Paris 1919: Six Months That Changed the World
by Margaret Macmillan
from Random House Trade Paperbacks
National Bestseller
New York Times Editors’ Choice
Winner of the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize
Winner of the Duff Cooper Prize
Silver Medalist for the Arthur Ross Book Award
of the Council on Foreign Relations
Finalist for the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award
For six months in 1919, after the end of “the war to end all wars,” the Big Three—President Woodrow Wilson, British prime minister David Lloyd George, and French premier Georges Clemenceau—met in Paris to shape a lasting peace. In this landmark work of narrative history, Margaret MacMillan gives a dramatic and intimate view of those fateful days, which saw new political entities—Iraq, Yugoslavia, and Palestine, among them—born out of the ruins of bankrupt empires, and the borders of the modern world redrawn.
The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism
by Ross King
from Walker & Company
The Judgment of Paris chronicles the dramatic decade between two famous exhibitions—the scandalous Salon des Refuses in 1863 and the first Impressionist showing in 1874—set against the rise and dramatic fall of Napoleon III and the Second Empire after the Franco-Prussian War. A tale of many artists, it revolves around the lives of two, described as “the two poles of art”—Ernest Meissonier, the most famous and successful painter of the 19th century, hailed for his precision and devotion to history; and Edouard Manet, reviled in his time, who nonetheless heralded the most radical change in the history of art since the Renaissance. Out of the fascinating story of their parallel lives, illuminated by their legendary supporters and critics—Zola, Delacroix, Courbet, Baudelaire, Whistler, Monet, Hugo, Degas, and many more—Ross King shows that their contest was not just about Art, it was about competing visions of a rapidly changing world.
With a novelist’s skill and the insight of an historian, King recalls a seminal period when Paris was the artistic center of the world, and a revolutionary movement had the power to electrify and divide a nation.
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier
by Thad Carhart
from Random House Trade Paperbacks
Walking his two young children to school every morning, Thad Carhart passes an unassuming little storefront in his Paris neighborhood. Intrigued by its simple sign—Desforges Pianos—he enters, only to have his way barred by the shop’s imperious owner. Unable to stifle his curiosity, he finally lands the proper introduction, and a world previously hidden is brought into view. Luc, the atelier’s master, proves an indispensable guide to the history and art of the piano. Intertwined with the story of a musical friendship are reflections on how pianos work, their glorious history, and stories of the people who care for them, from amateur pianists to the craftsmen who make the mechanism sing. The Piano Shop on the Left Bank is at once a beguiling portrait of a Paris not found on any map and a tender account of the awakening of a lost childhood passion.
Praise for The Piano Shop on the Left Bank:
“[Carhart’s] writing is fluid and lovely enough to lure the rustiest plunker back to the piano bench and the most jaded traveler back to Paris.”
–San Francisco Chronicle
“Captivating . . . [Carhart] joins the tiny company of foreigners who have written of the French as verbs. . . . What he tries to capture is not the sight of them, but what they see.”
–The New York Times
“Thoroughly engaging . . . In part it is a book about that most unpredictable and pleasurable of human experiences, serendipity. . . . The book is also about something more difficult to pin down, friendship and community.”
–The Washington Post
“Carhart writes with a sensuousness enhanced by patience and grounded by the humble acquisition of new insight into music, his childhood, and his relationship to the city of Paris.”
–The New Yorker
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947 - 1957
from Victoria and Albert Museum
In 1947, Christian Dior’s “New Look” was greeted with both shock and delight, making headlines around the world. Accompanying the exhibition opening at the Victoria and Albert Museum in September 2007, this lavish book focuses on Parisian and British couture between 1947 and 1957, the decade Dior hailed as fashion’s “golden age.”
The “New Look” symbolized a new femininity. The full skirts and hourglass silhouettes were considered highly decadent, synonymous with luxury and prosperity, in marked contrast to the austerity of the WWII years. Nevertheless, the “New Look” caught the public imagination and ushered in a period of remarkable creativity. The Golden Age of Couture features stunning gowns and exquisite tailoring from Dior as well as from such designers as Balenciaga, Balmain, and Givenchy, along with evocative photographs by the likes of Richard Avedon and Cecil Beaton.
This beautifully designed book reveals the skill and craftsmanship of haute couture along with the inner workings of the exclusive design houses, and the inspiration behind some of the most famous styles of all time.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE:
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, September 27–January 6, 2008
Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the Historic 1976 Paris Tasting That Revolutionized Wine
by George M. Taber
from Scribner
Told for the first time by the only reporter present, this is the true story of the legendary Paris Tasting of 1976 -- a blind tasting where French judges shocked the industry by choosing unknown California wines over France's best -- and its revolutionary impact on the world of wine.
