4/5/2023 0 Comments David downieAnd his knowledge of its people and history has been gained through personal experience and exposure to them in a quite visceral manner. He adores Paris more than any just about anyone. I am an ardent student of the Romantic period, both vocationally and avocationally but Downie’s complete emersion into this era is beyond anything I have ever encountered. I have never been to Paris but Paris has always been on my mind and David Downie’s latest book, A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light beautifully illustrates why that is so! Seeing their art and poetry in a new context that no one but David Downie could provide, you will want to make a date to meet a like-minded friend under the bust of Chopin in the Luxembourg Gardens, and set off make their trail your own. If you have ever wondered how Balzac, Hugo, Delacroix, George Sand, and Baudelaire bodily inhabited Paris, how long it took them to walk from one haunt to another, and how much of what they did and saw is available to you today, then read this book. The windmills were utterly for real, and the artists' studios were vast, light and cheap. The Montmartre of the Romantics was hilly, grassy, with pasturing goat herds and excellent air. Was the Marais always chic? No - it was both Royal and Bohemian, and ruled by Victor Hugo, more famous than any writer would ever be again. You will discover a new Ile Saint Louis from the high-toned one you know, for instance - 150 years ago, Bohemia existed there, and can still be traced. 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.ĭavid Downie's newest will physically locate you in the Paris neighborhoods of the Romantics - their salons, cafes, workspaces, assignation flats, promenades and even cemeteries. 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. The art and architecture, the cityscape, riverbanks, and the unparalleled quality of daily life are part of the equation.īut 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. 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.Ībounding in secluded, atmospheric parks, artists’ studios, cafes, restaurants and streets little changed since the 1800s, Paris exudes romance.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |