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'Splendid,' Literary Review
Paris in the Belle Époque era (1870-1914) is remembered as a golden age. By day Parisians could admire the rising Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Coeur Basilica, while at night they roamed the Bohemian world of the Moulin Rouge.
But as Mike Rapport reveals in this beautifully written new history beneath the elegant veneer, the Belle Époque was also an era of social and religious unrest, arguments over women's emancipation and violent clashes over what it meant to be French.
Paris pulsated with pleasure and anxieties stemming from the giddying speed of modernity: blazing electric lights illuminating the night, the first cars speeding down the boulevards, as well as the first Métro trains and aeroplane flights. At the same time reactionary forces reasserted themselves-most dramatically in the infamous Dreyfus affair.
Mike Rapport weaves together stories of splendour and suffering, delight and agony, offering a brilliant account of the shadows cast across the City of Light.
'A fascinating, multi-layered panorama of the evolution of the French capital' - Jonathan Fenby, author of The History of Modern France
'City of Light, City of Shadows had me spellbound' - Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse