A passion for Paris : romanticism and romance in the City of Light

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Title:

A passion for Paris : romanticism and romance in the City of Light

Author:

Downie, David author.

ISBN:

9781250080370

Edition:

First St. Martin's Griffin edition.

Physical Description:

xiv, 304 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Contents:

Part One. Romantic Encounters in a Maid's Room -- 1. Overhead in a Balloon -- 2. Deciphering the Paris Palimpsest -- 3. A Tramp Steamer to Pere-Lachaise Cemetery -- Part Two. Discovering the First Great Romantic Circle -- 4. Bastille Day -- 5. Guest Appearances -- 6. The Romance of Rebelliosness -- 7. Defining the Undefinable : Romanticism -- 8. An Arsenal of Poetic Weaponry -- 9. Love Triangle : Victor, Adele and Sainte-Beuve -- 10. The Battle of Hernani -- 11. Romeo Seeks Juliette -- 12. The Conquest of Victor -- 13. Knight Templar -- 14. The Historic Present -- 15. Balzac's Marais -- Part Three. Baudelaire's Island -- 16. Joie de Tristesse or The Romance of Unhappiness -- 17. Sex, Drugs and Striking Poses -- 18. Islands in the Dream -- Part Four. The Cult of the Les Grands Hommes (et Les Femmes?) -- 19. The Architecture of Romance -- 20. The Anti-Romantics -- 21. The Academy of the Dead -- Part Five. Romantic Romps -- 22. A Leafy Pantheon of Romance -- 23. The Sand Pit -- 24. Butterfly Catcher -- 25. Merry-go-Rounds and Talking Heads -- 26. Merging into Bohemia -- 27. The Water Drinkers -- 28. Momus is the Word -- 29. Color Versus Line -- 30. A Drunken Boat, a Starving Writer, and Two Giant Clarinets -- 31. Delacroix's Last Stand -- Part Six. Quai Voltaire -- 32. The Seine's Scene -- 33. D'Artagnan's Cask of Amontillado -- 34. Delacroix Rebuffs Dumas -- Part Seven. The New Athens and Montmartre -- 35. Delacroix's Permanent Ephemera -- 36. Parisian Acropolis -- 37. Chopin's Hand -- 38. A Real Butte -- 39. Devil May Care -- 40. Slumming Stein and Picasso's Blue Rose -- 41. Spirits Set in Stone -- Part Eight. Open Endings -- 42. The Long and Winding Road -- 43. Quiet Days in Passy -- 44. Sending Out an SMS : From Balzac With Love -- Key Dates -- Key Characters.

Personal Subject:

Downie, David-Travel-France-Paris.

Subject Term:

Walking -- France -- Paris.

Artists -- France -- Paris.

Romanticism -- France -- Paris.

Romanticism in art.

Historic sites -- France -- Paris.

Geographic Term:

Paris (France) -- Description and travel.

Paris (France) -- Social life and customs.

Paris (France) -- Intellectual life.

Paris (France) -- Buildings, structures, etc.

Summary:

"A unique combination of memoir, history, and travelogue, this is author David Downie's irreverent quest to uncover why Paris is the world's most romantic city--and has been for over 150 years. Abounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists' studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation. But the city's allure derives equally from hidden sources: querulous inhabitants, a bizarre culture of heroic negativity, and a rich historical past supplying enigmas, pleasures and challenges. Rarely do visitors suspect the glamor and chic and the carefree atmosphere of the City of Light grew from and still feed off the dark fountainheads of riot, rebellion, mayhem and melancholy--and the subversive literature, art and music of the Romantic Age. Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics, Downie delights in the city's secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking, Why Paris, not Venice or Rome--the tap root of 'romance'--or Berlin, Vienna and London--where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales? Read A Passion for Paris : Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light and find out"--

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	944.361 DOW	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	944.361 DOW	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	944.361 DOW	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"A top-notch walking tour of Paris. . . . The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

A unique combination of memoir, history, and travelogue, this is author David Downie's irreverent quest to uncover why Paris is the world's most romantic city--and has been for over 150 years.

Abounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists' studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation.

But the city's allure derives equally from hidden sources: querulous inhabitants, a bizarre culture of heroic negativity, and a rich historical past supplying enigmas, pleasures and challenges. Rarely do visitors suspect the glamor and chic and the carefree atmosphere of the City of Light grew from and still feed off the dark fountainheads of riot, rebellion, mayhem and melancholy--and the subversive literature, art and music of the Romantic Age.

Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics Downie delights in the city's secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking , Why Paris, not Venice or Rome--the tap root of "romance"--or Berlin, Vienna and London--where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales? Read A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light and find out.

Author Notes

David Downie, a native San Franciscan, lived in New York, Providence, Rome and Milan before moving to Paris in the mid-1980s. He divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food and arts features have appeared in print publications worldwide. Downie is co-owner with his wife Alison Harris of Paris, Paris Tours custom walking tours of Paris, Burgundy, Rome and the Italian Riviera. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Paris, Paris, and the bestselling Paris to the Pyrenees. You can visit his Web sites and blog at www.daviddownie.com and www.parisparistours.com.

