues and cafes, and tourists discovered the Paris of their dreams. Major figures on the Paris scene--such as Gertrude Stein, Jean Cocteau, Picasso, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, and Proust--continued to hold sway, while others now came to prominence--including Ernest Hemingway, Coco Chanel, Cole Porter, and Josephine Baker, as well as Andre Citroen, Le Corbusier, Man Ray, Sylvia Beach, James Joyce, and the irrepressible Kiki of Montparnasse. Paris of the 1920s unquestionably sizzled. Yet rather than being a decade of unmitigated bliss, les Annees folles also saw an undercurrent of despair as well as the rise of ruthless organizations of the extreme right, aimed at annihilating whatever threatened tradition and order--a struggle that would escalate in the years ahead. Through rich illustrations and evocative narrative, Mary McAuliffe brings this vibrant era to life.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published September 15, 2016
165 people are currently reading
1901 people want to read
About the author
Mary McAuliffe
22 books81 followersMary McAuliffe holds a PhD in history from the University of Maryland, has taught at several universities, and lectured at the Smithsonian Institution. She has traveled extensively in France, and for many years she was a regular contributor to Paris Notes. Her books include Dawn of the Belle Epoque, Twilight of the Belle Epoque, When Paris Sizzled, Paris on the Brink, Clash of Crowns, and Paris Discovered. She lives in New York City with her husband.
Dawn of the Belle Epoque
Twilight of the Belle Epoque
When Paris Sizzled
Paris on the Brink
Clash of Crowns
Paris Discovered
Dawn of the Belle Epoque
Twilight of the Belle Epoque
When Paris Sizzled
Paris on the Brink
Clash of Crowns
Paris Discovered
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August 18, 2024Apart from the aspects already known to lovers of La Belle Époque, and which no longer bring any novelty among them, the author also offers here a critical and objective vision of those times. The emotional charge of les Années Folles is doubled in an analytical note of less publicized appreciations over time. Julian Barnes said that "- It took me some years to clear my head of what Paris wanted me to admire about it, and to notice what I preferred instead. Not power-ridden monuments, but individual buildings which tell a quieter story : the artist's studio, or the Belle Époque house built by a forgotten financier for a just- remembered courtesan ".
Yes, every street corner has its own story, and the same story is told differently by the chroniclers of that time, depending on their own experiences or imagination.
One of the book's most powerful insights is that the Crazy Years were in many ways a celebration of the hedonistic, free-spirited lifestyle of the wealthy and privileged, while ignoring the struggles and hardships of the less fortunate. McAuliffe explores this theme through stories of artists like Dali, who lived extravagantly, and enjoyed immense popularity ( an undeserved one, if you ask me ) - during the Crazy Years, while many of their fellow citizens struggled with poverty and political turmoil.
Another good point of the book is that the cultural and artistic flourishing of the Crazy Years coincided with a rise in racism and xenophobia, and this grabs the attention maybe even more than the rest of the topic. McAuliffe points out that, while Paris was home to many people of different nationalities and backgrounds during this period, there was also a growing sense of nationalism and a desire for social conformity,
( sounds familiar, even nowadays ..) , this resulted in acts of violence and discrimination against perceived outsiders, such as African American performer Josephine Baker, who was subjected to racial slurs and even attacks, being sometimes seen more as a curiosity than a respected artist. Her success in Paris was partly due to the city's fascination with African American culture, but this interest was often superficial and did not translate into a genuine acceptance. Even James Baldwin recognized that for many Black artists and intellectuals including Baker - France offered a relative escape from the overt racism of America, but he would likely have seen Baker's experience as emblematic of the broader issues faced by Black artists, who were celebrated for their talent, but not fully accepted as equals.
However, the sexual liberation and gender fluidity that characterized the Crazy Years were not as universal as they are often made out to be - while many artists and intellectuals perceived these ideas as part of their creative and personal lives, many others clung to traditional gender roles and mores, this creating a tension within the cultural scene of the time, as some artists embraced androgyny and gender-bending, while others promoted more conventional ideas about gender and sexuality.
Overall, the author offers a complex and multifaceted picture of this iconic era in Parisian history. Quite useful.
Yes, every street corner has its own story, and the same story is told differently by the chroniclers of that time, depending on their own experiences or imagination.
One of the book's most powerful insights is that the Crazy Years were in many ways a celebration of the hedonistic, free-spirited lifestyle of the wealthy and privileged, while ignoring the struggles and hardships of the less fortunate. McAuliffe explores this theme through stories of artists like Dali, who lived extravagantly, and enjoyed immense popularity ( an undeserved one, if you ask me ) - during the Crazy Years, while many of their fellow citizens struggled with poverty and political turmoil.
Another good point of the book is that the cultural and artistic flourishing of the Crazy Years coincided with a rise in racism and xenophobia, and this grabs the attention maybe even more than the rest of the topic. McAuliffe points out that, while Paris was home to many people of different nationalities and backgrounds during this period, there was also a growing sense of nationalism and a desire for social conformity,
( sounds familiar, even nowadays ..) , this resulted in acts of violence and discrimination against perceived outsiders, such as African American performer Josephine Baker, who was subjected to racial slurs and even attacks, being sometimes seen more as a curiosity than a respected artist. Her success in Paris was partly due to the city's fascination with African American culture, but this interest was often superficial and did not translate into a genuine acceptance. Even James Baldwin recognized that for many Black artists and intellectuals including Baker - France offered a relative escape from the overt racism of America, but he would likely have seen Baker's experience as emblematic of the broader issues faced by Black artists, who were celebrated for their talent, but not fully accepted as equals.
However, the sexual liberation and gender fluidity that characterized the Crazy Years were not as universal as they are often made out to be - while many artists and intellectuals perceived these ideas as part of their creative and personal lives, many others clung to traditional gender roles and mores, this creating a tension within the cultural scene of the time, as some artists embraced androgyny and gender-bending, while others promoted more conventional ideas about gender and sexuality.
Overall, the author offers a complex and multifaceted picture of this iconic era in Parisian history. Quite useful.
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October 29, 2016My first thought when I saw the title was that Paris has pretty much always sizzled. It certainly did during the Revolution, in a terrible way—then in the years immediately following the Terror, Paris came alive creatively; anyone could write and mount a play, which meant women, for the first time ever.
Then there was George Sand’s long lifetime, which covered a couple political ructions—Paris sizzled right along, replete with amazing personalities doing fascinating things in art, music, the sciences, architecture, etc.
McAuliffe gives a slight nod in this direction:
This was not a phenomenon that suddenly occurred in 1920. Many of the most colorful features of the Parisian twenties had roots going back to the war or even before . . .The frivolity and excesses of “les annees folles” followed as a natural response to death and destruction, whether as a kind of doom-infused escapism or simply as a desire to have fun.
