Good reads for Paris
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: May 2010
Posts: 84
Good reads for Paris
Soon I will be in Paris for a week - have been there many times and loved each and every visit. I am thinking now that I would like to begin reading, during the week before and continuing the week that I am there, a book, fiction or non-fiction, that is set in Paris. Anyone have any recommendations?
merci and au revoir,
sophia
merci and au revoir,
sophia
#2
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 7
I recently read The Paris Winter, by Imogen Robertson. Very enjoyable and ties in a lot of history and art. Takes place around 1909, I think. I also liked To Capture What We Cannot Keep, taking place during construction of the Eiffel Tower.
#4
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 3,640
Oh so many... Are you looking for a particular genre?
Detective/Mystery Check out the Amy Leduc series by Cara Black. Amy solves a crime in each arrondissement (I think Black still has two to write)
Take a deep dive into the Paris of Ernst Hemingway with "The Paris Wife" (Paula McClain) followed by Hemingways own version of the time "A Moveable Feast". Then follow it up with "Everybody Behaves Badly" (Lesley Blume) While you're here you can wander the streets Hemingway and the Lost Generation wandered and visit the same cafes. Although there are few ghosts still lingering there.
If you want a sense of Paris of the past, check out Emile Zola. I particularly liked "The Belly of Paris", about life in the old markets of Les Halles.
One of my favorites is "Sacre Bleu" by Christopher Moore. It will take you into Montmartre of the early 1900s and you'll spend time with Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso, Van Gogh as well as a host of other made up characters and you'll prowl the artist quarter and bawdy music halls.
Others you might like: "The Little Paris Bookshop", "Paris, Paris" (David Downie) is a great book of essays, each a vignet of a different part of Paris, "A Year in the Merde" (Stephen Clarke) - there is a whole Merde series.
And of course there are Tale of Two Cities, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables...
Detective/Mystery Check out the Amy Leduc series by Cara Black. Amy solves a crime in each arrondissement (I think Black still has two to write)
Take a deep dive into the Paris of Ernst Hemingway with "The Paris Wife" (Paula McClain) followed by Hemingways own version of the time "A Moveable Feast". Then follow it up with "Everybody Behaves Badly" (Lesley Blume) While you're here you can wander the streets Hemingway and the Lost Generation wandered and visit the same cafes. Although there are few ghosts still lingering there.
If you want a sense of Paris of the past, check out Emile Zola. I particularly liked "The Belly of Paris", about life in the old markets of Les Halles.
One of my favorites is "Sacre Bleu" by Christopher Moore. It will take you into Montmartre of the early 1900s and you'll spend time with Toulouse Lautrec, Picasso, Van Gogh as well as a host of other made up characters and you'll prowl the artist quarter and bawdy music halls.
Others you might like: "The Little Paris Bookshop", "Paris, Paris" (David Downie) is a great book of essays, each a vignet of a different part of Paris, "A Year in the Merde" (Stephen Clarke) - there is a whole Merde series.
And of course there are Tale of Two Cities, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables...
#5
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 1,978
I'd read about the Paris Sewers, you'll learn a lot about the City and it's histoire.
Then while you're in Paris, go and visit the Sewer Museum. It's by Pont D'Alma on the Left Bank......really fascinating.
Then while you're in Paris, go and visit the Sewer Museum. It's by Pont D'Alma on the Left Bank......really fascinating.
Last edited by LancasterLad; Aug 22nd, 2018 at 04:02 AM.
#6
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 1,978
Originally Posted by Sophia12
Soon I will be in Paris for a week - have been there many times and loved each and every visit. I am thinking now that I would like to begin reading, during the week before and continuing the week that I am there, a book, fiction or non-fiction, that is set in Paris. Anyone have any recommendations?
merci and au revoir,
merci and au revoir,
#10
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 2,591
Another vote for Adam Gopnik, all-purpose intellectual at the New Yorker magazine. Paris to the Moon sees the city in part through the eyes of his little boy, now a full-grown adult since the material is two decades old. If any travel advice is dated, his affection for Paris is ageless.
Speaking of dated, Woody Allen's film Paris After Midnight was intentionally out of date when he made it in 2011. It embodies the American illusion that Paris only matters through the experiences of American ex-pats --thank you, Ernest Hemingway et al -- but is still good fun.
Speaking of dated, Woody Allen's film Paris After Midnight was intentionally out of date when he made it in 2011. It embodies the American illusion that Paris only matters through the experiences of American ex-pats --thank you, Ernest Hemingway et al -- but is still good fun.
#11
Join Date: Jul 2018
Posts: 329
If you want to read about French Pi's written in French by French (and translated in English) :
I recommend Nestor Burma from Tardi (most if not all set in a specific arrondissement of Paris in the 50's)
Nestor Burma
Or of course, from the master Simenon, Commissaire Maigret (who fictionally lived on place des Vosges) but choose one that takes place in Paris.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/INS...ector-maigret/
More recent some Fred Vargas are in Paris too. Just finished a climate of fears where part of the investigation is about a company of people reenacting the meetings of the revolution committees (under Roberspierre).
I recommend Nestor Burma from Tardi (most if not all set in a specific arrondissement of Paris in the 50's)
Nestor Burma
Or of course, from the master Simenon, Commissaire Maigret (who fictionally lived on place des Vosges) but choose one that takes place in Paris.
https://www.penguin.co.uk/series/INS...ector-maigret/
More recent some Fred Vargas are in Paris too. Just finished a climate of fears where part of the investigation is about a company of people reenacting the meetings of the revolution committees (under Roberspierre).
#12
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 14,710
How about The Elegance of the Hedgehog? I really liked it and it's in Paris, but doesn't range far outside the apartment building where the characters live.
Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country is set in Paris and other places, but there's a lot of Paris. Another Wharton: The Reef
Oh, a couple of favorites, get them wherever you can. Nancy Mitford's Dont Tell Alfred and even better, The Blessing. Those are my perfect Paris novels.
The Ambassadors by Henry James is great.
The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen. Like The Elegance of the Hedgehog, it's confined, but hey, it's in Paris.
My advice is to read Edith Wharton, or James' The Ambassadors and Mitford's The Blessing.
Edith Wharton's The Custom of the Country is set in Paris and other places, but there's a lot of Paris. Another Wharton: The Reef
Oh, a couple of favorites, get them wherever you can. Nancy Mitford's Dont Tell Alfred and even better, The Blessing. Those are my perfect Paris novels.
The Ambassadors by Henry James is great.
The House in Paris by Elizabeth Bowen. Like The Elegance of the Hedgehog, it's confined, but hey, it's in Paris.
My advice is to read Edith Wharton, or James' The Ambassadors and Mitford's The Blessing.
#15
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 21,992
Fred Vargas having been mentioned, I will recommend "Have Mercy on Us All" (French title: Pars vite et reviens tard) which gives an excellent description of modern Paris. Obviously, anything you can find by a French author -- even in translation -- will give you a more authentic idea of French life than ridiculous novels that foreigners set in Paris (Da Vinci Code, anybody?).
#16
Join Date: Jul 2012
Posts: 172
Paris in Love by Eloisa James. The author and her family spend a year in Paris and she chronicals her experiences. Another enjoyable read (to me) is The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain. It's not just about Paris, but the entire experience is hilarious.