The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History houses, amid its illustrious artifacts, two bottles of wine: a 1973 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. These are the wines that won at the now-famous Paris Tasting in 1976, where a panel of top French wine experts compared some of France's most famous wines with a new generation of California wines. Little did they know the wine industry would be completely transformed as a result, sparking a golden age for viticulture that extends beyond France's hallowed borders -- to Australia, Chile, South Africa, New Zealand, and across the globe.
Then Paris correspondent for Time magazine, George M. Taber recounts this seminal contest and its far-reaching effects, focusing on the three gifted unknowns behind the winning wines: a college lecturer, a real estate lawyer, and a Yugoslavian immigrant. At a time when California was best known for cheap jug wine, these pioneers used radical new techniques alongside time-honored winemaking traditions to craft premium American wines that could stand up to France's finest.
With unique access to the main players and a contagious passion for his subject, Taber renders this historic event and its tremendous aftershocks in captivating prose, bringing to life an eclectic cast and magnificent settings. For lovers of wine and anyone who enjoys a story of the entrepreneurial spirit of the new world conquering the old, this is an illuminating and deeply satisfying tale.
Walks Through Lost Paris: A Journey Into the Heart of Historic Paris
by Leonard Pitt
from Shoemaker & Hoard
Paris-Roubaix: A Journey Through Hell
by Philippe Bouvet
from VeloPress
Paris Interiors (Taschen 25th Anniversary Series)
by Lisa Lovatt-Smith
from Taschen
Private Paris homes only open their doors to the few. This book shows us around 50 imaginatively conceived apartments and houses, the homes of prominent people such as Isabella Adjani, Helena Christensen and Christian and Francoise Lacroix. How we live is who we are. These interiors are "mirrors of the soul," showing the true personalities of those who live in them. From baroque opulence to cool understatement to colourful exoticism, their style is unforced - these are homes that people live in, not museum pieces. They also document Parisian vogues - for the Frech Thirties and Forties, for the furniture of Jean-Michel Frank and Jean Royere, for Diego Giacometti's stucco work, or the design features of the Vienna Secession. This book documents a particularly energetic and fertile moment in one of the world's most beautiful cities. Paris Interiors brings together a selection of extraordinary apartments in the French capital, chosen purely for their individuality. From wicked fun to timeless classicism, everything in this unique book will be an inspiration.
Paris 1962: Yves Saint Laurent and Dior, Christian Dior, The Early Collections
by Jerry Schatzberg
from Rizzoli
On assignment for Esquire magazine in 1962, fashion photographer and filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg documented the ultra-exclusive world of French haute couture in stunning photographs of famous fashion icons. All the glamour and drama of the runway is presented, including images of Yves Saint Laurent’s first collection after leaving Dior, as well as tastemakers such as Diana Vreeland and American Vogue editor Jessica Daves mingling in the chic crowds. As an insider, Schatzberg was permitted entry into the private, behind-the-scenes world of the models and photographers, which he reveals in candid images of renowned photographers such as Helmut Newton, William Klein, Hiro, and Norman Parkinson perfecting their glamour shots.Schatzberg’s images embody an era in fashion history, and document the glamour, intrigue, and opulence of the Parisian runway shows. With an eye for subtle moments of elegance, drama, and humor, Schatzberg captures the essence of the period’s style and grace.
Metro Stop Paris: An Underground History of the City of Light
by Gregor Dallas
from Walker & Company
Métro Stop Paris recounts the extraordinary and colorful history of the City of Light, by way of twelve Métro stops—a voyage across both space and time. At each stop a Parisian building, or street, or tomb or landmark sparks a story that holds particular significance for that area of the city.
Dallas takes us to the jazz cellars and literary cafés of Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Prés; the catacombs at Hell’s Gate; and the Opéra during the days of Claude Debussy. A darker side of Paris emerges at the Trocadéro stop and a charitable side at the Gare du Nord, which highlights the work of Saint Vincent de Paul. Finally, our journey ends at Père-Lachaise cemetery with the little-known story of Oscar Wilde’s curious involvement in the Dreyfus affair, one of France’s greatest legal scandals. From Hell (the Denfert-Rochereau stop on the south side of the city) to Heaven (the Gare du Nord at the north end of Paris), Métro Stop Paris carries readers on a journey of the heart and mind.
Métro Stop Paris is a thinker’s guide to Paris made up of “slices of life,” little vignettes drawn from Paris’s two thousand years of history. Taken separately, these are charming historic tales about a city known and loved by many, but read as a whole Métro Stop Paris goes straight to the heart of what is quintessentially Parisian.
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