City of Light, City of Shadows

A fascinating, multi-layered panorama of the evolution of the French capital at a key period in its history * Jonathan Fenby, author of The History of Modern France *
Mike Rapport is a historian with the rare ability to engage his reader both on the level of local detail and of sweeping narrative. City of Light, City of Shadows had me spellbound * Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters *
In this book which fizzes with all the energy of Belle Epoque Paris, Rapport conveys superbly the conflicts, tension and anxieties undelay the glittering spectacle of Parisian modernity. His narrative is brilliantly anchored in the spaces and places of the city. For lovers of Paris the book should become an indispensable accompaniment to any future visit to the city * Julian Jackson, author of A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle *
An authoritative work… A strikingly rendered portrait of the era’s fervent belief in progress * Kirkus Reviews *
As Mike Rapport makes clear in his splendid new book, the Belle Epoque was… a time of instability, upheaval and bitter division, in Paris and throughout France. * Munro Price, Literary Review *
Historian Michael Rapport’s fascinating new book looks at the city of light in the so-called Belle Epoque through the eyes of everyone from realist novelist Emile Zola to feminist and actress Marguerite Durand, showing the glittering triumphs of the age as well as the dark scandals. * The Irish Times *

Mike Rapport is a Reader in modern European history at the University of Glasgow and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. He is the author of several books, including 1848: Year of Revolution. He lives in Stirling, Scotland.

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