But this book focuses on the twenties, beginning with the end of World War I, and ending in 1929, when Wall Street crashed in the USA, and in Paris, a number of key people either died or moved away, after ten years of what sometimes seemed like one long mad party.
After introducing the majority of her cast, McAuliffe structures her epic tale year by year, building a vivid picture of the cultural cauldron that centered around Montparnasse because it was cheap and unfashionable. So many musicians, artists, writers, dancers, architects, poets, choreographers, photographers and sculptors came there determined to make names for themselves. People fell in and out of love, allied, fought, broke up, gathering at Le Bouef sur la Toit or the Jockey Club, or at the glittering parties given by famous hostesses.
Life was not easy for most of them. We’re furnished vivid details about those hopefuls: for example, Soutine (a Russian-born painter) and Modigliani (Italian) shared a studio where, an acquaintance once reported on visiting late one night, “I saw them lying on the floor surrounded by a water-filled trench to ward off bedbugs. Each held a candle, by which Modigliani was reading Dante.”
Cole Porter—who married money—Charles De Gaulle—a military man with ambitiouns—Marie Curie—Coco Chanel—Ernest Hemingway—Gertrude Stein—Cocteau and Renoir and Kiki the model scrabbling for a living and the Duke of Westminster, richest man on the planet, all get their stories woven in year by year, among anecdotes of the Dadaists, whose adherents tended toward destructive exhibitions a bit more than experimental art. Some of that was supposed to be art (what came to be known as guerrilla theater): at a concert called Ballet Mecanique, by George Antheil, which seems to have been mostly composed of whistles, coffee grinders, hammers, and a plane propeller (that blew the wig off one audience member), a riot broke out.
As his sponsor said philosophically, “At least George Antheil had a hearing, and an uproarious one at that. From a Dada point of view, one couldn’t have anything better.”
We learn who inspired whom, who helped and hurt whom (some did both, like the complex siren Misia Sert), who succeeded and who failed. Some died very young, others went on to write longingly about those vanished years, in the decades to come.
It’s an absorbing book, full of detail and personality, bolstered by a formidable bibliography that is almost worth the price of the book in itself, and replete with footnotes that unfortunately, are maddening in e-book form, as one has to slide back and forth to find them and then find your place again. But worth it—immensely worth it. This is a keeper.
Copy provided by NetGalley
Then there was George Sand’s long lifetime, which covered a couple political ructions—Paris sizzled right along, replete with amazing personalities doing fascinating things in art, music, the sciences, architecture, etc.
McAuliffe gives a slight nod in this direction:
This was not a phenomenon that suddenly occurred in 1920. Many of the most colorful features of the Parisian twenties had roots going back to the war or even before . . .The frivolity and excesses of “les annees folles” followed as a natural response to death and destruction, whether as a kind of doom-infused escapism or simply as a desire to have fun.
But this book focuses on the twenties, beginning with the end of World War I, and ending in 1929, when Wall Street crashed in the USA, and in Paris, a number of key people either died or moved away, after ten years of what sometimes seemed like one long mad party.
After introducing the majority of her cast, McAuliffe structures her epic tale year by year, building a vivid picture of the cultural cauldron that centered around Montparnasse because it was cheap and unfashionable. So many musicians, artists, writers, dancers, architects, poets, choreographers, photographers and sculptors came there determined to make names for themselves. People fell in and out of love, allied, fought, broke up, gathering at Le Bouef sur la Toit or the Jockey Club, or at the glittering parties given by famous hostesses.
Life was not easy for most of them. We’re furnished vivid details about those hopefuls: for example, Soutine (a Russian-born painter) and Modigliani (Italian) shared a studio where, an acquaintance once reported on visiting late one night, “I saw them lying on the floor surrounded by a water-filled trench to ward off bedbugs. Each held a candle, by which Modigliani was reading Dante.”
Cole Porter—who married money—Charles De Gaulle—a military man with ambitiouns—Marie Curie—Coco Chanel—Ernest Hemingway—Gertrude Stein—Cocteau and Renoir and Kiki the model scrabbling for a living and the Duke of Westminster, richest man on the planet, all get their stories woven in year by year, among anecdotes of the Dadaists, whose adherents tended toward destructive exhibitions a bit more than experimental art. Some of that was supposed to be art (what came to be known as guerrilla theater): at a concert called Ballet Mecanique, by George Antheil, which seems to have been mostly composed of whistles, coffee grinders, hammers, and a plane propeller (that blew the wig off one audience member), a riot broke out.
As his sponsor said philosophically, “At least George Antheil had a hearing, and an uproarious one at that. From a Dada point of view, one couldn’t have anything better.”
We learn who inspired whom, who helped and hurt whom (some did both, like the complex siren Misia Sert), who succeeded and who failed. Some died very young, others went on to write longingly about those vanished years, in the decades to come.
It’s an absorbing book, full of detail and personality, bolstered by a formidable bibliography that is almost worth the price of the book in itself, and replete with footnotes that unfortunately, are maddening in e-book form, as one has to slide back and forth to find them and then find your place again. But worth it—immensely worth it. This is a keeper.
Copy provided by NetGalley
August 23, 2017
Maybe if this book were organized differently, possibly based on events or grouping artists, writers, scientists, etc., I might have liked it more. Instead the organization was chronological. The author did a lot of research, but the result is a dry recitation of facts, many of them trivial, about a group of accomplished and interesting people. This book wasn't what I was expecting and it just wasn't for me. I received a free copy of the ebook from the publisher but I listened to the audiobook borrowed from the library.
January 21, 2021
O plimbare epică relaxanta, in Parisul anilor 1919-1929, in care am întâlnit pictori, parfumieri, muzicieni, scriitori etc. Am asistat la nunți, despărțiri, moarte, schimbări drastice odată cu terminarea războiului, petreceri multe, toate adunate in cartea aceasta pe care o recomand pentru ca nu e dificilă și pentru ca mi-a plăcut.
April 26, 2016
I received this book free from the publisher through NetGalley. I thank them for their generousity. In exchange, I was simply asked to write an honest review, and post it. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising]
"The Twenties, or the Roaring Twenties, as they are known in America, had a distinctive name in Paris—les Années folles, or, roughly translated, the Crazy Years. This era began after the war’s end, in late 1918, and continued through the decade, until brought to a halt by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and subsequent worldwide depression." - from the Introduction
Let's face it, Europe was hit and hit hard by "the war to end all wars". Paris wasn't seen as a "tourist city" until after Prohibition was implemented in the States. A lot of artistic Americans came over to Paris because of word of mouth. The exchange rate was in the Americans favor, and the French were more accepting of most who landed on their doorsteps.
