num_pages: 672
description: "Paris is the World, the rest of the Earth is nothing but its suburbs" - Marivaux. In this intelligently-written and supremely entertaining new history, Colin Jones seeks to give a sense of the city of Paris as it was lived in and experienced over time. The focal point of generation upon generation of admirers and detractors, a source of attraction or repulsion even for those who have never been there, Paris has witnessed more extraordinary events than any other major city. No spot on earth has been more walked around, written about, discussed, painted and photographed. With an eye for the revealing, startling and (sometimes) horrible detail, Colin Jones takes the reader from Roman Paris to the present, recreating the ups and downs in the history of the city and its inhabitants. Attentive to both the urban environment and to the experience of those who lived within it, " Biography of a City" will be hugely enjoyed by habitual Paris obsessives, by first-time visitors, and by those who know the city only by repute.
language: English
title: Paris: Biography of a City
titlecomplete: Paris: Biography of a City
characters: Francis I of France, Jacques Chirac, Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Napoléon Bonaparte, Louis XI of France, Henry IV of France, Louis VI of France, Charles de Gaulle, Marie Antoinette, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Charles V of France, Honoré de Balzac, Charles VII of France, Louis XV of France, Henry III of France, Anne of Austria, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Louis IX of France, Victor Hugo, François Mitterrand, Jean-Charles Alphand, Philip II of France, Louis XIV of France, Louis Philippe I, Louis XVI of France, Louis XIII of France, Napoleon III
genres: Cultural, Historical, France, Biography, Art History, Cities, European History, Nonfiction, Travel, History
ratings_count: 516
places: Paris