The Ruins of Paris
by Reda Jacques
48 Members (4.17)
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Description
From Belleville to Passy, from Montmartre to La-Butte-aux-Cailles, from Antony to Saint-Ouen – Jacques R#65533;da is a traveler in his own city of Paris. In the tradition of Baudelaire and Rimbaud, he is a nervous, rather unleisurely fl#65533;neur, unsettling and subverting preconceived ideas about travel and home. The Ruins of Paris echoes with the footsteps and the words of a wanderer by turns gloomy, curious, troubled, elated, angry, tender and confused (and sometimes all these things show more at once). We are led through the arrondissements and suburbs of Paris and beyond in a journey that moves to the rhythm of walking, of trains, to the hopeful tempo of upbeat jazz. R#65533;da the wanderer is forever on the move: he constantly sets off, stops, begins afresh, treasuring movement itself while journeying from place to place. Journeys that are at once exhilarating and familiar, journeys that mirror life itself and a world that ceaselessly rises anew from its own ruins. Jacques R#65533;da's book is both a poetic meditation on Paris and a haunting companion to its views and moods. "In France, Jacques R#65533;da's prose writings are passed back and forth between friends with the enthusiastic secret-sharing that one associates with fan clubs. Membership requirements include a taste for precise, tenderly ironic prose, polished to a delicacy of finish rarely attained by contemporary French writers."—John Taylor, Times Literary Supplement show lessTags
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Member Recommendations
bluepiano Another Parisien describes his wanderings through the city & details his musings during them in controlled and atmospheric writing.
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Author Information
Some Editions
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Ruins of Paris
- Original title
- Les Ruines de Paris
- Important places
- Paris, France
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Poetry
- DDC/MDS
- 808 — Literature & rhetoric Literature, rhetoric & criticism Rhetoric and collections of literary texts from more than two literatures
- LCC
- PQ2678 .E28 .R813 — Language and Literature French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese literatures French literature Modern literature 1961-2000
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 48
- Popularity
- 614,098
- Rating
- (4.17)
- Languages
- English, French, Japanese
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
