Paris Between Empires : Monarchy and Revolution 1814-1852

by Mansel, Philip

• ISBN13: 9780312308575
• ISBN10: 0312308574
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-04-05
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Summary

Paris between 1814 and 1852 was the capital of Europe, a city of power and pleasure, a magnet for people of all nationalities that exerted an influence far beyond the reaches of France. Paris was the stage where the great conflicts of the age, between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, revolution and royalism, socialism and capitalism, atheism and Catholicism, were fought out before the audience of Europe. As Prince Metternich said: When Paris sneezes, Europe catches cold. Not since imperial Rome has one city so dominated European life. Paris Between Empires tells the story of this golden age, from the entry of the allies into Paris on March 31, 1814, after the defeat of Napoleon I, to the proclamation of his nephew Louis-Napoleon, as Napoleon III in the Hocirc;tel de Ville on December 2, 1852. During those years, Paris, the seat of a new parliamentary government, was a truly cosmopolitan capital, home to Rossini, Heine, and Princess Lieven, as well as Berlioz, Chateaubriand, and Madame Recamier. Its salons were crowded with artisans and aristocrats from across Europe, attracted by the freedom from the political, social, and sexual restrictions that they endured at home. This was a time, too, of political turbulence and dynastic intrigue, of violence on the streets, and women manipulating men and events from their salons. In describing it Philip Mansel draws on the unpublished letters and diaries of some of the city's leading figures and of the foreigners who flocked there, among them Lady Holland, two British ambassadors, Lords Stuart de Rothesay and Normanby, and Charles de Flahaut, lover of Napoleon's step-daughter Queen Hortense. This fascinating book shows that the European ideal was as alive in the nineteenth century as it is today.

Author Biography

Philip Mansel, who has lived and taught in Paris, is the author of, among other works, Louis XVIII, The Court of France 1789-1830, and Constantinople: City of the World’s Desire 1453-1924. He coedited The French Emigres in Europe 1789-1814, has written for numerous newspapers and periodicals, and is editor of the Court Historian, newsletter of the Society for Court Studies.

Table of Contents

Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Maps
Death of an Empire: Europe takes Paris March-June 1814	p. 1
Paris takes Europe July 1814-March 1815	p. 38
War March-December 1815	p. 67
Chambers and Salons 1815-1820	p. 103
The British Parisians 1814-1830	p. 141
Murder at the Opera 1820-1824	p. 165
King and Country 1824-1829	p. 199
The New Jerusalem August 1829-December 1830	p. 226
Blood on the Boulevards 1831-1838	p. 280
City of Ink 1830-1848	p. 307
Nationalists and Europeans 1838-1840	p. 329
Funerals 1840-1844	p. 369
The People 1844-1852	p. 383
Conclusion: Birth of an Empire Versailles, 17 January 1871	p. 423
The Royal Family of France	p. 433
The Three Cousins	p. 434
Foreign Writers, Painters and Musicians Resident in Paris	p. 435
Franco-British and Franco-Irish Marriages	p. 437
Notes	p. 439
Bibliography	p. 522
Index	p. 544
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