A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light

by David Downie

Overview

"A top-notch walking tour of Paris. . . . The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences." —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

A unique combination of memoir, history, and travelogue, this is author David Downie's irreverent quest to uncover why Paris is the world's most romantic city—and has been for over 150 years.

Abounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists' studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation.

But the city's allure derives equally from hidden sources: querulous inhabitants, a bizarre culture of heroic negativity, and a rich historical past supplying enigmas, pleasures and challenges. Rarely do visitors suspect the glamor and chic and the carefree atmosphere of the City of Light grew from and still feed off the dark fountainheads of riot, rebellion, mayhem and melancholy—and the subversive literature, art and music of the Romantic Age.

Weaving together his own with the lives and loves of Victor Hugo, Georges Sand, Charles Baudelaire, Balzac, Nadar and other great Romantics Downie delights in the city's secular romantic pilgrimage sites asking , Why Paris, not Venice or Rome—the tap root of "romance"—or Berlin, Vienna and London—where the earliest Romantics built castles-in-the-air and sang odes to nightingales? Read A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light and find out.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250080370
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/05/2016
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	8.10(w) x 5.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

David Downie, a native San Franciscan, lived in New York, Providence, Rome and Milan before moving to Paris in the mid-1980s. He divides his time between France and Italy. His travel, food and arts features have appeared in print publications worldwide. Downie is co-owner with his wife Alison Harris of Paris, Paris Tours custom walking tours of Paris, Burgundy, Rome & the Italian Riviera. He is the author of the critically acclaimed Paris, Paris, and the bestselling Paris to the Pyrenees.

Table of Contents

Thanks and Acknowledgments xiii

Part 1 Romantic Encounters in a Maid's Room

1 Overhead in a Balloon 3

2 Deciphering the Paris Palimpsest 9

3 A Tramp Steamer to Père-Lachaise Cemetery 11

Part 2 Discovering the First Great Romantic Circle

4 Bastille Day 19

5 Guest Appearances 22

6 The Romance of Rebelliousness 25

7 Defining the Undefinable: Romanticism 29

8 An Arsenal of Poetic Weaponry 31

9 Love Triangle: Victor, Adèle, and Sainte-Beuve 42

10 The Battle of Hernani 46

11 Romeo Seeks Juliette 53

12 The Conquest of Victor 57

13 Knight Templar 61

14 The Historic Present 72

15 Balzac's Marais 82

Part 3 Baudelaire's Island

16 Joie De Tristesse, Or the Romance Of Unhappiness 91

17 Sex, Drugs, and Striking Poses 97

18 Islands in the Dream 109

Part 4 The Cult of the Les Grands Hommes (Et Les Femmes?)

19 The Architecture of Romance 117

20 The Anti-Romantics 123

21 The Academy of the Dead 135

Part 5 Romantic Romps

22 A Leafy Pantheon of Romance 149

23 The Sand Pit 157

24 Butterfly Catcher 164

25 Merry-Go-Rounds and Talking Heads 169

26 Merging Into Bohemia 177

27 The Water Drinkers 183

28 Momus is the Word 189

29 Color Versus Line 195

30 A Drunken Boat, a Starving Writer, and Two Giant Clarinets 200

31 Delacroix's Last Stand 206

Part 6 Quai Voltaire

32 The Seine's Scene 213

33 D'Artagnan's Cask of Amontillado 218

34 Delacroix Rebuffs Dumas 225

Part 7 The New Athens And Montmartre

35 Delacroix's Permanent Ephemera 231

36 Parisian Acropolis 237

37 Chopin's Hand, 252

38 A Real Butte 260

39 Devil May Care 267

40 Slumming Stein and Picasso's Blue Rose 270

41 Spirits Set In Stone 274

Part 8 Open Endings

42 The Long and Winding Road 281

43 Quiet Days in Passy 288

44 Sending Out an SMS: From Balzac with Love 294

Key Dales 299

Key Characters 301

Image Credits 305

Editorial Reviews

A top-notch walking tour of Paris… Downie is the consummate guide…The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences.” —Kirkus, STARRED review