What McAuliffe has done has written a book celebrating the synchronicity of artistry in all its forms. This is a non-fiction tome that reads like a cross between a dime store novel and the contemporary "Page Six". We hear, in snippets, stories of fashion icons, architects, artists, dancers, authors and their compatriots. Would these people have become the icons of history if the war hadn't happened? That is a question this book leaves me with. It would be a great fact checking book for anyone studying or writing about this era of world history. Brava!
"The Twenties, or the Roaring Twenties, as they are known in America, had a distinctive name in Paris—les Années folles, or, roughly translated, the Crazy Years. This era began after the war’s end, in late 1918, and continued through the decade, until brought to a halt by the Wall Street crash of 1929 and subsequent worldwide depression." - from the Introduction
Let's face it, Europe was hit and hit hard by "the war to end all wars". Paris wasn't seen as a "tourist city" until after Prohibition was implemented in the States. A lot of artistic Americans came over to Paris because of word of mouth. The exchange rate was in the Americans favor, and the French were more accepting of most who landed on their doorsteps.
What McAuliffe has done has written a book celebrating the synchronicity of artistry in all its forms. This is a non-fiction tome that reads like a cross between a dime store novel and the contemporary "Page Six". We hear, in snippets, stories of fashion icons, architects, artists, dancers, authors and their compatriots. Would these people have become the icons of history if the war hadn't happened? That is a question this book leaves me with. It would be a great fact checking book for anyone studying or writing about this era of world history. Brava!
August 9, 2023
A racy history of wealthy Paris from the end of the First World War to the Wall Street Crash in 1929. It moves between one character and another as the decade unfolds ... the bitchiness, the parties, the egos ... artists, writers and the wealthy ... people making money and people losing it ... some really interesting stories that really sizzle!
September 17, 2016
'When Paris Sizzles' by Mary McAuliffe
4 stars/ 8 out of 10
This is the third book in Mary McAuliffe's series of books, looking at life in Paris from 1870 onwards. This book covers the period from 1918 to 1929. The books all have a similar style, following through year by year, and detailing the cultural and social events, large and small, occurring in each year. McAuliffe especially looks at those individuals she regards as culturally significant, the musicians, artists, writers etc.
For the first couple of chapters of 'When Paris Sizzled', there were so many people being introduced, that I found it hard to keep track of them. However, after these introductory sections, it became easier. I enjoyed following through the years, chapter by chapter, and coming across the same people again and again. I was also pleased that, within each chapter, McAuliffe placed the events within the context of the political developments of the year. I was surprised by how many of the protagonists in this book involved themselves in various political movements. I was unaware of so many who were involved in movements of the 'right'.
I found the sections relating to Charles de Gaulle, and to Sylvia Beach (of Shakespeare and Co) especially interesting, and also those relating to the differing approaches of the automotive innovators Renault and Citroen. There was a lot of information about Ernest Hemingway, which did nothing to make me feel any more favourable towards him than I had previously! My favourite sections were those about Jean Renoir, the film director.
Mary McAuliffe has developed a successful format for her books about Paris, and 'When Paris Sizzles' is no exception.
Thank you to Rowman and Littlefield, and to NetGalley for an ARC.
4 stars/ 8 out of 10
This is the third book in Mary McAuliffe's series of books, looking at life in Paris from 1870 onwards. This book covers the period from 1918 to 1929. The books all have a similar style, following through year by year, and detailing the cultural and social events, large and small, occurring in each year. McAuliffe especially looks at those individuals she regards as culturally significant, the musicians, artists, writers etc.
For the first couple of chapters of 'When Paris Sizzled', there were so many people being introduced, that I found it hard to keep track of them. However, after these introductory sections, it became easier. I enjoyed following through the years, chapter by chapter, and coming across the same people again and again. I was also pleased that, within each chapter, McAuliffe placed the events within the context of the political developments of the year. I was surprised by how many of the protagonists in this book involved themselves in various political movements. I was unaware of so many who were involved in movements of the 'right'.
I found the sections relating to Charles de Gaulle, and to Sylvia Beach (of Shakespeare and Co) especially interesting, and also those relating to the differing approaches of the automotive innovators Renault and Citroen. There was a lot of information about Ernest Hemingway, which did nothing to make me feel any more favourable towards him than I had previously! My favourite sections were those about Jean Renoir, the film director.
Mary McAuliffe has developed a successful format for her books about Paris, and 'When Paris Sizzles' is no exception.
Thank you to Rowman and Littlefield, and to NetGalley for an ARC.
July 16, 2016
It seemed well researched but was a bit too academic and dry for me.
April 2, 2018
A very interesting book , about artists in Paris
March 17, 2017
"When legend becomes fact, print the legend."
- newspaper editor Maxwell Scott in the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)*
I was reminded of the above quote while reading one of McAuliffe's concluding vignettes to her terrific summary of 1920's Paris. While the 1929 stock market crash was the main economic reason for the end of "Les Années Folles" (The Crazy Years), the deaths of various personalities such as impresario Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) and dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) seemed to act as era-ending signals as well.
McAuliffe gives only the reputed last words of Duncan as "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!" (Farewell, my friends, I go to glory!) moments before her horrifying death by having her neck broken by the end of her shawl being caught and twisted in the turning wheel-spokes of her getaway car. That her final words may have actually been "Je vais à l'amour" ("I go to love") and were deemed too salacious by her friends who substituted the better legend version is not mentioned.
That is a good example to portray what McAuliffe does here, and don't get me wrong she does it very well. This is a best bits version of the Roaring 20's of Paris that touches on most of the highlights, but that may not always go into subjects in depth. But it serves its function very well and may leave you intrigued about some personalities that you otherwise may have known little about. From my point of interest in writers and literary personalities there wasn't anything new here about Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Sylvia Beach et al that I hadn't read about previously but there was plenty about Josephine Baker and Coco Chanel that I had known nothing about, e.g. did you know that Baker was actually known as more of a stage comic or clown before her emergence as the exotic glamorous star she became?
So this is highly recommended if you are looking for a 1920s Paris "101" and it will hopefully keep you reading further along whatever subjects and personalities interest you the most. For me, I think I want to find an un-bowdlerized version of Kiki de Montparnasse's Kiki souvenirs (English version: Kiki's Memoirs) or a copy of Jimmie Charters's This Must be the Place for an on-the-ground view of the times.
* I think this is only in the film version, but if anyone has read Dorothy M. Johnson's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and knows that the quote is from the original short story, please let me know.
