[Hazan] stalks the capital, fulminating about the nineteenth and twentieth centuries' artistic and political rebellions.
Bookforum
Detailed, passionate ... Any visit to [Paris] would be made richer by taking the time to read Hazan's book.
- Angela Meyer, Bookslut
This is a wondrous book, either to be read at home with a decent map, or carried about <i>sur place</i> through areas no tourists bother with.
- Adam Thorpe, The Guardian
Hazan is all business. He trudges through Paris street by street, quoting what Balzac, Hugo, Baudelaire or Kafka said about a particular spot, pointing out where barricades were once erected and thieves gathered for drinks.
- Donald Morrison, Financial Times
Amid the intellectual murkiness of the European scene, a few bright flames are burning: as witness the work of Eric Hazan.
New Left Review
[F]ew will be able to resist ... Hazan's brick-by-brick account of the city's history of strife and political posturing is riveting.
Publishers Weekly
Do you want to be happy? Buy this book and take a stroll.
Les Inrockuptibles
Hazan wants to rescue individual moments from general forgetting and key sites from the bland homogenization of international city development; he is also a passionate left-wing historian seeking to rescue the truth of Paris's revolutionary past.
- Julian Barnes, London Review of Books
One of the greatest books about the city anyone has written in decades, towering over a crowded field, passionate and lyrical and sweeping and immediate.
New York Review of Books
This book is both a political and aesthetic delight, uncovering the real mysteries of Paris.
- Andrew Hussey, author of <em>Paris: The Secret History</em>,
With its astonishing breadth of reference and incredible detail, this is a must for all lovers of Paris.
- Kevin Rushby, author of <i>Paradise: A History of the Idea that Rules the World</i>,
[A] stunning book.
- Aaron Freundschuh, H-Net Reviews