num_pages: 566
description: From the Roman Emperor Julian, who waxed rhapsodic about Parisian wine and figs, to Henry Miller, who relished its seductive bohemia, Paris has been a perennial source of fascination for 2,000 years. In this definitive and illuminating history, Colin Jones walks us through the city that was a plague-infested charnel house during the Middle Ages, the bloody epicenter of the French Revolution, the muse of nineteenth-century Impressionist painters, and much more. Jones’s masterful narrative is enhanced by numerous photographs and feature boxes—on the Bastille or Josephine Baker, for instance—that complete a colorful and comprehensive portrait of a place that has endured Vikings, Black Death, and the Nazis to emerge as the heart of a resurgent Europe. This is a thrilling companion for history buffs and backpack, or armchair, travelers alike.
language: English
title: Paris: The Biography of a City
titlecomplete: Paris: The Biography of a City
characters: Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Victor Hugo, Louis XV of France, Charles VII of France, François Mitterrand, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVI of France, Louis XIII of France, Henry IV of France, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Louis IX of France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Louis Philippe I, Louis VI of France, Henry III of France, Philip II of France, Napoleon III, Charles de Gaulle, Jean-Charles Alphand, Honoré de Balzac, Jacques Chirac, Francis I of France, Louis XI of France, Anne of Austria, Louis XIV of France, Georges-Eugène Haussmann, Napoléon Bonaparte, Charles V of France
genres: France, Historical, History, Cultural, Travel, Cities, European History, Biography, Art History, Nonfiction
ratings_count: 516
places: Paris
publisher: Penguin Books