- newspaper editor Maxwell Scott in the film The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)*
I was reminded of the above quote while reading one of McAuliffe's concluding vignettes to her terrific summary of 1920's Paris. While the 1929 stock market crash was the main economic reason for the end of "Les Années Folles" (The Crazy Years), the deaths of various personalities such as impresario Sergei Diaghilev (1872-1929) and dancer Isadora Duncan (1877-1927) seemed to act as era-ending signals as well.
McAuliffe gives only the reputed last words of Duncan as "Adieu, mes amis. Je vais à la gloire!" (Farewell, my friends, I go to glory!) moments before her horrifying death by having her neck broken by the end of her shawl being caught and twisted in the turning wheel-spokes of her getaway car. That her final words may have actually been "Je vais à l'amour" ("I go to love") and were deemed too salacious by her friends who substituted the better legend version is not mentioned.
That is a good example to portray what McAuliffe does here, and don't get me wrong she does it very well. This is a best bits version of the Roaring 20's of Paris that touches on most of the highlights, but that may not always go into subjects in depth. But it serves its function very well and may leave you intrigued about some personalities that you otherwise may have known little about. From my point of interest in writers and literary personalities there wasn't anything new here about Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Sylvia Beach et al that I hadn't read about previously but there was plenty about Josephine Baker and Coco Chanel that I had known nothing about, e.g. did you know that Baker was actually known as more of a stage comic or clown before her emergence as the exotic glamorous star she became?
So this is highly recommended if you are looking for a 1920s Paris "101" and it will hopefully keep you reading further along whatever subjects and personalities interest you the most. For me, I think I want to find an un-bowdlerized version of Kiki de Montparnasse's Kiki souvenirs (English version: Kiki's Memoirs) or a copy of Jimmie Charters's This Must be the Place for an on-the-ground view of the times.
* I think this is only in the film version, but if anyone has read Dorothy M. Johnson's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and knows that the quote is from the original short story, please let me know.
July 4, 2018
Paris in the 20's. You know some of these folks---Picasso, Hemingway, Fitzgerald---but did you know that Paris was also, for a time, the home of Man Ray, Cole Porter, Josephine Baker, and many, many others?
I read this book in one window of my computer, and, as I read along, I opened up other windows to look up photos and paintings and additional information about all the amazing people of this book. It's a fascinating read.
I guarantee you will learn many amazing things about the people of 1920's Paris.
I read this book in one window of my computer, and, as I read along, I opened up other windows to look up photos and paintings and additional information about all the amazing people of this book. It's a fascinating read.
I guarantee you will learn many amazing things about the people of 1920's Paris.
October 1, 2020
This was very good with a lot of interesting information and anecdotes. I’ve read about a lot of these people before, but I’m a sucker for year-by-year books and books about the 1920s, so it was perfect for me. I occasionally lost track of who was who (I fully admit I’m not great with non-English names), so sometimes a person by person approach may have better, but I love books that progress through time, so ultimately I really enjoyed it.
February 13, 2018
A fascinating look at Paris between the world wars. It starts with the end of WWI, with Paris trying to climb back from substantial losses with an outpouring of creativity and inquiry and re-definition. Many Americans and other expats as well as the French figure into all this fresh new art, music, and culture. Very interesting to read about so many familiar names--Hemingway, Chanel, James Joyce, Picasso, the Fitzgeralds, and on and on and their rise to fame, or occasionally their self destruction. I also learned about many important figures that were unfamiliar to me. It ends a little abruptly with the crash of '29, but acknowledges that the end of an era had been a long time coming. My favorite quote was by Picasso in response to notions that "the influence of Cubism on Art Deco is undeniable" in which he says, "What would Michelangelo have said if they held him responsible for a Renaissance chest of drawers?" A worthy read. Especially fascinating was reading about the influence of a bookstore called Shakespeare and Company which Sophie and I had the good fortune to visit while we were in Paris.
September 1, 2018
An interesting time and place, superficially examined
There wasn’t a People Magazine Paris in the 1920s, but Mary McAuliff has written an anthology as though this were her primary source document.
A chapter is devoted to each year of the decade 1919-1929 and the book chronicles the arc of celebrity of many well-known personalities and many more who will be unfamiliar names to most readers. Sadly, much of this comes off as a laundry list of names, sexual affairs, and events both large and inconsequential.
There are the occasional entertaining quotes, and one wishes that McAuliff had provided more of these. Elsa Maxwell establishes herself as a party host, observing, “Most rich people are the poorest people I know. I brought to them a capacity for friendship and gaiety that offered escape from plush-lined boredom.”
And there is the occasional insight about the origin of a trend we now take for granted. In 1924, for example, tennis player Suzanne Lenglen became a celebrity by wearing a sleeveless tennis dress cut to above the calf and thus inaugurated the design of practical women’s sportswear.
McAuliff does have the advantage of hindsight so, for example, there is a brief reference to how in 1925 Charles de Gaulle was rescued from obscurity by then revered General Petain — an irony given Petain’s later collaboration with the Nazis and de Gaulle’s emergence as a leader of the Free French. However, this incident would hardly have attracted notice at the time.
Certainly many of the personalities described had more intellectual or artistic talent than the average “celebrity” of our day, and the cocktail mix of individuals such as Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ernst Hemingway and Ezra Pound rubbing elbows and egos could have been developed to make this a more interesting book.
But we are also reminded that not everyone hanging out in the Paris cafes was talented. Many stand out for displaying a capacity for drink or outrageous behavior in a way that today would merit a cover on a supermarket tabloid. One such rather shallow celebrity referenced throughout the book is Kiki, the “Queen of Montparnasse”, who had durability of fame over the decade but who left little to commend our interest today.
One wishes that McAuliff had chosen to profile fewer individuals and to provide more character development, insight, and humor in this chronicle of a decade that attracted many fascinating personalities to Paris. Instead what we have is the superficial examination of an interesting time and place.
There wasn’t a People Magazine Paris in the 1920s, but Mary McAuliff has written an anthology as though this were her primary source document.
A chapter is devoted to each year of the decade 1919-1929 and the book chronicles the arc of celebrity of many well-known personalities and many more who will be unfamiliar names to most readers. Sadly, much of this comes off as a laundry list of names, sexual affairs, and events both large and inconsequential.
There are the occasional entertaining quotes, and one wishes that McAuliff had provided more of these. Elsa Maxwell establishes herself as a party host, observing, “Most rich people are the poorest people I know. I brought to them a capacity for friendship and gaiety that offered escape from plush-lined boredom.”
And there is the occasional insight about the origin of a trend we now take for granted. In 1924, for example, tennis player Suzanne Lenglen became a celebrity by wearing a sleeveless tennis dress cut to above the calf and thus inaugurated the design of practical women’s sportswear.
