Panorama of Paris
Subtitle: Selections from Le Tableau De Paris
Contributors: Jeremy D. Popkin (Editor); Helen Simpson (Translator)
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: October 1999
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 248
ISBN-13: 9780271019314
Subjects: European history (ie other than Britain & Ireland); Literary studies: 16th to 18th centuries; History; Literature - Classics / Criticism; History: World; Europe; European - French; General; Sociology - Urban; 18th century; Description and travel; Feuilletons, French; France; Paris; Paris (France); Social life and customs
First sentence: I am going to speak of Paris: not of its buildings, its churches, its monuments, its curiosities, etc., since enough has been written about them.
Description: This work offers English-language readers an introduction to one of the forgotten masterpieces of French literature, Louis-Sebastien Mercier's 12-volume "Le Tableau de Paris" (published from 1781 to 1788), an important and original work that helped shape many kinds of French writing. The text provides a portrait of everyday life in Paris on the eve of the French revolution, describing the interactions of workers, street peddlers, prostitutes, police spies, actresses, noblemen, parish priests, servants, and criminals. Based on Helen Simpson's 1933 abridged translation, this edition includes seven newly translated chapters and an introduction by Jeremy D. Popkin. Earlier authors had described Paris's monuments and the lives of its wealthy elites, but Mercier was the first to try to capture in words the texture of its everyday life. His text, contemporary with Rousseau's "Confessions", is the first attempt to write the autobiography of a unique urban community. His writing deeply influenced Balzac and other 19th century French novelists and continues to serve as a major source of social and cultural history for French historians. "Panorama of Paris" should be of interest to students of French literature and history, and to anyone interested in the origins of modern attitudes toward city life.
Notes: Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
Table of contents: title: Acknowledgments; title: Editor's Preface; title: Mercier's Tableau de Paris; title: Index