Rate this book

Paris At The End Of The World: How The City Of Lights Soared In Its Darkest Hour, 1914-1918 (2014)

by John Baxter(Favorite Author)

3.09 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

006222140X (ISBN13: 9780062221407)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Harper Perennial

review 1: Even though I liked reading this book, I don't think it knew that it was about. What it about the heady, hedonist days of frivolity in Paris during WWI, as the title states? Yes and no. Was it about the terror and shortages and fear of living forty miles from the front line during WWI, the opposite of what the title states? Yes and no. Was it not about Paris at all, but rather a brief history of WWI? Yes and no. Was it about the author's grandfather's service in the Australian army during WWI? Yes and no. Was it about the author's search for that history, recreating those journeys not in Paris, but in England? Yes and no. I enjoy Baxter's writing style, and I especially enjoyed the little tidbits of random history that don't usually appear in a historical work. But it mean... moredered a bit too much and would have benefited from a clearer vision.
review 2: I thoroughly enjoyed "Paris At The End of the World". It is not a historical novel, nor is it a history of World War I, nor is it a biography of the author's grandfather, Archie. It is all of these, written as a popular narrative history of WWI and the lives of people in Paris at the time. Not to mention that there is also an ongoing story of grandfather Archie's war experience.This book caught my eye because I have just returned from my first trip to Paris, which included a tour of WWI battlefields and cemeteries of France. Every page I turned brought new knowledge of these places from a more personal aspect.My favorite anecdote from the book was in the chapter titled ' Dressed To Kill'. At this time in the war, materials were scarce for the fashionable of Paris. Soldiers of 'No Man's Land' often sent up flares in battle. The flare included a small silk parachute to slow its descent, and soldiers risked their lives to retrieve these parachutes for the girls back home. Two of them could be sewn into a pair of knickers, and four into a blouse. This is just one of hundreds of paragraphs in the book that will give you a world of information about the lives and times and people in wartime France (Paris).Also worthwhile are the many illustrations (at least 60) included, whether they be photos, drawings, paintings or posters, they certainly make the book complete. less

Download links for: Paris at the End of the World: How the City of Lights Soared in Its Darkest Hour, 1914-1918

Advertising