{"product_id":"haussmann-or-the-distinction-paperback","title":"Haussmann, or the Distinction - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003ePaul LaFarge\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul La Farge's stunning, imaginative novel about the great architect of Paris \"full of artful prose, wit, and provocative ideas.\" (\u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBaron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who demolished and rebuilt Paris in the middle of the nineteenth century, was the first urbanist of the modern era--and perhaps the greatest. He presided over two decades of riches, peace, and progress in a city the likes of which no one had ever seen before, with boulevards monumentally conceived and brilliantly lit, clean water, public transportation, and sewers that were the envy of every nation in the world. Yet there is a story that, on his deathbed, Haussmann wished all his work undone. \"Would that it had died with me!\" he is supposed to have said. What is the secret of the baron's last regret? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eTo answer this question, Haussmann tells the story of Madeleine, a foundling who grew up in the magical, chaotic world that Haussmann destroyed; of de Fonce, one of the great \u003ci\u003eartistes démolisseurs\u003c\/i\u003e who tore Paris down and sold its rubble as antiques; and of a three-sided affair that pits love against ambition, architecture against flesh, and the living Parisians against Haussmann's unbuilt masterpiece, the Railroad of the Dead. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAlthough steeped in history, Paul La Farge's \u003ci\u003eHaussmann, or the Distinction\u003c\/i\u003e is a novel not bound by fact; it is an account of the hidden, sometimes fantastical life of the nineteenth century, a work that will make readers think of Borges as well as Balzac; it is a view of cities, of love, and of history itself from the other side of the mirror.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePaul La Farge \u003c\/b\u003e(1970 - 2023) was the author of the novels \u003ci\u003eThe Artist of the Missing\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHaussmann, or the Distinction, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eLuminous Airplanes, The Night Ocean, \u003c\/i\u003e and a book of imaginary dreams, \u003ci\u003eThe Facts of Winter.\u003c\/i\u003e His novels and stories \"defied easy categorization\", according to the\u003ci\u003e New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e. His fiction and nonfiction appeared in \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eHarper's, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eMcSweeney's, Conjunctions, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Believer, Bookforum, \u003c\/i\u003eand elsewhere. He lived in upstate New York.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 400\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.95 x 8.52 x 5.55 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e November 01, 2002\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eAward:\u003c\/strong\u003e Bard Fiction Prize (2005)\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51762464031008,"sku":"9780312420925","price":27.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/46526350f7c2244e13a288b27f5a4d60_a7485540-730f-46e5-a1da-25a6365f4c51.webp?v=1780221720","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/haussmann-or-the-distinction-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}