Paris Between Empires: 1814-1852

Mansel paints a vivid picture of Paris between the two Empires (1814 and 1852), and he sets it as the stage on which the great conflicts of the age – nationalism versus cosmopolitanism, Revolution versus Royalism, socialism versus capitalism, atheism versus Catholicism – were played out. For Mansel, the “Paris Between Empires” was a golden age, where Rossini, Heine and Princess Lieven rubbed shoulders with Berlioz, Chateaubriand and Madame Recamier. Often the foreign nationals who came to Paris were attracted by the prospect of freedom from the political, social and sexual restrictions that they endured at home, Mansel recounts. The source listed for the books include the unpublished letters and diaries of figures such as Lord Normanby, Lady Holland, Count Pozzo di Borgo, and Hortense de Beauharnais' lover Charles de Flahaut.