The Fall of Paris - The Siege and the Commune 1870-71

Alistair Horne

Penguin Books

2007

458 páginas

15h 16m

ISBN-13: 9780141030630

The collapse of France in 1870 had an overwhelming impact – on Paris, on France and on the open-mouthed world. People everywhere saw Paris as the centre of Europe and the hub of culture, fashion and invention. But suddenly, France, not least to the disbelief of her own citizens, was gripped in the vice of the Prussian armies and forced to surrender on humiliating terms. Almost immediately Paris was convulsed by the savage self-destruction of the newly formed Socialist government, the Commune.

In this brilliant study of the Siege of Paris and its aftermath, Alistair Horne researches first-hand accounts left by official observers, private diarists and letter writers to evoke the high drama of those ten tumultuous months and the spiritual and physical agony that Paris and the Parisians suffered as they lost the Franco-Prussian war.