Paris: The Novel

I have very mixed feelings about this book. I loved all the history and the obvious research that went into putting this story together. I also liked the characters. What I found difficult to like was the length of the book combined with the constant jumping back and forth through time. The book is not a page-turner in my opinion, which meant it took me a long time to read the 800+ pages. This in turn made it difficult to keep track of the many characters because each chapter starts at a different point in history - sometimes jumping hundreds of years back and forth. Overall I am glad I read this book, however, I am not sure I would undertake another book by this author if it follows the same format. I think it would be better to follow time in order and get rid of the back-and-forth.

Edward Rutherfurd’s novel, simply named Paris, is in the genre of historical fiction and as such it is engrossing and gives an intimate view of the sweep of Paris history from Roman times up to the post World War II era of Charles de Gaulle. If you are impatient with anything less than the completely factual, then Edward Rutherfurd is not the writer for you. I will caution you, however, that totally factual history is a dry business indeed and even nonfiction/textbook history cannot really avoid the personal interpretations of the historian. It is difficult to know if there is such a beast as totally objective history. Of course, it is all relative. Some history is more fact-based, some is more anecdotal.In the case of his tome entitled Paris: A Novel, Edward Rutherfurd gives us a number of families from various social groups within Paris society and shows the interactions of these groups, mostly within the confines of Paris. We have the de Cynge family, aristocrats and monarchists. We have the Le Sourds who are leftists (communists) and therefore at odds with the de Cynge family. We have the middle class represented by the Renards (Fox) and the Blanchards. Some Renards are lawyers. The Blanchards are doctors and some run retail or wholesale establishments. The Gascons are poor working class people and they have one family member who walks the line between legal and illegal activities frequently crossing over in each direction.We have the poets and sculptors (especially Monsieur Bartholdi (Statue of Liberty) and Monsieur Eiffel ( Eiffel Tower). Thomas Gascon does skilled labor on each of these enormous structures. We have the painters (especially the Impressionists) and the writers (Proust, Hemingway).The city itself is a star of the book with its various neighborhoods which eventually become the arrondissements we know today. It took centuries for Paris to coalesce into its modern romantic, atmospheric incarnation and we get to traipse through the various stages of its transformations as we follow our characters and their ancestors, flashing back and forth from fairly contemporary Paris to ages past, as experienced by the ancestors of our more modern characters. It’s a personal and yet fairly in-depth tour of Parisian history that is not in the least pedantic.I kept trying to stop reading this book – not because it was a bad book - but because I knew it would be long. I kept thinking I wanted to read something shorter and quicker, but I could not stop. I just kept getting sucked in to Paris until suddenly I was done and I didn’t really want to leave. I wanted to be taken out to a bistro. I guess Edward Rutherfurd captured exactly what we should know about social interactions among Parisians and that is why people read his books, especially his books about famous cities (Russka, London, New York).

I have read all of Edward Rutherford books and I just love them all. You learn all about the history of the city and region while getting engrossed in the trials and tribulations of different families. I learned the history of the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower as well as how people lived during the different ages. Fascinating reading. Once you start its hard to put the book down.If you loved Rutherford's other books then you will love Paris.

I LOVE Edward Rutherfurd and just finished this book and am so sad that it is finished. I totally recommend combining reading with audio (Kindle feature that I also LOVE). The french accents and name pronunciations are key to the charm of this book. I have also read and HIGHLY recommend: Sarum, London, Russka, New York ... all just as AMAZING. Rutherfurd has a unique style which takes you back to early times (prehistoric in Sarum) and then follows blood lines to close to present day. His eloquent use of the english language makes reading other authors' creations difficult at times since you miss Rutherfurds style. I believe that he has a unique ability to quickly develop characters so that while he moves through time you get to know so many characters it makes the stories even more interesting and the reading go very quickly.

I have enjoyed every one of Edward Rutherfurd's books over the years. The only one I haven't read yet is New York and that will be soon, I assure you! I love how his stories flow, with excellent description of places, people and events. I end up understanding a place and it's people, as well as feeling as if I had lived or visited it. His use of characters whose families play roles through time, interacting with each other, makes the history and story more intriguing to me. Can't wait to discover where he writes about next! I will definitely be reading it!

