Introduction 1. Decadence? 2. Transgressions 3. How They Lived 4. Affections and Disaffections 5. The Endless Crisis 6. A Wolf to All 7. The Old Arts and the New 8. Theater 9. Curists and Tourists 10. La Petite Reine 11. Faster, Higher, Stronger 12. "The Best of Times" Notes Acknowledgments Index
Eugen Weber was Joan Palevsky Professor of Modern European History, Emeritus, at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Eugen Weber has probably done more to enrich the historiography of
modern France than any other contemporary American historian. His
trademarks are originality and formidable erudition, both much in
evidence in his latest book, which will not disappoint his
admirers. France, Fin de Siècle offers nothing less than a portrait
of an age, viewed not from the perspective of the twentieth century
but through the eyes of an inquisitive contemporary tourist,
sensitive to surface phenomena… It is a delight to read. This is
history as art.
*Times Literary Supplement*
History is clearly becoming more fun. In Eugen Weber’s France, Fin
de Siècle, statesmen and treaties are set aside in favor of the
stuff of everyday existence. We learn about bathing, smells,
sanitation, domestic quarrels, underwear, sexuality and the bicycle
as they evolved during the last two decades of the nineteenth
century… [Weber] is interested in an apparent discrepancy of the
fin de siècle. On the one hand, it was famously the age of
decadence—moral, material, and social, castigated or else delighted
in by the intellectuals and artists… On the other hand, it was a
time of real improvement in living standards and greater
opportunities for leisure, sport and social progress… The surface
that interests Mr. Weber turns up plenty of remarkable material…
But perhaps the greatest triumph of Mr. Weber’s approach to history
comes in his evocations of the stress and tear of human relations…
He also manages to raise anecdotal history to a nearly
philosophical level.
*New York Times Book Review*
The epoch immortalized by Marcel Proust in Remembrance of Things
Past has now found a historian equal to the task of capturing its
tones and textures. In this engaging and nicely illustrated book,
the eminent UCLA historian Eugen Weber shows that history can be
fun and instructive at the same time.
*Los Angeles Times Book Review*
Eugen Weber has probably done more to enrich the historiography of
modern France than any other contemporary American historian. His
trademarks are originality and formidable erudition, both much in
evidence in his latest book, which will not disappoint his
admirers. France, Fin de Siecle offers nothing less than a
portrait of an age, viewed not from the perspective of the
twentieth century but through the eyes of an inquisitive
contemporary tourist, sensitive to surface phenomena... It is a
delight to read. This is history as art. -- J. F. McMillan * Times
Literary Supplement *
History is clearly becoming more fun. In Eugen Weber's France,
Fin de Siecle, statesmen and treaties are set aside in favor of
the stuff of everyday existence. We learn about bathing, smells,
sanitation, domestic quarrels, underwear, sexuality and the bicycle
as they evolved during the last two decades of the nineteenth
century... [Weber] is interested in an apparent discrepancy of the
fin de siecle. On the one hand, it was famously the age of
decadence-moral, material, and social, castigated or else delighted
in by the intellectuals and artists... On the other hand, it was a
time of real improvement in living standards and greater
opportunities for leisure, sport and social progress... The surface
that interests Mr. Weber turns up plenty of remarkable material...
But perhaps the greatest triumph of Mr. Weber's approach to history
comes in his evocations of the stress and tear of human
relations... He also manages to raise anecdotal history to a nearly
philosophical level. -- Peter Brooks * New York Times Book Review
*
The epoch immortalized by Marcel Proust in Remembrance of Things
Past has now found a historian equal to the task of capturing
its tones and textures. In this engaging and nicely illustrated
book, the eminent UCLA historian Eugen Weber shows that history can
be fun and instructive at the same time. -- Lynn Hunt * Los Angeles
Times Book Review *
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