Paris cover

Paris

Rating 3.0
Word count
550K words
Chapters
55

Tags

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Paris by Grant Allen. Author: Allen, Grant, 1848-1899. Language: English. Class: DC: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: France, Andorra, Monaco. Release Date: Sep 8, 2015

Editor's review

This Paris by Grant Allen is a specimen of early English-language travel writing and urban sketch, now recirculated by Project Gutenberg as a public-domain e-book. Its value lies not in practical guidance but in the gaze of a late nineteenth-century traveler observing Paris preserved in the prose: streets, buildings, crowds, and daily life are recorded in an essayistic manner, and readers can catch the atmosphere of a Paris that has vanished. Project Gutenberg itself is the starting point of e-book history; the free e-book tradition begun by Michael Hart in 1971 has allowed such old works to reach today's readers' screens at low cost. Reading it requires a little historical imagination and tolerance for Victorian English syntax and a pace utterly different from today's travel books. It is suitable as supplementary reading for urban literature and the history of travel writing, or for casual dipping by readers interested in old Paris.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • Readers interested in the urban fabric of late nineteenth-century Paris
  • Literature enthusiasts studying travel writing or urban prose
  • English-language readers drawn to period prose

Not a good fit for

  • Contemporary Paris visitors seeking practical travel information
  • Readers who prefer fast-paced narratives or contemporary fiction
  • Beginners with little patience for Victorian English

Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and preface first to grasp the author's line of thought, then skip to chapters on specific districts or themes as interest dictates.
  2. Read alongside an old map of Paris to get a more vivid sense of the spatial dimension of the text.
  3. Copy out passages that interest you and read them against today's Paris writing to observe how urban narrative has changed.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55

FAQ

Is this book a contemporary travel guide?
No. It is Grant Allen's prose sketch of old Paris, published long ago, and contains none of the transport, accommodation, or ticket information today's visitors need. It is better read as travel literature or urban history.
What are the features of the Project Gutenberg edition?
Project Gutenberg is an early provider of free ebooks, founded by Michael Hart in 1971. This edition is a public-domain electronic text, easy to obtain and search, formatted for readability, and without the notes and introduction of a modern publication.
Does reading this book require a certain level of English?
Yes. The original is Victorian English, with long sentences and some vocabulary used differently from today. Readers with intermediate or higher English will find it smoother; unfamiliar expressions can be understood from context.

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About the author

Grant Allen (1848–1899) was a late nineteenth-century British writer known both for science writing and fiction. Thirty of his works are held in the collection, spanning science fiction, detective stories, social novels, and popular science essays. His novel The Woman Who Did stirred controversy for its treatment of female independence and marriage morality; An African Millionaire presents humorous satire through the serial exploits of the swindler Colonel Clay; Hilda Wade and Miss Cayley's Adventures create determined female protagonists. In popular science, Falling in Love With Other Essays on More Exact Branches of Science and Anglo-Saxon Britain show his skill in making science accessible, while Biographies of Working Men focuses on ordinary laborers. Public information on his life is limited, but his works reveal a gift for combining scientific reason with popular narrative, giving him a place in late Victorian popular literature.

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