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

Join Downie (Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of St. James, 2013, etc.) for a top-notch walking tour of Paris.In search of what makes Paris romantic, the author takes us to the 19th century. Early on he notes that Paris may be romantic just because writers, artists and musicians say it is. But romanticism is not just literary or artistic; it's also political. Throughout the 1800s, there was a host of activists who mocked the status quo. Victor Hugo based his play Hernani, about adulterous lovers and their unfortunate end, on true life, and as Paris audiences often did, they rioted, opening the war between romanticism and classicists. Throughout the book, the author shares his love of places that he has explored for 30 years. He recounts the lives and loves of Hugo, Dumas, Sand, Delacroix and so many others in the romantic shrines of the Marais, Luxembourg Gardens and the Arsenal Library. Literature of this age reflected the essence of romanticism, where chronology and logical plots were reactionary. The French are complex, ambiguous and contradictory by nature, and they are proud of their weaknesses and faults. Understanding the romantics requires understanding Paris, and searching for the real Paris is part of the journey. On that journey, Downie is the consummate guide. Reflecting on Foucault's pendulum, the author writes, "the real Paris is of the mind, so it doesn't exist and can't age." The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: Doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* David Downie (Paris to the Pyrenees, 2013) is a Paris transplant, a walking-tour guide steeped in Parisian lore, and an acclaimed writer. In A Passion for Paris, he seeks the source of the city's celebrated aura of romance in those who fomented the cultural revolt that turned Paris into the capital of Romanticism. Downie begins this intrepidly researched, entrancingly descriptive, ruminative, funny, and revealing inquiry by telling the uncensored story of prodigious Victor Hugo, who basically wrote the manifesto for Romanticism while navigating a truly racy love life. Downie also chronicles the complex romantic entanglements of Balzac, Baudelaire, George Sand (the Great Woman of the Age of Romanticism), and Henri Murger, whose Scenes of Bohemian Life inspired Puccini's opera, La Bohème. Canny observations about Paris' spirit of freedom, permanent sexual revolution, and embrace of melancholy, which lies at the root of Romanticism and romance, are laced throughout this provocative inquiry. With 115 photographs and many exquisitely written passages detailing his visits to historic sites and romantic enclaves, Downie presents a gorgeously discursive and affecting homage to Paris' great Romantics, and to the city itself, redolent with art, literature, and longing.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2015 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Downie (Paris, Paris; Paris to the Pyrenees) adds to his travel oeuvre with an exploration of Paris in the Romantic Age. Through literary, artistic, and political lenses, the author describes the emergence of the Romantics in the 1830s and their influence on Paris for the next 20 years. From the love triangle of -Victor Hugo, his wife, and Charles--Augustin Sainte-Beuve to Romantic Parisian architecture, Downie covers a wide range of topics and features photographs and illustrations to visually support the text. He describes his travels through the world of the -Romantics and encourages readers to visit these Parisian spots made famous by the likes of -Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, George Sand, and many others. He also provides a listing of key dates and characters of the period. VERDICT This title will appeal to lovers of the City of Light who are interested in a more in-depth exploration of the metropolis. Those with an interest in the music, art, and literature of the Romantic Age will find the work engaging.-Lacy S. Wolfe, Ouachita -Baptist Univ. Lib., Arkadelphia, AR © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Thanks and Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Part 1 Romantic Encounters in a Maid's Room
1 Overhead in a Balloon	p. 3
2 Deciphering the Paris Palimpsest	p. 9
3 A Tramp Steamer to Père-Lachaise Cemetery	p. 11
Part 2 Discovering the First Great Romantic Circle
4 Bastille Day	p. 19
5 Guest Appearances	p. 22
6 The Romance of Rebelliousness	p. 25
7 Defining the Undefinable: Romanticism	p. 29
8 An Arsenal of Poetic Weaponry	p. 31
9 Love Triangle: Victor, Adèle, and Sainte-Beuve	p. 42
10 The Battle of Hernani	p. 46
11 Romeo Seeks Juliette	p. 53
12 The Conquest of Victor	p. 57
13 Knight Templar	p. 61
14 The Historic Present	p. 72
15 Balzac's Marais	p. 82
Part 3 Baudelaire's Island
16 Joie De Tristesse, Or the Romance Of Unhappiness	p. 91
17 Sex, Drugs, and Striking Poses	p. 97
18 Islands in the Dream	p. 109
Part 4 The Cult of the Les Grands Hommes (Et Les Femmes?)
19 The Architecture of Romance	p. 117
20 The Anti-Romantics	p. 123
21 The Academy of the Dead	p. 135
Part 5 Romantic Romps
22 A Leafy Pantheon of Romance	p. 149
23 The Sand Pit	p. 157
24 Butterfly Catcher	p. 164
25 Merry-Go-Rounds and Talking Heads	p. 169
26 Merging Into Bohemia	p. 177
27 The Water Drinkers	p. 183
28 Momus is the Word	p. 189
29 Color Versus Line	p. 195
30 A Drunken Boat, a Starving Writer, and Two Giant Clarinets	p. 200
31 Delacroix's Last Stand	p. 206
Part 6 Quai Voltaire
32 The Seine's Scene	p. 213
33 D'Artagnan's Cask of Amontillado	p. 218
34 Delacroix Rebuffs Dumas	p. 225
Part 7 The New Athens And Montmartre
35 Delacroix's Permanent Ephemera	p. 231
36 Parisian Acropolis	p. 237
37 Chopin's Hand,	p. 252
38 A Real Butte	p. 260
39 Devil May Care	p. 267
40 Slumming Stein and Picasso's Blue Rose	p. 270
41 Spirits Set In Stone	p. 274
Part 8 Open Endings
42 The Long and Winding Road	p. 281
43 Quiet Days in Passy	p. 288
44 Sending Out an SMS: From Balzac with Love	p. 294
Key Dales	p. 299
Key Characters	p. 301
Image Credits	p. 305

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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