Paris

I am consultant in the Fashion industry in NYC and I help to manage a Paris-based fashion trade show here in NY so I need to stay up to date on what is happening in Paris and the rest of Europe in terms of design and the retail market. This comprehensive, colorfully-written guide made Paris come alive for me and it gave me a desire to go to Paris just to peek in store windows and shop! A must-have guide for an upcoming trip to Paris, or just to have a good, cleverly-written, witty, right-on-the-mark read!

This is an incredible collection of accurate and concisely written comments on places to shop and enjoy the Parisian experience. The author pulls no punches(one store is described as "having the cloying odor of a freshly cleaned toilet"), and gives first-hand information on each store,cleverly written in the style of an American Francophile. An excellent series of maps and category indexes, and a size that begs to be carried, add to the value of this excellent reference source.

I used to get this book out of the library EVERY WEEK about 6 years ago in Australia. My two boys then 2 1/2 and 8 months LOVED this book (especially the two year old). We moved away from that library and I have never been able to track the book down, until I bought Tiger Trouble (by Diane Goode) and recognised the illustrations. The book we had also had the story in French at the bottom of the page, and I would read that to them too. It is a delightful story that kids seem to instantly identify with. They are so happy and relieved at the end when the children find their mother and they love looking for her in all the pictures. It is such a shame that this book is out of print as it should be a classic! I'm trying to get it from amazon.co.uk as well, as they may be able to find me the one with the French in it too. If I get two, it won't matter as I know it would make a wonderful gift to any child.

My family loves this book about lost children and a friendly policeman who search for their mama. It works on several levels: 1.) Language repetition for the child -( but not boring for the adult.) 2.) Hide and seek visual interest as we see mama looking for her children who are looking for her. 3.) Logic as the policeman follows the children's clues about their mama. 4.) Public safety as a positive presentation of whom to trust for help when lost. 5.) Plus it all starts in a lovely French railroad station for children who love trains. Amazingly, I have not been able to order this book through retail stores. (I got it from the library). Perhaps if more people discover this delightful read, the publishers will make it available again.

Buy it! Buy it! Buy it! It's his only work in print. A unique, and underdiscussed voice, in photography. Enough w/ the Ansel Adams.

Buy it! Buy it! Buy it! At the time of this writing, it's his only work in print. A unique --- and underdiscussed --- voice in photography. A welcome alternative to Ansel Adams.

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This is not great Balzac, though lovers of the Comedie Humaine will read it happily - and in a single evening because it is brief. Much of the story is background related by one character to another in a handful of long sections - a weak narrative strategy. The story of a father and grandson who collaborate to insulate their invalid daughter and mother from the truth of their economic situation might have been turned into a farce by Moliere or Beaumarchais. (And the invalid story has an almost exact parallel in a Dickens story published contemporaneously...)

But the book is worth reading. Many observers have noted that although Balzac often reaches for poetic discourse, he rarely succeeds at the level of the best French writers. Some crtitics have even harsher opinions. At his best, though, Balzac crafts beautifully in an epigrammatic mode. His prose can be wonderfully dense with careful observation and his analysis as relentlessly logical and sympathetic as something by Montaigne or Voltaire. He is not a poetic writer, but he is a very easy writer to read and this is a first-rate translation. A REALLY good translation!

Consider these two early paragraphs:

"But here too, through the crude machinations of some, the prodigality of others, the wealth of his rival capitalists, the caprices of his editors, Godefroid was once again undone. At the same time, he was dragged into the many compromises of literary and political life, the habit of jeering from the sidelines, the endless distractions required by men whiose intellects are never allowed to rest. He thus found himself in bad company, but at least he learned that he had an insignificant face, and one shoulder greater than the other, and no unusual gift for ruthlessness or special generosity of spirit to compensate fior those flaws. The right to be rude is the salary that artists exact for telling the truth. Short, ill-formed, with neither wit nor direction, our young man had little to hope for in an age when the finest mind has no chance of success without the concurrence of good fortune, or the sort of doggedness that makes its own luck. "

We owe Katharine Prescott Wormeley a great deal. Once we wander from the central canon of the Comedie Humaine, her tireless efforts in translating Balzac for the inexpensive "classics" volumes sold door-to-door in England and America around the turn of the century become the sole readily-available translations. While serviceable, they don't compare to those of Kathleen Raine or A.J. Kralsheimer or (especially) Rayner Heppenstall. Mr. Jordan Stump, on the strength of this volume, joins that exalted fraternity.

