Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris Audiobook

" i wanted to read this because i thought the concept was interesting- a history of paris told through the years through the writings and bits of history of ordinary and not so ordinary people. with the exceptions of a few stories, i felt like it dragged and didn't include any explanation to actually interest me if i didn't already know something about the background. for example, the revolts at nanterre in the late 60s. i had never heard of them before and by the time i'd pieced together what was happening and why, i was just no longer interested. which is a shame because i was actually interested in the background. "

" I appreciated Robb's love for Paris, and even enjoyed it when I knew what--and who-- he was talking about; In short, I understood more of his references to Parisians than I did to Paris, but when I did understand one of the myriad geographic references to the city, I only then appreciated fully the love affair that Robb has with the city. Perhaps, after several more visits to the City of Lights, this book would mean more to me. "

" Hard to rate this book because I found chapters of it fascinating and others slow-going. I love history and Paris but dislike short stories, and PARISIANS is structured like a series of history short-stories. My favorite: "Marcel and the Metropolitain," about Proust and the new Metro opening. Robb has an elliptical writing style, and sometimes I just wanted him to give me the story straight. Don't make me work for it! "

" I read this in anticipation of a trip to Paris. The book did help me get in the mood and I did learn some fun and odd details about the history of Paris and the people who made that history. But the book sections barely hang together for me and some of them were longer than they probably needed to be for the average reader. I would recommend it to folks with a real passion for Paris but I'd be hesitant for general readers. "

" Delightful, different and very British. I liked this book immensely and finished it only a month or so ago. The early chapters were by far the very best for me, that was the real history. Once I got past one famous French Presidents fake assassination attempt I kind of lost some interest but its still a very good read and written by a historian who certainly knows how to write a very fine story : ) "

" Wild organization of chapters and stories that were sometimes difficult to follow in an audio book. But the stories themselves were very interesting! "

" There is a lot of variability here, but I really enjoyed the collection as a whole. I read it right before a trip to Paris, and thought of it often as we saw the sights. "

" A fascinating way to experience the different stages in the history of Paris. "

" Review sounded good, reality is dry, perhaps too academic for this non-academic. Will be donated to the library or sold at used bookstore so that it finds the "right" home. "

" Uneven but quite entertaining history of the city as told through the stories surrounding a laundry list of it's famous and not-so-famous inhabitants. The stylistic changes between some chapters is a bit jarring, but overall it was fun and informative. "

" Engaging history of Paris as told through the biographies of several quirky characters (the man who built the Catacombs, the criminal who became a police detective, etc.) as well as portraits of more famous figures. "

" Started off beautifully: the chapters about life pre-1900 are funny, informative, and written with both a sense of intellectual bite and of romance. But then the semi-elliptical style starts to seem forced and self-consciously literary and it ended up being hard to finish. "

" could read this kinda shit all the livelong day "

" Fantastic! For lovers of Paris and those new to it, I highly recommend this snapshot of Parisian history to make you fall in love with the City of Lights! "

" I really wanted this book to be good; it wasn't. Even though the author chose intriguing people, both real and fictional, to discuss, he just doesn't tell a good story. "

" Some of these stories were really boring and/or hard to understand for someone who doesn't know Paris; but the majority were quite interesting and it's totally worth reading just for the story about the Count of Monte Cristo. "

" This was ok, but I think I might have enjoyed it more as a printed book. My French isn't good enough to keep up with hearing it, and I wasn't sure if the words were place and people names or idioms. I liked the idea, though, of a variety of stories from and about Paris. "

" Something about the writing style really turned me off. "

" I'm only two chapters in and I'm already loving this book to pieces! "

" Fell in love with Paris, fell out of love with Paris, now mesmerized by an entirely different and intriguing Paris, and back in love again. "

" i enjoyed this book for all of the contextual details of paris' history. cannot say if the details are accurate or not since i am not a formal student of history. but the contexts did bring to mind this grand city and how much i have enjoyed visiting it. recommended, as travel guide or as history. "

" Excellent, true stories about Paris that are esoteric, but collectively paint a great narrative on the city--a must read if you're visiting Paris. "

" Engaging history of Paris as told through the biographies of several quirky characters (the man who built the Catacombs, the criminal who became a police detective, etc.) as well as portraits of more famous figures. "

" There is a lot of variability here, but I really enjoyed the collection as a whole. I read it right before a trip to Paris, and thought of it often as we saw the sights. "

" Robb has created a historical review of Paris, in the form of a series of vignettes in chronological order. I only read about half the stories - many of them were fascinating, but others were hard to follow if you didn't have proper historical background knowledge of Paris/France. "

" Very interesting especially after being in Paris and reading other historical accounts "