McAuliff does have the advantage of hindsight so, for example, there is a brief reference to how in 1925 Charles de Gaulle was rescued from obscurity by then revered General Petain — an irony given Petain’s later collaboration with the Nazis and de Gaulle’s emergence as a leader of the Free French. However, this incident would hardly have attracted notice at the time.
Certainly many of the personalities described had more intellectual or artistic talent than the average “celebrity” of our day, and the cocktail mix of individuals such as Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Ernst Hemingway and Ezra Pound rubbing elbows and egos could have been developed to make this a more interesting book.
But we are also reminded that not everyone hanging out in the Paris cafes was talented. Many stand out for displaying a capacity for drink or outrageous behavior in a way that today would merit a cover on a supermarket tabloid. One such rather shallow celebrity referenced throughout the book is Kiki, the “Queen of Montparnasse”, who had durability of fame over the decade but who left little to commend our interest today.
One wishes that McAuliff had chosen to profile fewer individuals and to provide more character development, insight, and humor in this chronicle of a decade that attracted many fascinating personalities to Paris. Instead what we have is the superficial examination of an interesting time and place.
September 15, 2016
GNAB I received a free electronic copy of this book from Netgalley, Rowman & Littlefield, and Mary McAuliffe in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, folks, for sharing your work with me!
Reading Mary McAuliffe is always a joy. She opens doors to worlds you never dreamed of, and awakens the need to learn more. Thank you, Ms. McAuliffe, for shining your spotlight onto this particular point of time and place.
Paris between the World Wars was a magnet for artistic souls from around the world. Authors, painters, designers of all sorts, musicians, architects, actors, dancers - Paris was the perfect environment to nurture the hearts of those so blessed. Mary McAuliffe shares with us the excitement and growth of the arts from that period, the personalities and quirks that those talented people brought to their environment and their work. I learned much here through this work, and it brought back to me tales from my father, who adored the talents of that time. I recommend highly to anyone interested in history or the arts.
Reading Mary McAuliffe is always a joy. She opens doors to worlds you never dreamed of, and awakens the need to learn more. Thank you, Ms. McAuliffe, for shining your spotlight onto this particular point of time and place.
Paris between the World Wars was a magnet for artistic souls from around the world. Authors, painters, designers of all sorts, musicians, architects, actors, dancers - Paris was the perfect environment to nurture the hearts of those so blessed. Mary McAuliffe shares with us the excitement and growth of the arts from that period, the personalities and quirks that those talented people brought to their environment and their work. I learned much here through this work, and it brought back to me tales from my father, who adored the talents of that time. I recommend highly to anyone interested in history or the arts.
July 14, 2017
This book is sheer pleasure for anyone interested in the arts. After you have been to the museums, heard the music, read the poems, etc. you will consume this book greedily. Picasso, Gertrude Stein, Cole Porter, Jean Cocteau, Stravinsky...a list of artists and other historical figures represented in this book could take up a whole computer screen. These people's outrageous artistic, sexual, and social behavior furnish endless amusing anecdotes (as well as some tragic ones). Furthermore, McAuliffe illuminates the artists' work--not by describing exact stages through which a Picasso or Stravinsky passed (hundreds of other books do that) but by showing what was happening as major artistic works were being produced, and the reactions of the viewers or readers. She handles the politics and economics of the era, too, showing how widespread suffering and violent ideologies threatened the freedom of the culture. She also works hard to get stories right and distinguish lurid legend from what really happened.
April 21, 2020
Scholarly but not dry and unreadable. Very quick paced filled with a myriad of characters who made up Paris in the Roaring 20's. You will recognize many of the names as you dig through this fascinating slice of history.
June 10, 2025
That this book wound up on the TBR list mostly happened in a fit of absent-mindedness, as the cover seemed to promise a good time as it were, or at least an examination of Paris as the stomping ground of the so-called "Lost Generation." What I didn't notice at the time is that this book is part of a series that chronicles the rise of Paris as the "City of Lights," the virtual center of world culture. Also, I didn't notice that it was published by Rowman & Littlefield, a firm that seems to exist to populate the shelves of public libraries with workmanlike, if not flashy studies.
So, having thrown a bit of shade at this book, did I get what I wanted out this monograph? Basically, yes. I was looking to learn more about the personalities of the time, and McAuliffe provides just enough historical and sociological background of the times to give her glorified gossip rag some backbone. I was certainly impressed enough that I might hunt down the other books in her series.
However, that this book worked for me might not mean that it'll work for you. It presumes a certain level of broad name recognition by the reader, and I have enough background in twentieth-century French history to fill in the gaps. Someone coming to the period cold might find this book to just be one damn thing after another.
I would note that 3.5 stars might be a more honest rating of this book, but I was feeling charitable.
So, having thrown a bit of shade at this book, did I get what I wanted out this monograph? Basically, yes. I was looking to learn more about the personalities of the time, and McAuliffe provides just enough historical and sociological background of the times to give her glorified gossip rag some backbone. I was certainly impressed enough that I might hunt down the other books in her series.
However, that this book worked for me might not mean that it'll work for you. It presumes a certain level of broad name recognition by the reader, and I have enough background in twentieth-century French history to fill in the gaps. Someone coming to the period cold might find this book to just be one damn thing after another.
I would note that 3.5 stars might be a more honest rating of this book, but I was feeling charitable.
June 5, 2018
loved this but it was hard to keep track of all the names mentioned throughout the book. also some of them (matisse, hemingway, proust, kiki de montparnasse etc) were more interesting than the others so i skipped a fair amount to get to the good stuff. looking forward to read the author’s belle epoque series tho.
March 28, 2019
Boring. Shallow. Badly written. History writing at its worst.
April 15, 2020
I was very curious to know more about Paris in the 1920s, but this book wasn’t what I was expecting. Seemed well researched, but the chronological structure makes it hard to keep track between tons of notorious people. Didn’t finish it.
Read
September 7, 2020An entertaining and insightful overview of some of the artists, writers, musicians, dress makers and trendsetters who resided in Paris in the 1920’s. If you have an interest in the era of the ‘lost generation’ this is a must read.
September 29, 2020
McAuliffe gives us a great overview of Paris in the 1920s, especially for those that are new to the this particular geographical scape and time period.
All seriousness aside, all I can say is thank god these people had each other.
All seriousness aside, all I can say is thank god these people had each other.
September 1, 2023
Mary McAuliffe, When Paris Sizzled, 2016. Three stars.
I read this book because I am preparing a series of lectures on the Paris in the 1920s and it seemed, from descriptions of it, to be exactly what I needed to read to begin to prepare. I started the book in early June, and, unfortunately, I was confused and bored by it right away. I didn't make it past chapter two before I put it down, and I did not restart it again until mid-August. I forced myself to finish it, even though it never improved, and I never enjoyed reading it.
The problem with this book, a journal of 1920s gossip posing as an academic text, is really that it is organized strictly chronologically, with every chapter representing a year (or two consecutive years), so that each chapter introduces, and then reintroduces, the main luminaries of the period, but only recounts what they did in the specific year in which the chapter is focused. It then jumps around, back and forth, between the lives and interconnections of literally hundreds of people, including visual artists, composers, car makers, writers, perfumers, fashion designers, politicians, military figures, society women, bookstore owners, tennis players, collectors, scientists, dancers, models, actors, anarchists - not to mention many of these peoples' partners, lovers, and children. Its maddening, and more people are added even in later chapters in the book, only to be discussed in a paragraph or two and then discarded. Most of what is written here is not new, nor does it provide any new revelations. Therefore, it reads like a jumbled mess of notes, as if the short vignettes that comprise the book were written up on index cards and filed by year, and then someone just typed up the index cards and published them as a book. There really is no point to a book that just says, "And then this happened...and then this happened." There is a lot of repetitiveness across the chapters, and sometimes full names, explanations (like the difference between and American bar and a French bar), and facts about the people discussed, are repeated where they need not be.
This is a 272-page book of anecdotes with a wide range of characters but no real depth to their individual stories. While the people named in the subtitle of the book (Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, and Josephine Baker) are given priority in the chapters, just as much page space, and sometimes more, is given to Le Corbusier, Man Ray, Kiki de Montparnasse, Citroën, and Paul Poiret. All of these people are just too important culturally to give them a few paragraphs in each chapter, so the book, because it doesn't discuss any one individual in great depth, doesn't do many of these historical figures much justice. Also, and annoyingly, the lovers of the women are usually the focus of their stories (Coco Chanel, Misia Sert, Josephine Baker, Kiki), while the men are discussed in greater relation to their artistic or professional output. The book tries to include too much information, too many people, but only does so in a scant way, and thus the reader learns very little about any of them. Sometimes a cliffhanger is set up (F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda are going to destroy each other, for example) and then never picks up the storyline again. It tries to include politics as well as the stories about the artists and their patrons, and, at the end of the book, it just ends because the 1920s ended. Most of the people discussed lived for many additional decades, but you wouldn't know that because at the end of 1929 (really in October 1929, with the Stock Market crash), the book just wraps up with a few deaths and then ends. It's never really clear WHY Paris was such a draw in the 20s, because Paris itself is never really the focus of the book.
I really would not recommend this book, but I did give it three stars because the writing style is okay, and it gave me some ideas of a few people I would use in my lectures, most notably Chanel and Poiret for the fashion section, Le Corbusier for the architecture, and Man Ray for photography and early experimental film. There's a bibliography, mostly of secondary sources, and an index, which could be useful if you want to just look up information about certain individuals mentioned, but again, it might be better to find more scholarly and more in-depth texts on these historical figures if you want to learn more than just who they were sleeping with and what drugs they did.
I read this book because I am preparing a series of lectures on the Paris in the 1920s and it seemed, from descriptions of it, to be exactly what I needed to read to begin to prepare. I started the book in early June, and, unfortunately, I was confused and bored by it right away. I didn't make it past chapter two before I put it down, and I did not restart it again until mid-August. I forced myself to finish it, even though it never improved, and I never enjoyed reading it.
The problem with this book, a journal of 1920s gossip posing as an academic text, is really that it is organized strictly chronologically, with every chapter representing a year (or two consecutive years), so that each chapter introduces, and then reintroduces, the main luminaries of the period, but only recounts what they did in the specific year in which the chapter is focused. It then jumps around, back and forth, between the lives and interconnections of literally hundreds of people, including visual artists, composers, car makers, writers, perfumers, fashion designers, politicians, military figures, society women, bookstore owners, tennis players, collectors, scientists, dancers, models, actors, anarchists - not to mention many of these peoples' partners, lovers, and children. Its maddening, and more people are added even in later chapters in the book, only to be discussed in a paragraph or two and then discarded. Most of what is written here is not new, nor does it provide any new revelations. Therefore, it reads like a jumbled mess of notes, as if the short vignettes that comprise the book were written up on index cards and filed by year, and then someone just typed up the index cards and published them as a book. There really is no point to a book that just says, "And then this happened...and then this happened." There is a lot of repetitiveness across the chapters, and sometimes full names, explanations (like the difference between and American bar and a French bar), and facts about the people discussed, are repeated where they need not be.
This is a 272-page book of anecdotes with a wide range of characters but no real depth to their individual stories. While the people named in the subtitle of the book (Hemingway, Chanel, Cocteau, Cole Porter, and Josephine Baker) are given priority in the chapters, just as much page space, and sometimes more, is given to Le Corbusier, Man Ray, Kiki de Montparnasse, Citroën, and Paul Poiret. All of these people are just too important culturally to give them a few paragraphs in each chapter, so the book, because it doesn't discuss any one individual in great depth, doesn't do many of these historical figures much justice. Also, and annoyingly, the lovers of the women are usually the focus of their stories (Coco Chanel, Misia Sert, Josephine Baker, Kiki), while the men are discussed in greater relation to their artistic or professional output. The book tries to include too much information, too many people, but only does so in a scant way, and thus the reader learns very little about any of them. Sometimes a cliffhanger is set up (F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda are going to destroy each other, for example) and then never picks up the storyline again. It tries to include politics as well as the stories about the artists and their patrons, and, at the end of the book, it just ends because the 1920s ended. Most of the people discussed lived for many additional decades, but you wouldn't know that because at the end of 1929 (really in October 1929, with the Stock Market crash), the book just wraps up with a few deaths and then ends. It's never really clear WHY Paris was such a draw in the 20s, because Paris itself is never really the focus of the book.
I really would not recommend this book, but I did give it three stars because the writing style is okay, and it gave me some ideas of a few people I would use in my lectures, most notably Chanel and Poiret for the fashion section, Le Corbusier for the architecture, and Man Ray for photography and early experimental film. There's a bibliography, mostly of secondary sources, and an index, which could be useful if you want to just look up information about certain individuals mentioned, but again, it might be better to find more scholarly and more in-depth texts on these historical figures if you want to learn more than just who they were sleeping with and what drugs they did.
February 9, 2018
The years between 1850 and 1950 have long been my era of interest, a fascination that took hold of me when I was a pre-teen, and has never let go. Rather it's expanded as I have explored the events that informed those years, and those informed by those years. When I saw this title pop up in Hoopla, I thought it would be perfect for me.
