{"product_id":"9781839767258-balzacs-paris","title":"Balzac's Paris","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe City as Human Comedy\u003cbr\u003eExploring Paris arm in arm with Balzac, nineteenth-century France's most famous novelist and observer\u003cbr\u003eIn Balzac's vast \u003ci\u003eHuman Comedy\u003c\/i\u003e, a body of ninety-one completed novels and stories, he endeavoured to create a complete picture of contemporary French society and manners. Within this work is a loving ode to Paris and an incomparable introduction to the first capital of the modern world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo this ageless city he makes a declaration of love in an accumulation of finely observed detail - the cafés, landmarks, avenues, parks - and captures the populace in countless meticulously drawn portraits: its lawyers, grisettes, journalists, concierges, usurers, salesmen, speculators.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBalzac gathered the elements of this Paris by sauntering through it. 'To saunter is a science,' he writes, 'it is the gastronomy of the eye. To take a walk is to vegetate; to saunter is to live.' Eric Hazan follows in Balzac's footsteps, criss-crossing the city in the novelist's outsize boots, running between printers, publishers, coffee merchants, mistresses and friends, stopping for a moment, struck by a detail that would be fixed in Balzac's photographic memory.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMore than a tour of the city, \u003ci\u003eBalzac's Paris\u003c\/i\u003e is an attempt to measure the soul of a city as recovered in its finest literature.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41706779410529,"sku":"9781839767258","price":13.64,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_29646358.jpg?v=1725974171","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781839767258-balzacs-paris","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}