In 1925 Janet Flanner began writing a fortnightly 'Letter from Paris' for the nascent New Yorker. Her brief: to tell New Yorkers, under her pen name of 'Genet', what the French thought was going on in France, not what she thought. Paris Was Yesterday is a collection of those letters written in the '20s and '30s, surely one of the most fascinating periods in the city's history, and it reads like an Arts Who's Who. Flanner saw it all and knew everyone (or at least all about them), and there are tidbits galore about the likes ...
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In 1925 Janet Flanner began writing a fortnightly 'Letter from Paris' for the nascent New Yorker. Her brief: to tell New Yorkers, under her pen name of 'Genet', what the French thought was going on in France, not what she thought. Paris Was Yesterday is a collection of those letters written in the '20s and '30s, surely one of the most fascinating periods in the city's history, and it reads like an Arts Who's Who. Flanner saw it all and knew everyone (or at least all about them), and there are tidbits galore about the likes of James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, Isadora Duncan, Diaghilev, Gertrude Stein, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Picasso, Marlena Dietrich... It's witty, catty, literary and unashamedly gossipy, a lively portrait of the thriving cultural life in Paris between the wars. In the brilliantly entertaining style she made her own, Flanner mixed high and low culture to devastating effect. ' Cafe Society described from the best table in the place, by a writer with rare & vivid gifts. Make yourself comfortable -- & order up a dry martini' Robert Lacey
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Seller's Description:
Very good. May contain minor wear. Used books may not contain supplements such as access codes, CDs, etc. Every item ships the same or next business day with tracking number emailed to you.
Having first arrived three weeks after it was liberated in 1944, I fell in love with Paris and have never lost this love. Since that time, I have lived there and visited it every time I had the opportunity. I am 84 and retired and now make it a point to spend a week there every November. "Paris Was Yesterday" gives me a picture of the city, its character and its citizens in days I would love to have lived there. No matter what you may think of the French, they do have a "joie de vivre" you will not find any where else in the world. This book will show you what I mean.
sea7788
Jul 26, 2007
for Paris lovers
I ordered these after reading about Janet Flanner in Alice Steinbach's Without Reservations. Flanner ("Genet" for the New Yorker) writes about concerts, exhibits, deaths, films, celebrities...in short, everything you need to form a picture of Paris in the period entre-deux-guerres. Witty, charming and a good read for a commute, as they're segmented and range from a paragraph to a few pages in length.