Nevertheless, I found it a bit of a slog. There certainly isn't a lot of sizzling going on in this rather dry, chronological narrative of the 1920s in Paris. Even people who had seemed exciting in other contexts felt flat and dull here. Jean Cocteau, long an idol of mine, comes across as tiresome and silly. Gertrude Stein feels like a footnote, and both Hemingway and James Joyce come across badly as difficult and self-absorbed, and in Hemingway's case, a fractious, spiteful liar.
But that's okay, really. I understand that famous people are not saints by any stretch. It's the dullness that bothered me. But eventually I began to notice that certain personalities shone in spite of the less-than-inspired structure of the narrative. Misia Sert, who is largely a footnote in studies of this era, emerged as not only important, but one of the more genuine personalities of the book, in her generosity and kindness, a woman who was with Diaghilev as he was dying, and screamed at a Catholic priest loudly, violently, and for long enough that he agreed to give the last rites to a man who was Russian Orthodox. I had to admire that small, telling portrait.
Other figures, famous in their own right, but often relegated to supporting players, are given the spotlight to good effect here: Sylvia Beach, who owned Shakespeare and Company, and supported Joyce both artistically and financially for years, Coco Chanel, a woman of fierce independence and great generosity, Le Corbusier whose work I never cared for, but whose career shaped and was shaped by modernism. Josephine Baker who took Paris by storm as a teenager, Francois Coty, the cosmetics king, whose fascism and anti-semitism helped shape the fascism that thrived in France in the 20s through his newspapers and political activism. Louis Renault and André Citroën who brought the car culture to France. They and others who are not usually featured in histories of this era play major roles in this book, and that's all to the good because McAuliffe expands our understanding of this decade by focusing more broadly than most authors do.
So in the end, and in spite of my initial feeling that When Paris Sizzled was dry and a bit slow, I feel as if it gave me a far better understanding of that moment in history than many other histories have done. If you tackle it, have patience, and you'll be rewarded.
Nevertheless, I found it a bit of a slog. There certainly isn't a lot of sizzling going on in this rather dry, chronological narrative of the 1920s in Paris. Even people who had seemed exciting in other contexts felt flat and dull here. Jean Cocteau, long an idol of mine, comes across as tiresome and silly. Gertrude Stein feels like a footnote, and both Hemingway and James Joyce come across badly as difficult and self-absorbed, and in Hemingway's case, a fractious, spiteful liar.
But that's okay, really. I understand that famous people are not saints by any stretch. It's the dullness that bothered me. But eventually I began to notice that certain personalities shone in spite of the less-than-inspired structure of the narrative. Misia Sert, who is largely a footnote in studies of this era, emerged as not only important, but one of the more genuine personalities of the book, in her generosity and kindness, a woman who was with Diaghilev as he was dying, and screamed at a Catholic priest loudly, violently, and for long enough that he agreed to give the last rites to a man who was Russian Orthodox. I had to admire that small, telling portrait.
Other figures, famous in their own right, but often relegated to supporting players, are given the spotlight to good effect here: Sylvia Beach, who owned Shakespeare and Company, and supported Joyce both artistically and financially for years, Coco Chanel, a woman of fierce independence and great generosity, Le Corbusier whose work I never cared for, but whose career shaped and was shaped by modernism. Josephine Baker who took Paris by storm as a teenager, Francois Coty, the cosmetics king, whose fascism and anti-semitism helped shape the fascism that thrived in France in the 20s through his newspapers and political activism. Louis Renault and André Citroën who brought the car culture to France. They and others who are not usually featured in histories of this era play major roles in this book, and that's all to the good because McAuliffe expands our understanding of this decade by focusing more broadly than most authors do.
So in the end, and in spite of my initial feeling that When Paris Sizzled was dry and a bit slow, I feel as if it gave me a far better understanding of that moment in history than many other histories have done. If you tackle it, have patience, and you'll be rewarded.
December 21, 2021
This book uses a collage-like strategy. Instead of organizing things by topic or endeavor, it does so year by year. Therefore, each chapter is made up of a number of sections as short as half a page, discussing what each of the luminaries did in that year. This bits and pieces strategy takes a lot of getting used to because it's very difficult to focus. Often, just as the story is getting interesting, the rug is yanked.
You will find yourself spending more time with this book than the page count would allow. For when it describes the daring photo of Kiki, the Stravinsky compositions based on Pergolesi, the automobile painted in a checkerboard pattern, the stupendous Mediterranean villa of Coco Chanel or the interesting short films of Rene Clair and Man Ray, you are going to fire up the web to see and hear for yourself. The book really ought to have included more pictures.
It is too bad that the book repeats Gershwin's self-aggrandizing story of meeting Stravinsky, which the latter disavowed.
List of luminaries covered. If you find the majority of them interesting, you should like this book.
LITERATURE
Proust, Marcel
Cocteau, Jean
Joyce, James
Beach, Sylvia (owner of Shakespeare & Co.)
Colette
Stein, Gertrude
Pound, Ezra
Dos Passos, John
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
MUSIC
Satie, Erik
Ravel, Maurice
Porter, Cole
Claudel, Paul
Milhaud, Darius
Gershwin, George
PAINTING
Monet, Claude
Leger, Fernand
Picasso, Pablo
Renoir, Pierre
Modigliani, Amedeo
Sert, Jose-Maria
Miro, Joan
Masson, Andre
Barnes, Albert
Soutine, Chaim
Chagall, Marc
FILM
Renoir, Jean
SCIENCE
Curie, Marie
POLITICS
Clemenceau, Georges
De Gaulle, Charles
ARCHITECTURE
Le Corbusier
FASHION
Poiret, Paul
Chanel, Coco
PHOTOGRAPHY
Kiki
Ray, Man
DANCE
Diaghilev, Sergei
Duncan, Isadora
Baker, Josephine
INDUSTRY
Renault, Louis
Citroen, Andre
Schueller, Eugene (of l'Oreal)
Coty, Francois
Michelin Brothers
You will find yourself spending more time with this book than the page count would allow. For when it describes the daring photo of Kiki, the Stravinsky compositions based on Pergolesi, the automobile painted in a checkerboard pattern, the stupendous Mediterranean villa of Coco Chanel or the interesting short films of Rene Clair and Man Ray, you are going to fire up the web to see and hear for yourself. The book really ought to have included more pictures.
It is too bad that the book repeats Gershwin's self-aggrandizing story of meeting Stravinsky, which the latter disavowed.
List of luminaries covered. If you find the majority of them interesting, you should like this book.
