Left Bank: Art, Passion and the Rebirth of Paris 1940–1950 - Softcover

Poirier, Agnès

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1408857472 ISBN 13: 9781408857472

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018

Synopsis

'Rich and funny' Julian Barnes, Guardian

'Poirier's hugely enjoyable, quick-witted and richly anecdotal book is magnifique' The Times

A captivating portrait of those who lived, loved, fought, played and flourished in Paris between 1940 and 1950 and whose intellectual and artistic output still influences us today.

After the horrors of the Second World War, Paris was the place where the world's most original voices of the time came - among them Norman Mailer, Miles Davis, Simone de Beauvoir, James Baldwin, Juliette Greco, Alberto Giacometti, Saul Bellow and Arthur Koestler. Fuelled by the elation of the Liberation, these pioneers hoped to find an alternative to the Capitalist and Communist models for life, art and politics - a Third Way.

Agnès Poirier transports us to a time when Paris was at the heart of all that was new and brave and controversial, skilfully weaving together a collage of images and destinies.

About this title

Review

Briskly plotted, gossip-fuelled, character-driven cultural history ... Poirier's hugely enjoyable, quick-witted and richly anecdotal book is magnifique' (The Times)

A tour de force . weaves together so many people, ideas, trends, occurrences, and above all Parisian places, into a tapestry of fascinations - a distillation of the essence of an amazing time . the best of its kind I have ever read (A.C. Grayling)

A brilliant recapturing of a fascinating era. Artistic and intellectual Paris comes vividly and memorably alive in these pages. A tremendous achievement (William Boyd)

Weighty thought and earthy behaviour are the twin engines behind Agnès Poirier's briskly entertaining ride through France's most mouvemonté decade (Sunday Times)

Poirier does not shy away from exposing the joy and pain of experimental living or from exploring with sensitivity the moral ambiguity of living through the Occupation ... compulsive reading (Anne Sebba, author of 'Les Parisiennes: Resistance, Collaboration, and the Women of Paris Under Nazi Occupation')

A book which combines rich and subtle intellectual history with all the pleasures of a great soap opera. Its gallery of characters is wonderfully realised - but the most wonderfully realised of all is Paris herself (Tom Holland)

A remarkably exhilarating read . Left Bank is an enchanting account of how these exceptionally talented and original people not merely endured these harsh years but also found pleasure, and even a kind of joy, in creating small pockets of private utopia . Poirier is acute and witty on the love-hate relationship between Paris and America (Kevin Jackson Literary Review)

Left Bank reads as an erudite and deeply satisfying gossip column, in which each story is more incredible than the last (New Republic)

Left Bank moves scene to scene, cafe to cafe, tracing the affiliations and intrigues of a group of writers, philosophers, artists and curators ... [Poirier] manages to create the feeling we're peeking into the windows of her subjects, looking at buildings that still stand, at inhabitants long gone (International New York Times)

A detailed chronicle of a decade alive with intellectual and political ferment. London-based journalist Poirier (Touché: A French Woman's Take on the English, 1997), a panel member of the BBC's weekly program Dateline London, offers a gossipy, well-informed cultural history of her native Paris, beginning in 1938, with Europe on the brink of war, and ending in 1949, with the Marshall Plan in effect to help the continent recover . An animated, abundantly populated history of dramatic times (Kirkus)

Book Description

A captivating portrait of those who lived, loved, fought, played and flourished in Paris between 1940 and 1950 and whose intellectual and artistic output still influences us today

About this edition

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1408857472
• ISBN 13: 9781408857472
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 400