Flaneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London (English Edition)
<p><b>*Shortlisted for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay*</b><br /><b><br />Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 by the <i>Financial Times</i>, <i>Guardian</i><i>, New Statesman</i><i>, Observer</i><i>, The Millions </i>and <i>Emerald Street</i></b><br /><br /><i>'Flâneuse </i>[<i>flanne-euhze</i>], noun, from the French. Feminine form of <i>flâneur </i>[<i>flanne-euhr</i>], an idler, a dawdling observer, usually found in cities. <br /><br />That is an imaginary definition.'<br /><br />If the word <i>flâneur</i> conjures up visions of Baudelaire, boulevards and bohemia – then what exactly is a <i>flâneuse</i>? <br /><br />In this gloriously provocative and celebratory book, Lauren Elkin defines her as ‘a determined resourceful woman keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city, and the liberating possibilities of a good walk’. Part cultural meander, part memoir, <i>Flâ</i><i>neuse</i> traces the relationship between the city and creativity through a journey that begins in New York and moves us to Paris, via Venice, Tokyo and London, exploring along the way the paths taken by the <i>flâneuses</i> who have lived and walked in those cities.<br /><br />From nineteenth-century novelist George Sand to artist Sophie Calle, from war correspondent Martha Gellhorn to film-maker Agnes Varda, <i>Flâneuse</i> considers what is at stake when a certain kind of light-footed woman encounters the city and changes her life, one step at a time.</p>