Tea at Trianon: Paris Reborn: Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Paris Reborn: Napoleon III, Baron Haussmann, and the Quest to Build a Modern City

Paris Reborn is a compelling account of the making of the City of Light as we know it today. It traces the phenomenal rise of Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of the great Napoleon and grandson of Empress Josephine, to the height of political power. As Emperor Napoleon III, his ruthless determination and far-sighted creativity were behind one of the grandest projects of the 19^th century. Stephane Kirkland meticulously describes the medieval city, beloved by Victor Hugo, which by the 1800s had become a labyrinth infested by poverty, disease, and crime. In order to create a modern capital with broad, straight avenues, many ancient neighborhoods had to be destroyed.

The book is loaded with intriguing details, such as the fact that in the old Paris, persons of all social classes lived together in the same vicinity. Working people could walk to their places of employment. In the redesigned Paris, however, the workers were moved to the outskirts of the city so that they had to commute into the center of the town. Not only were new streets constructed but new public buildings as well. The fabulous Paris Opera, designed by the brilliant but troubled Charles Garnier, rose triumphantly amid controversy and chaos. In the meantime, the huge costs of buying multiple properties and building the new streets and public works helped to bankrupt the imperial government. Sadly, the era which saw such tremendous growth and progress for Parisians ended in a disastrous war, foreign occupation, the Commune of 1871 and the destruction of the Tuileries palace. In Paris Reborn, one of the most fascinating cities in the world is portrayed in such a lively and descriptive manner so as to be rediscovered even by those who know it well.

This review originally appeared in the August 2013 edition of the Historical Novels Review.

(*NOTE: This book was sent to me by the Historical Novel Society in exchange for my honest opinion.)