“Paris has been cherished, admired, analyzed for centuries, yet in his wildly entertaining, operatic A Passion for Paris, David Downie seems to offer up a whole new place. Writing with an engaging informality, he delves into this most romantic of cities, then and now, focusing particularly on the Romantic Age and its people. . . . Whether the author is leading us into Flaubert's study or onto the terrace of today's Deux Magots, there's a rare excitement in the air—as if Puccini's Bohemians were united in song, somewhere off stage.” —Penelope Rowlands, author of Paris Was Ours

“Victor Hugo, Adèle and Juliette, Saint-Beuve, Nadar, George Sand and a host of other great figures of French history come alive in David Downie's compelling and often wickedly humorous investigation of romance and romanticism in the City of Light. Most travelers agree that Paris is by far the most romantic city in the world but thanks to Downie's extensive research, passionate sleuthing and inspired imagination, they'll now know why. This unusual and exquisitely told tale of French romanticism is a must-read for true Paris lovers.” —Harriet Welty Rochefort, author of French Toast and Joie de VivreOn Paris, Paris

“An entertaining read. David Downie is fabulous company!” —Jacki Lyden, "All Things Considered," NPR

“Downie's adroit, learned, and ambitious book reinvigorates my sense of travel, taking me back to the happy knowledge that the world is still large, and history unfathomably deep.” —Frances Mayes, author of Under the Tuscan Sun

“David Downie is the master of educated curiosity. I have walked some of the city's streets with him, and reading this book is just as tactile an experience.” —Michael Ondaatje

From the Publisher

04/15/2015
Downie (Paris, Paris; Paris to the Pyrenees) adds to his travel oeuvre with an exploration of Paris in the Romantic Age. Through literary, artistic, and political lenses, the author describes the emergence of the Romantics in the 1830s and their influence on Paris for the next 20 years. From the love triangle of Victor Hugo, his wife, and Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve to Romantic Parisian architecture, Downie covers a wide range of topics and features photographs and illustrations to visually support the text. He describes his travels through the world of the Romantics and encourages readers to visit these Parisian spots made famous by the likes of Alexandre Dumas, Franz Liszt, George Sand, and many others. He also provides a listing of key dates and characters of the period. VERDICT This title will appeal to lovers of the City of Light who are interested in a more in-depth exploration of the metropolis. Those with an interest in the music, art, and literature of the Romantic Age will find the work engaging.—Lacy S. Wolfe, Ouachita Baptist Univ. Lib., Arkadelphia, AR

Library Journal

★ 2015-02-04
Join Downie (Paris to the Pyrenees: A Skeptic Pilgrim Walks the Way of St. James, 2013, etc.) for a top-notch walking tour of Paris.In search of what makes Paris romantic, the author takes us to the 19th century. Early on he notes that Paris may be romantic just because writers, artists and musicians say it is. But romanticism is not just literary or artistic; it's also political. Throughout the 1800s, there was a host of activists who mocked the status quo. Victor Hugo based his play Hernani, about adulterous lovers and their unfortunate end, on true life, and as Paris audiences often did, they rioted, opening the war between romanticism and classicists. Throughout the book, the author shares his love of places that he has explored for 30 years. He recounts the lives and loves of Hugo, Dumas, Sand, Delacroix and so many others in the romantic shrines of the Marais, Luxembourg Gardens and the Arsenal Library. Literature of this age reflected the essence of romanticism, where chronology and logical plots were reactionary. The French are complex, ambiguous and contradictory by nature, and they are proud of their weaknesses and faults. Understanding the romantics requires understanding Paris, and searching for the real Paris is part of the journey. On that journey, Downie is the consummate guide. Reflecting on Foucault's pendulum, the author writes, "the real Paris is of the mind, so it doesn't exist and can't age." The author's encyclopedic knowledge of the city and its artists grants him a mystical gift of access: Doors left ajar and carriage gates left open foster his search for the city's magical story. Anyone who loves Paris will adore this joyful book. Readers visiting the city are advised to take it with them to discover countless new experiences.

Kirkus Reviews