Lest you think I'm too harsh on KPWormeley, consider her rendering of the same parapraphs:

"In this sphere Godefroid was soon outdone by the brutal Machiavellianism of some, or by the lavish prodigality of others; by the fortunes of ambitious capitalists, or by the wit and shrewdness of editors. Meantime he was drawn into all the dissipations that arise from literary or political life, and he yielded to the temptations incurred by journalists behind the scenes. He soon found himself in bad company; but this experience taught him that his appearance was insignificant, that he had one shoulder higher than the other, without the inequality being redeemed by either malignancy or kindness of nature. Such were the truths these artists made him feel. Small, ill-made, without superiority of mind or settled purpose, what chance was there for a man like that in an age when success in any career demands that the highest qualities of the mind be furthered by luck, or by tenacity of will which commands luck.

That tough, analytical prose just isn't there. And in my opinion, it is Balzac's stylistic hallmark - the thing that distinguished him to his contemporaries and to Henry James. Stump nails it.

Another reason to spend an evening with this volume is that it was obviously baking at the same time as Cousin Bette - that chilling tale of rakes and their accomplices in vice. There is really no bottom to the libertinage of Hulot and Crevel or to the malice of Bette, the calculation of Mme. Marneffe or the amorality of Jenny Cadine. Early in his apprenticeship, Godefroide is advised by Monsieur Alain:

"Do you know the moral of the story?"
"Tell me," Godefroide replied, "for I might see in it something other than you."
"Well," said the old man, "here it is: Pleasure is nothing more than an accident in a Christian's life. It is not the goal..."

I take this to be the central meaning of the story. And while The Wrong Side of Paris is a very evocative title, I think "Flipside of Contemporary History" more accurately captures the sense of Balzac's title - documenting a world at sharp angles to that of Cousin Bette. In his systematic way, Balzac reminds us that virtue drives the lives of some Parisians.

As for Mr. Stump: I'd love him to aim his considerable talent at Louis Lambert. or Albert Savarus. or A Woman of Thirty. And there are others... I hope he hasn't moved on to Guy de Maupassant.

There is something immensely comforting in reading a book by one of your favorite authors. In college, Balzac was always one of my favorite writers, mostly due to the scope of his lifelong writing project, a brilliant attempt to encapsulate all of Parisian life through fiction; the magic, politics, economics, and religion of a very unique group of people.

This new translation is a wonderful addition to any English-speaking Balzac fan's shelf. Here you'll find Balzac's incessant cataloging of Parisian society set amidst an intriguing story. Godefroid, a directionless drifter, finds himself initiated into an underground religious group which performs acts of charity for the truly needy and unfortunate.

The story consists mainly of Godefroid's education in the ways of the group and his application of that knowledge to his first "charitable assignment." I won't give anything specific away by telling you that there is marvelous twist in the story that gracefully pulls everything together at the end of the book.

This is a book with a big heart and will not disappoint fans of Balzac. I only wish that someone would create a modern English translation of all of his novels. I guess I'm going to have to study back up on my French if I really want to read them all...

Each December the Los Angeles Times Book Review recommends books for the holiday season. On December 7, 2003, out of roughly 1,500 titles reviewed, ten books in non-fiction and ten in fiction were singled out as "The Best of the Best." At the top of the non-fiction list appeared Wayne Andersen's THE YOUTH OF CEZANNE AND ZOLA. Truly a marvelous book, art historically and biographically sound, by this leading expert on modern at with previous books on Cézanne, Gauguin, and Picasso. In West Coast/East Coast acclaim,Andersen's BOOK, GAUGUIN'S PARADISE LOST was a New York Times "Book of the Times."

Andersen's excellent and engrossing book is original in that it translates the two men's correspondence at length and successfully challenges the conventional psychoanalytic interpretations of their relationship (which made Cézanne a woman-hater). It will doubtless receive a lot of attention from experts in the visual arts, but for others it will be as interesting as a case study in friendship.
.....as reviewed by Theodore Zeldin in the Los Angeles Times Book Review on 24 August 2003.

This is extremely well written and it's one of the best concepts I have ever seen. I will definitely buy more!

I have used several differnt travel guide book, and have found the AAA Essential series to be the best. This book is accurate in the best places to see. It also has the things to do to see the local culture, and explains when places are open and closed. It is also lightweight and slim, so it is easy to carry along anywhere.

I got this book as a last minute gift for my mom who loved her visit to Paris last year. She open it and looked at the gorgeous arial view pictures and almost cried. If you really love Paris, you will really love this book.

Why? Because this book has literally handed me the tools and knowledge I need to get the best possible deal on anything and everything! Never again will I need to pay full price for clothes, appliances, vacations, cars and even homes! The advice given is sound, easy to understand and simple to implement. Read this book and never get ripped off again!