Description
Book SynopsisThe book provides a ''flâneur''s eye view'' of Parisian life in the first half of the nineteenth century: dress, cafés and restaurants, but also shops and passages, the omnibus, bals publics and carnival. The author provides general conclusions about the private and public spheres in ''le vieux Paris''. Like the flâneur, the author concentrates less on factual information for its own sake - which may be found in the secondary works cited in the text and footnotes - than on the ''semiological'' or anthropological significance of the cultural forms in question. Links are drawn between cultural institutions and class relations in pre-1850 Paris, with particular emphasis on cultural inequality, on the persistence of cross-class contacts, and the growing differences between classes as reflected in behaviour and attitudes.
Table of Contents1. The flâneur
2. Human hieroglyphs: the role of dress in Parisian life
3. The rise of the café
4. The restaurant
5. *Guingettes*, *goguettes* and *marchands de vin*
6. Shops and shopping
7. The omnibus
8. *Bals public*
9. Carnival
10. *Saltimbanques* and prostitutes
11. Conclusion: 'public' and 'private' in pre-1850 Paris
Notes and references
