A radical guide to Paris through art, literature and revolution

In The Invention of Paris, radical author and publisher Eric Hazan takes the reader on an exciting and historically rich tour through the construction of Paris, exploring the places and struggles that have marked its growth. Concentrating both on the literary and cultural representations of the city, as well as riots, rebellions and revolutions — throughout the nineteenth century and up until 1968—Hazan acts as a guide who is simultaneously personal and rigorous in tone.

Introducing us to characters as varied as Balzac, Baudelaire, Blanqui, Flaubert, Hugo, Manet and Proust, Hazan charts the formation of a “Red Paris” through the sedimentation of acts and sources of insurgency, and gives us an unparalleled history of the barricade in the life of the city. The Invention of Paris opens a window on a Paris too often hidden beneath tourist kitsch and bourgeois.

Praise for The Invention of Paris:

“This is a wondrous book, either to be read at home with a decent map, or carried about sur place through areas no tourists bother with.” — Adam Thorpe, Guardian

“Hazan wants to rescue individual moments from general forgetting and key sites from the bland homogenisation of international city development; he is also a passionate left-wing historian seeking to rescue the truth of Paris’s revolutionary past from the historiographical equivalent of Haussmannisation — the blasting through and laying waste to the lives and memories of the unimportant, the marginalised, the losers of the last two centuries.” — Julian Barnes, London Review of Books

“Do you want to be happy? Buy this book and take a stroll.” — Les Inrockuptibles

“Not just a history book, but a guide to what makes Paris the melting pot it is today… A wholly worthwhile read.” — French Magazine


Praise for Notes on the Occupation:

“Eric Hazan is one of those rare free minds, provocative and eloquent.” — Christophe Kantcheff, Politis

Eric Hazan is the founder of the publisher La Fabrique and the author of several books, including Notes on the Occupation.