Tales of Two Cities

September 16, 2013
An American-born historian teaching at the University of Southampton (U.K.), Conlin (The Nation’s Mantelpiece) explores the complex rivalry between London and Paris from 1700–1914, when the two cities transformed into the world’s pre-eminent cultural centers. Conlin examines the emergence of the English and French lifestyles and how the cities’ dual ascendance played out in private and public spaces: the street, the cemetery, the apartment, the restaurant, the underworld, and the music hall. He covers achievements such as “making the night visible” with street lighting, the rise of apartment living, the popularity of public dancing, and the origin of restaurants. This social history adds up to a pleasant, colorful read, and though Conlin is mining territory that many able historians have visited before, his source materials reflect a serious mind at work. The book contains many captivating sketches and stories of the towns’ emergence as two great metropolises, which today remain among the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Agent: George Lucas, Inkwell Management.

October 1, 2013
Conlin (Civilisation, 2009, etc.) compares the two great cities and how they fed off each other's mores while they struggled toward modernization in the 18th and 19th centuries. "[T]he relationship between Paris and London was that of rivals," writes the author, "rather than that of ruler and subject, a relationship characterized by mutual fascination, not by one-sided obedience." Conlin examines a few aspects of city life to show how the different cultures of Paris and London adapted to the political and social changes of the period. First, the author looks at housing: While the Englishman required his own "castle" with a nice garden and some privacy, the Frenchman was perfectly happy in a high-rise flat with (horrors!) shared stairs. In addition, the English were slow to accept restaurants, preferring a home-cooked meal, while the French enjoyed not only a meal in a restaurant, but also the need to see and be seen. That need was served by only a few promenades where gentle people could walk; eventually, they followed the English and added pavement, street lights and gutters to enable citizens to walk safely. Thus the French flaneur, who wandered the streets absorbing impressions of his environment, copied his friend across the channel, albeit 100 years later. Conlin's chapter on dance at first seems out of place, but his delightful progression of the can-can from a masculine display to the skirt-dancing we associate with Paris perfectly shows the interaction of the two cultures. Cemeteries and suburbs make up the final chapter, as governments finally began to study urban sprawl. Anyone who loves London and/or Paris will enjoy this book. In addition, there are plenty of new French phrases and interesting English terms to add to your lexicon.

COPYRIGHT(2013) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

October 15, 2013
From a European perspective, London and Paris in the late eighteenth and all of the nineteenth centuries must have seemed the twin centers of the world. London, the capital of the emerging British empire, was quickly becoming a giant commercial and financial hub. Paris also was an imperial capital, but it became a great symbol and repository of cultural brilliance that led elites across Europe to ape French language and styles. Conlin, a teacher at the University of Southampton, traces the supposed rivalry and the more frequent interaction between these great urban centers. Surprisingly, some typically French foods and even the famed cancan had their roots in London, and the great British detective novels were probably based on Parisian models. On a more basic level, the parallel growth of both cities, with all of the now familiar achievements and problems associated with urban sprawl, set the pattern for the growth of numerous mega cities around the globe. This is a fine account of both urban history and cultural interaction.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)