{"product_id":"city-of-light-the-making-of-modern-paris-9781541673397","title":"City of Light: The Making of Modern Paris","description":"\u003cb\u003eA sparkling account of the nineteenth-century reinvention of Paris as the most beautiful, exciting city in the world\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In 1853, French emperor Louis Napoleon inaugurated a vast and ambitious program of public works in Paris, directed by Georges-Eugè Haussmann, the prefect of the Seine. Haussmann transformed the old medieval city of squalid slums and disease-ridden alleyways into a \"City of Light\" characterized by wide boulevards, apartment blocks, parks, squares and public monuments, new rail stations and department stores, and a new system of public sanitation. \u003ci\u003eCity of Light\u003c\/i\u003e charts this fifteen-year project of urban renewal which -- despite the interruptions of war, revolution, corruption, and bankruptcy -- set a template for nineteenth and early twentieth-century urban planning and created the enduring landscape of modern Paris now so famous around the globe. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Lively and engaging, \u003ci\u003eCity of Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a book for anyone who wants to know how Paris became Paris.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRupert Christiansen\u003c\/b\u003e has been writing about the arts for the\u003ci\u003e Daily Telegraph\u003c\/i\u003e since 1996. His many books include \u003ci\u003ePrima Donna\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eParis Babylon\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eRomantic Affinities\u003c\/i\u003e, which received the Somerset Maugham Award. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature since 1997, he teaches at Keble College, Oxford and lives in London.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Basic Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50921598255378,"sku":"9781541673397","price":21.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_76926c4c-2120-461b-988c-34c3d81650f9.jpg?v=1738920707","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/city-of-light-the-making-of-modern-paris-9781541673397","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}