I read this book maybe 8 years ago and my problem with it was, I just could not put it down. I recall that I tookthat book everywhere to read when I could spare any minutes. I love Rutherfurd's historical novels, and have read them all. Highly recommend this book as well as New York, Sarum, London (great),Rebels of Ireland and Princes of Ireland. I see he has a new book out..China which I definitely want to read having lived and worked in China years ago. But I'll wait till it's available on Kindle as I travel by bicycle all over the world and stopped taking hardback and paperback books on my adventures years ago.

I absolutely loved Sarum, London, and New York. But Mr. Rutherfurd changed his style in this book. He jumps back and forth through time to make a convoluted mess. I like the individual stories of historical periods, but it is difficult to put them in context when he jumps from one century back to another. This style of writing may work well in a regular novel, but not in a historical novel such as this. Although worth reading, it is very disappointing when compared to his other works.

I have previously read New York and London, both of which had a thoroghly enjoyable thread running through it with many wonderful sideshoot stories to keep you well entertained. I loved them.So, I thought I would give Paris a go.....For starters I was a little concerned that the story kept jumping back and foward from the 15/1600s to the 1800s working it's way up to the 1950s or so. So many characters distributed over the centuries obviously generation linked but as you were time hoppjng it was difficult to remember who was who..As with his other works some facinating historic items were included with wonderful detail. But along with all this toooooo much deep historical comment and far too much family history and socio-political indepth narative. Very tedious in places but not skipable.Sorry Edward not one of your best but I did continue to the end.!!

Really not one of his finest. In his early novels there was a straightforward progression of the chronology from the far distant past to some roughly contemporary point. By the time you'd read four or five the style was practically a cliche but it was an effective storytelling method. This one doesn't progress in that way, it opens in the late 19th century wanders around in that period for a while and then shoots back to medieval Paris and then back to the 19th c and repeat.....till the reader has lost the plot. Most of the focus is on the period from the 19th C onwards with a big chunk in WWII (which is the same Paris in WWII that any number of other authors have done much better. I wonder if the publishers forced him to add the other time line just to ensure that the St Bartholomew's Day massacre and the revolution were included...? I don't really understand why he has done this style change, Paris has a rich and fascinating history which would have ideally suited his original approach, which is narrative history with the characters being used to illuminate key events & periods. The characters are too thin & stereotypical to standalone; tart with the heart, aristo with attitude, hardworking artisan zzzz. The plots such as they are are equally thin and hackneyed. In its defence it rolls past the eyes as an undemanding read and the occasional interesting nugget of information just about kept me going through the 800 pages. Probably a good read whilst digesting a christmas dinner or whilst riding out a winter germ but otherwise I'd read his earlier stuff; Sarum, London, The Forest and leave this well alone.

The main character here is Paris which is revealed through a criss-crossing of historical events. Whilst the author has created a number of fictional families to hang his stories on these are like models showing haute culture. I did n' t really connect with them as I read the surfaces of their lives. This novel does achieve its ambition as it intertwines the political, religious and cultural influences which have created the character of Paris.I found the building of its iconic Eiffel Tower fascinating.I dropped a star because I found myself too willing to put the book down, it was only my connection with Paris that brought me back.

All the ingredients that make his other books compelling reads are present here but he's managed to mess things up by focusing so much of the book on one historical period - the late 19th / early 20th century. To break up this story he decided to have a non-linear timeline so we are bounced around different periods in history. It doesn't work.The "modern" part of the story is generally rather dull with the exception of the story of the building of the Eiffel Tower. The real delights in the book are all in the older historical sections for example the account of the The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre is wonderful.

A huge undertaking to depict the history of Paris. It's growth to a place of culture and fashion; for a surprising length of it's existence.It's past is lovingly created with interesting characters used to tell the past of Paris. But I feel that the modern day parts as the book comes to an end,fizzles out like a damp squib rarther than the fireworks such a grand old Dame deserves. Perhaps a peaceful end was needed?, after the Nazi occupation. My sentimental soul wanted a romantic end ,Paris being the capital of love ; that's all.