A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to history of the place and in covert search of adventure, aesthetic or erotic. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. Entering the Marais evokes the history of Jews in France, a visit to Haynes Grill recalls the presence - festive, troubled - of black Americans in Paris for a century and a half. Gays, Decadents, even Royalists past and present are all subjected to flaneur's scrutiny. In his opinionated fashion, the flaneur visits bookshops and boutiques, monuments and palaces, providing gossip and background to each site, looking through the blank walls past the proud edifices to glimpse the inner human drama. Along the way he recounts everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette's life. In the first book in The Writer and the City series, Edmund White lures the reader into the fascinating backstreets of his personal Paris. It is an exhilirating adventure with a most seductive companion.
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The Flâneur A Stroll Through the Paradoxes of Paris
By Edmund White
A flaneur is a stroller, a loiterer, someone who ambles through a city without apparent purpose but is secretly attuned to history of the place and in covert search of adventure, aesthetic or erotic. Edmund White, who lived in Paris for sixteen years, wanders through the streets and avenues and along the quays, into parts of Paris virtually unknown to visitors and indeed to many Parisians. Entering the Marais evokes the history of Jews in France, a visit to Haynes Grill recalls the presence - festive, troubled - of black Americans in Paris for a century and a half. Gays, Decadents, even Royalists past and present are all subjected to flaneur's scrutiny. In his opinionated fashion, the flaneur visits bookshops and boutiques, monuments and palaces, providing gossip and background to each site, looking through the blank walls past the proud edifices to glimpse the inner human drama. Along the way he recounts everything from the latest debates among French lawmakers to the juicy details of Colette's life. In the first book in The Writer and the City series, Edmund White lures the reader into the fascinating backstreets of his personal Paris. It is an exhilirating adventure with a most seductive companion.
Popular Reviews(1)
Reviewed by ShiDas Buch bietet einen umfassenden Einblick in das Leben in Paris. White beleuchtet Lebensstile und Ethnien und wie sich diese in der Geschichte von Paris entwickelt haben, unter anderem Menschen jüdischen Glaubens und queere Personen. Leider waren viele Abschnitte sehr biografisch geprägt, was nicht meinem persönlichem Geschmack entspricht, doch White nutzt eine humoristische Herangehensweise und spickt diese mit Fun Facts, weshalb mir das Lesen dieses Buches Spaß machte.