Paris reading list

Reading about Paris, c. 1900

The announcement that Cincinnati Art Museum will open Paris 1900: City of Entertainment on March 1 sent us nosing through our stacks to see what books might get us in the spirit to see the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle, Camille Claudel, and others. We came up with a shelf-full of books exploring and explaining Paris before the destruction and upheaval of World War I.

Walks in Paris: Nooks and Corners of Old Paris by George Cain

• Cain was a French painter, illustrator, and writer who specialized in the history and monuments of Paris. These gorgeously illustrated books in the Mercantile’s travel collection show Paris in all its splendor.

About Paris by Richard Harding Davis

• Davis’ name is unfamiliar now, but in 1900, he was a well-known foreign correspondent and a former managing editor of Harpers’ Weekly. You can read his book, “About Paris,” online to get a first-hand account of the City of Light just before the 20th century, but check the stacks at the Mercantile to see a hard copy of an early edition.

The Reef: Madame de Treymes by Edith Wharton

• Wharton spent much of her life abroad, and these two lesser-known novels, published in 1912 and 1907 respectively, concern the lives and loves of Americans in France.

The Paris We Remember, edited by Elisabeth Finley Thomas

• This collection of writing and remembrances shows readers the Paris of Emile Zola and Honore Balzac, Baudelaire and Thackeray, and many more.

The Masterpiece by Emile Zola

• While you’re thinking about Zola’s Paris, pick up one of his most celebrated novels.

A Wanderer in Paris by E.V. James

• This is, essentially, a guidebook to Paris, published in 1909.

Claudine at School by Colette

• This is the first (and most autobiographical) novel of French writer, Colette, whose sensual depictions of women’s lives scandalized early 20th century readers.

In Vanity Fair: A Tale of Frocks and Femininity by Eleanor Hoyt Brainerd

• Published in 1906, this volume from the stacks of the Mercantile explains the fashions and lifestyle of the average Parisienne to American readers.

Pictures of Paris and Some Parisians by John N. Raphael

• This collection of vignettes was published in 1908 and gives readers a sometimes comical glimpse into daily life around Paris.

The Immoralist by André Gide

• Published in 1902, this is one of the most widely read works of the Nobel Prize-winner Gide.

The Other Paris by Luc Sante

• Sante, who spoke at the Mercantile in 2018, takes readers through the shadowy side of the City of Life in this richly illustrated, thoroughly researched book.