City of Light, City of Shadows

City of Light, City of Shadows by Mike Rapport explores Paris in the Belle Epoque, a time often remembered as a golden age of cultural flourishing and political progress. Spanning from the revolutionary 1870s to the outbreak of war in 1914, this era saw the modern French capital take shape: by day, Parisians could admire the rising Eiffel Tower and Sacre-Coeur Basilica, while at night they roamed the Bohemian world of the Moulin Rouge.

However, beneath its elegant veneer, Paris was at war with itself. As Mike Rapport reveals in this authoritative and beautifully written history, the Belle Epoque was also an era of social and religious unrest, women's emancipation, and violent clashes over what it meant to be French.

Paris vibrated with the pleasures and anxieties of modernity, from blazing electric lights illuminating the night, to the first cars speeding down the boulevards, as well as the first Metro trains and plane flights. At the same time, reactionary forces reasserted themselves, most dramatically during the infamous Dreyfus affair.

The narrative is told through the eyes of the greatest personalities of the age, including novelist Emile Zola, feminist activist Marguerite Durand, Vietnamese diplomat Nguyễn Trọng Hợp, and socialist politician Jean Jaurès. The book weaves together stories of splendour and suffering, delight and agony, offering a brilliant account of the shadows cast across the City of Light.