Recommendations for Paris reading?

December 15, 2006 5:38 PM

Recommendations for historical fiction about Paris? I'll be there for a couple of weeks, and have found that historical novels can really help me sink my teeth into a place. I have no particular era in mind, so the period is less important than the setting and the writing.
posted by walla to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (21 answers total)

This is pretty obvious, but I really enjoyed reading "Les Miserables" before I went to Paris as a teen.
posted by np312 at 5:49 PM on December 15, 2006

Hotel Transylvania if you like vampire stories; Les Miserables otherwise.
posted by spasm at 5:52 PM on December 15, 2006

http://www.omahapubliclibrary.org/reads/bookbibs/paris.html
http://www.lakeco.lib.in.us/april_in_paris.htm

Not all historical but all Paris. And not mentioned on either list - Eugène Sue's The Mysteries of Paris.
posted by TheRaven at 6:04 PM on December 15, 2006

Perfume is a fun read and it takes place largely in Paris.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 6:18 PM on December 15, 2006

The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas, The Sun Also Rises and A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
posted by Manjusri at 6:47 PM on December 15, 2006

For between the WWars, Alan Furst; and especially Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast.
posted by Rash at 6:48 PM on December 15, 2006

Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety (if length is not an issue).
posted by thomas j wise at 7:07 PM on December 15, 2006

Oh, and same time period: Anatole France, The Gods Will Have Blood (Les Dieux Ont Soif)
posted by thomas j wise at 7:09 PM on December 15, 2006

Emile Zola. I liked Nana a lot -- about a courtesan in Napoleon III's Paris. This is also the only 19th century lit originally published in French that has a 60s ska song based upon it. Well, AFAIK.

Whatcha gonna call her and say?
Whatcha gonna call her now?
"Do what I say girl
Na do what I do"?
Because she take our heads.
She take our heads -- Ima telling you!
She take our heads, last night, wa ask
A fe come to bed?
Oh, Nana, oh...
-- The Slickers
posted by Methylviolet at 7:10 PM on December 15, 2006

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a must, because if you're in Paris you will certainly visit the catherdral. The original title is simply "Notre Dame de Paris", and with good reason; the book is really about the cathedral and the city, not the hunchback.

I read it years before I actually visited Paris, and seeing the cathedral brought it all flooding back. I could picture Quasimodo running back and forth on the balcony outside. I could see him running up the stairs to the bell tower. It was amazing. I felt sorry for all the tourists who hadn't read the book.
posted by PercussivePaul at 7:11 PM on December 15, 2006

James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room" is great.
posted by np312 at 8:42 PM on December 15, 2006

La-Bas by Joris-Karl Huysmans...excellent book.
posted by milarepa at 8:57 PM on December 15, 2006

I also recommend Zola, especially L'Assommoir. Wow it's good. You won't see any quotes from it in a travel brochure, but it sure is set in Paris.
posted by Ohdemah at 9:09 PM on December 15, 2006

Stendahl's The Red and the Black is a great, hefty piece of historical fiction. But while a good amount of the book takes place in post-Napoleonic Paris, the novel is more character-driven. If I recall correctly, the descriptions of the city itself are secondary to the characters who make up the story. Still, it's a good "French" novel in that it captures the attitudes and culture of a particular time in the country's history.
posted by Kronoss at 10:45 PM on December 15, 2006

Oh, and Orewell's Down and Out In Paris and London is a harsh, unromantic depiction of expat life in 1930's Paris. But it might make you wary of eating in a Parisian restaurant ever again (or any restaurant for that matter).
posted by Kronoss at 10:51 PM on December 15, 2006

And that should be Orwell, not Orewell. I can't believe I don't know how to spell the name of one of my favorite writers.
posted by Kronoss at 11:08 PM on December 15, 2006

i was just about to suggest orwell's down and out, so instead i'll suggest hemingway's the sun also rises. though only about half set in paris, it's a beautiful story about left-bank jazz-age lost generation types.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 11:13 PM on December 15, 2006

I enjoyed Sartre's "Nausea", and when I visited Paris (briefly) 12 months ago, I found flashes of the novel coming back to me.

Here's a list of books set in Paris.
posted by robcorr at 3:44 AM on December 16, 2006

Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch
posted by candyland at 5:55 AM on December 16, 2006

I'll second Notre Dame of Paris. The story meanders a bit, but is overall quite entertaining and well written.
posted by tkolar at 9:57 AM on December 16, 2006

I would highly recommend Ernest Hemingway - A Movable Feast, recording 5 years of his life as a writer on the left back on the Seine. Its just old enough (1920's) to feel historical, but gives a beautiful flavour of life in Paris, its nice to know you can still walk the streets he walked.

I'd also recommend reading a biography of Toulouse-Lautrec - who lived a large part of his life in a very small area around MontMatre - his apartment and studio are there (not sure if you can visit) - and again, you can walk the streets to the places he frequented. I know this is not a novel, but I can't think of a better way to get a flavour of Paris.
posted by mattr at 6:39 AM on December 17, 2006