LITERATURE
Proust, Marcel
Cocteau, Jean
Joyce, James
Beach, Sylvia (owner of Shakespeare & Co.)
Colette
Stein, Gertrude
Pound, Ezra
Dos Passos, John
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
MUSIC
Satie, Erik
Ravel, Maurice
Porter, Cole
Claudel, Paul
Milhaud, Darius
Gershwin, George
PAINTING
Monet, Claude
Leger, Fernand
Picasso, Pablo
Renoir, Pierre
Modigliani, Amedeo
Sert, Jose-Maria
Miro, Joan
Masson, Andre
Barnes, Albert
Soutine, Chaim
Chagall, Marc
FILM
Renoir, Jean
SCIENCE
Curie, Marie
POLITICS
Clemenceau, Georges
De Gaulle, Charles
ARCHITECTURE
Le Corbusier
FASHION
Poiret, Paul
Chanel, Coco
PHOTOGRAPHY
Kiki
Ray, Man
DANCE
Diaghilev, Sergei
Duncan, Isadora
Baker, Josephine
INDUSTRY
Renault, Louis
Citroen, Andre
Schueller, Eugene (of l'Oreal)
Coty, Francois
Michelin Brothers
January 2, 2022
I really enjoy McAuliffe's ongoing series on Paris. As an unabashed Francophile, admirer of the arts, and fan of European history, this whole series works for me. I admit, that I'm a bigger fan of the Belle Époque (1871-1914) than the Années Folles (the 1920s), but it's still a solid entry.
McAuliffe's series has always been an American series, written by an American author, for an American audience, about Paris, so perhaps it's appropriate that When Paris Sizzled will resonate the most when focused on the Gertrude Steins, Josephine Bakers, and Hemmingways. Perhaps that's why I've always cared less about the Interwar period of Paris than the prewar, because it's when the Paris of my imagination hit the American mainstream. McAuliffe describes the throngs of Americans that flooded Montparnasse in these Années Folles, and this installment ends on the rueful, bitter words of Hemmingway about how Montparnasse died when they started serving caviar.
I think the most difficult aspect of reckon with Parisian history is that the city has basically become a museum piece for the past century. Paris stopped being the bohemian haunt of the Montmatre set, with living conditions comparable to the worst favelas and slums of the 21st century stood a mile from opulence, and into a place where the well-heeled engulfed the entire city. This period of the Roaring Twenties solidified that trend that started during the Haussman reforms of Napoleon III, and leaves the Paris of today the stomping grounds of global tourists and the uber wealthy with wealth earned abroad. The actual creators and societal rejects that moved art forward have long since abandoned Paris.
All that said, the more morose aspects of this time period only comes with hindsight. The Great Depression and WWII are the most obvious events that later tinge this period with rose, but if not for these later events, the Paris of 1920's would not have achieved the legendary status it has 100 years later.
McAuliffe's series has always been an American series, written by an American author, for an American audience, about Paris, so perhaps it's appropriate that When Paris Sizzled will resonate the most when focused on the Gertrude Steins, Josephine Bakers, and Hemmingways. Perhaps that's why I've always cared less about the Interwar period of Paris than the prewar, because it's when the Paris of my imagination hit the American mainstream. McAuliffe describes the throngs of Americans that flooded Montparnasse in these Années Folles, and this installment ends on the rueful, bitter words of Hemmingway about how Montparnasse died when they started serving caviar.
I think the most difficult aspect of reckon with Parisian history is that the city has basically become a museum piece for the past century. Paris stopped being the bohemian haunt of the Montmatre set, with living conditions comparable to the worst favelas and slums of the 21st century stood a mile from opulence, and into a place where the well-heeled engulfed the entire city. This period of the Roaring Twenties solidified that trend that started during the Haussman reforms of Napoleon III, and leaves the Paris of today the stomping grounds of global tourists and the uber wealthy with wealth earned abroad. The actual creators and societal rejects that moved art forward have long since abandoned Paris.
All that said, the more morose aspects of this time period only comes with hindsight. The Great Depression and WWII are the most obvious events that later tinge this period with rose, but if not for these later events, the Paris of 1920's would not have achieved the legendary status it has 100 years later.
January 9, 2017
A wonderful episodic account of the 'années folles' in Paris, following the activities, rivalries, and accomplishments of the chief players in that remarkable time and place year by year from 1919-1929. The focus is heavily weighted towards the creative arts -- literature, painting, music, architecture, fashion -- but also encompasses less well known figures like Andre Citröen, France's Henry Ford, and also covers the ominous rise of a fascistic, nationalist movement over that decade, backed by multimillionaire perfume magnate René Coty through his purpose-driven media empire. The latter movement apparently rose in parallel with Mussolini and Hitler's ascendency in that decade, and helps to explain why the Nazis found so many willing collaborators after invading France in 1940. This aspect of the era was new to me, though I've read much on the 1920s in Paris -- and unexpectedly, I also found much fresh material in the author's account of the artistic scene. Rich in anecdote and full of fascinating characters and epochal cultural events, this history is sure to please and edify anyone interested in 1920s Paris, even those who are already well read on the subject.
January 23, 2018
4 stars for me! :)
I really REALLY liked this book! I usually don't read nonfiction, but this one was an easy exception. I also appreciated how the author integrated the lives and progress of other areas rather than just the artists (like political leaders, engineers, etc).
My only negatives were that sometimes it became very difficult to keep track of who was who, especially as the author would sometimes just throw names in without any background information even though the focus had shifted onto a different person. Also, sometimes I think she stretched too thin and covered way too many topics when it would've been better to hone in a little bit more on the artistry aspect. (Which, I believe is the whole premise of the book anyways, I mean, look at the title)
(Also, this is a PERSONAL point, just relevant to my interests, but--- I was so excited to read about my ultimate faves Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the author only had a couple lines about them in the whole book about how they were drunk a lot. Like, okay, thanks... but please tell me more about tire manufacturers. :/ )
I really REALLY liked this book! I usually don't read nonfiction, but this one was an easy exception. I also appreciated how the author integrated the lives and progress of other areas rather than just the artists (like political leaders, engineers, etc).
My only negatives were that sometimes it became very difficult to keep track of who was who, especially as the author would sometimes just throw names in without any background information even though the focus had shifted onto a different person. Also, sometimes I think she stretched too thin and covered way too many topics when it would've been better to hone in a little bit more on the artistry aspect. (Which, I believe is the whole premise of the book anyways, I mean, look at the title)
(Also, this is a PERSONAL point, just relevant to my interests, but--- I was so excited to read about my ultimate faves Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the author only had a couple lines about them in the whole book about how they were drunk a lot. Like, okay, thanks... but please tell me more about tire manufacturers. :/ )
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