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Paris: The Secret History [Paperback]

Andrew Hussey
2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
RRP: £10.99
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Book Description

1 Mar 2007

Paris is the city of light and the city of darkness - a place of ceaseless revolution and reinvention that for two thousand years has drawn those with the highest ideals and the lowest morals to its teeming streets.

In Andrew Hussey's wonderful book we encounter the myriad citizens whose stories have shaped Paris: the nineteenth-century flaneurs aimlessly wandering Haussman's new streets; survivors and victims of ravaging plagues; the builders of Notre Dame Cathedral; those who turned the River Seine red with blood on St Bartholomew's Day; and the many others whose lives have imprinted themselves on a city that has always aroused strong emotions.


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Paris: The Secret History + Paris: Biography of a City + Seven Ages of Paris (Pb): Portrait of a City
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Product details

  • Paperback: 544 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (1 Mar 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0141011130
  • ISBN-13: 978-0141011134
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 3.1 x 19.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 139,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Product Description

Review

Outrageously readable . . . a fascinating riot of a book (Simon Sebag-Montefiore )

Fascinating . . . A vivid sans-culottes history, from the street up (David Starkey )

Magnificent and entertaining . . . riveting (Jason Burke Observer )

About the Author

Andrew Hussey was born in 1963. He first went to Paris in the late 1970s, fired up by the punk revolution in his home town of Liverpool and with a thirst for anarchy and adventure. His first taste of Paris was busking in the metro: he was hooked. He has since lived and worked in Manchester, Lyons, Paris, Aberystwyth, Madrid and Barcelona, writing on the Nineties Parisian fashion for suicides, anarchy, radical Islam, art terrorism, Situationism, football, pornography and The Fall for a wide range of magazines and newspapers. Andrew Hussey is a contributing editor of the Observer Sports Magazine, and Head of French and Comparative Literature at the University of London in Paris.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars Paris: the weak history 11 April 2010
Format:Paperback
An earlier reviewer mentioned factual inaccuracies. The book is riddled with them. For instance, Hussey puts the famous Chat Noir cabaret in the wrong era and the wrong area (it was in operation in the 1880s and 90s, in Montmartre - not in the 1920s in Montparnasse) and misattributes a famous line about place Dauphine being 'the sex of Paris' to André Malraux (it was André Breton's), then describes Malraux as 'usually the most staid and discreet of writers', a colossal absurdity (and it doesn't describe Breton, either). If a historian can't get this sort of thing right, he can't be trusted on anything else.
The jacket blurb promises 'a history book that can be taken to the bar' - perhaps because that's where it was written?
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars A disappointing read 3 July 2010
Format:Paperback
Quite simply: read Colin Jones' excellent 'Paris: Biography of a City' instead. When there are decent, readable, accurate and informative histories of Paris on the market already, why settle for less?
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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars not all it claims to be 22 Mar 2009
By Ribble
Format:Paperback
I found this a very disappointing book. There's little that's truly 'secret' about it, and not much historical method either. It reads like a journalist's book,full of vague, general assertions without hard references to back them up. Colin Jones' 'Paris', though a tougher read, covers the same ground with much greater detail and rigour. I came away wondering why the book had been written, when the author seems to dislike so much about Paris.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best books I will ever read
Yes, it really is. It's brilliant. A fantastic companion to take with you when visiting the city. A great bedside table read to dip into at your leisure. Read more
Published 17 months ago by ninoanonimo
4.0 out of 5 stars A ripsnorter of a read
I'm a bit bemused by some of the negative reviews here. This is a real page-turner, in particular from Part 3, entitled Slaughterhouse City, I found the next 100-150 pages to be... Read more
Published 17 months ago by Mr. C. Morris
3.0 out of 5 stars A Fun Romp Through Paris' History
An engaging and at times humorous and dark look at the secret history of Paris, the history of this city as seen by the poor, the disposed, the criminals, the prostitutes, poets,... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Aussie Reader
2.0 out of 5 stars Generally OK as a starting point
I bought this in Paris as I fancied something to read on the area as an introduction to the history of one of the most important cities in the world. Read more
Published 22 months ago by S. Pomfrett
5.0 out of 5 stars Great light read
I took this to Paris on my last visit. It's not an academic read, nor does it set out to be one. This is a great light read highly entertaining, especially if you are intending... Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2008 by David C. Edwards
3.0 out of 5 stars Paris: The Secret History - Andrew Hussey
In short, this a 'Horrible History' for adults. It is not history in the academic sense. It's more like biography, and owes much to Peter Ackroyd's biography of London. Read more
Published on 20 Dec 2007 by Jonathan Birch
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