Paris at the End of the World: The City of Light During the Great War, 1914-1918

Description

A preeminent writer on Paris, John Baxter brilliantly brings to life one of the most dramatic and fascinating periods in the city's history. During World War I, the terrifying sounds of the nearby front could be heard from inside the French capital; Germany's "Paris Gun" and enemy aviators routinely bombarded the city. And yet in its darkest hour, the City of Light blazed more brightly than ever. Its taxis shuttled troops to the front; its great railway stations received reinforcements from across the world; its grand museums and cathedrals housed the wounded; and the Eiffel Tower hummed at all hours, relaying messages to and from the trenches. At night, Parisians lived with urgency and without inhibition, embracing the lush and the libertine. The rich hosted parties that depleted their wine cellars of the finest vintages. Artists such as Pablo Picasso achieved new creative heights. And the war brought a wave of foreigners to the city for the first time, including Ernest Hemingway and Baxter's own grandfather, Archie, whose diaries he uses to reconstruct a soldier's-eye view of the war years. Uncovering a thrilling chapter in Paris's history, John Baxter's revelatory new book shows how this extraordinary period was essential in forging the spirit of the city we love today.

John Baxter is a film critic, novelist, biographer and broadcaster, whose books on the cinema include The Hollywood Exiles, The Cinema of John Ford, and highly praised biographies of Ken Russell, Fellini, Bunuel, Steven Spielberg, Kubrick and Woody Allen. Born in Australia, John Baxter now lives in Paris.

"A lively Parisian narrative. ... Engaging." -- New York Times Book Review "Well-researched and entertaining. ... The content is compelling and the writing vivid. ... Baxter's anecdotes and observations are consistently enlightening." -- Washington Post "Lively and characterful. ... Shows the panache the French brought to their 'improvised' war." -- Liesl Schillinger in the New York Times (9 Books That Would Make Great Gifts) "An intimate memoir of his grandfather's experiences of that war. ... All this is done with Baxter's inimitable lightness of touch and conversational style, which often belies the profound knowledge he has of his adoptive city." -- Anton Gill, author of A Dance Between the Flames: Berlin Between the Wars and An Honourable Defeat: A History of German Resistance to Hitler, 1933-1945 "An enjoyable, swift read ... as fun as a work of historical fiction." -- Kirkus Reviews "Captivating... In the series of vignettes and anecdotes that make up this elegant and sophisticated book, Baxter reveals an encyclopaedic knowledge of the City of Light." -- Sydney Morning Herald "Engaging. ... An entertaining story of wartime Paris, and of Baxter's search to find his heritage within it." -- The Australian "The most original and unexpectedly beguiling account of the Great War I have ever read. John Baxter is one of the master storytellers of our age ... A revelation, an adventure, a joy to read." -- Kevin Jackson, author of Constellation of Genius:1922: Modernism Year One.