Neighbours and Rivals: An Eighteenth-century Journey Between Paris and London - Hardcover

Mercier, Louis-sbastian

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1843682702 ISBN 13: 9781843682707

Verlag: Pallas Athene Publishers, 2026

Inhaltsangabe

The great French journalist Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s descriptions of an optimistic, utopian 18th-century London. First English translation by Laurent Turcot and Jonathan Conlin. Contemporary illustrations in color.

The first work of great French journalist Louis-Sébastien Mercier, this seminal work of travel writing remained unpublished for over 200 years.
Mercier first traveled to London, and began recording his impressions, in 1780. An exemplar of a new form of journalistic, reflective literature, he presented emotive representations of the city as collections of experiences, habits and personalities. And differently from Dickens’s London or Baudelaire’s Paris, with their contrasts of opulence and misery, Mercier describes a less familiar urban environment – more optimistic, perhaps even utopian. His version of London is, in fact, a projection of his philosophical imagination – not simply a rounded portrait but also a reflection of what he hoped Paris could become.

For this first publication in English, Laurent Turcot and Jonathan Conlin’s translation preserves the life and humor of Mercier’s text. It is illustrated with contemporary images, with an emphasis on Thomas Rowlandson and Gabriel-Jacques de Saint-Aubin, the first Parisian flâneur-artist.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Laurent Turcot is a professor of history at l’Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, and specializes in the 16th to the 19th century, and in urban culture and leisure. Jonathan Conlin, a professor of modern history at the University of Southampton, specializes in modern British cultural history from the 18th century to the present, with a focus on urban history. His previous books include The Nation’s Mantelpiece (Pallas Athene), Evolution and the Victorians (Bloomsbury) and Civilisation (BFI). He has just completed histories of the National Gallery and the Metropolitan Museum, as well as an acclaimed biography of Calouste Gulbenkian.

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The great French journalist Louis-Sébastien Mercier’s descriptions of an optimistic, utopian 18th-century London. First English translation by Laurent Turcot and Jonathan Conlin. Contemporary illustrations in colour.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Pallas Athene Publishers
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2026
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1843682702
• ISBN 13: 9781843682707
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 284
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Chronicle Books LLC; info@abramsandchronicle.co.uk; ; 1st floor 1 West Smithfield; London; EC1A 9JU; Vereinigtes Königreich