The Invention of Paris is a Tour Through the Streets and History of the French Capital Under the Guidance of Radical Parisian Author and Publisher Eric Hazan. Hazan Reveals a City Whose Squares Echo With the Riots, Rebellions and Revolutions of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Combining the Raconteur's Ear for a Story With a Historian's Command of the Facts, He Introduces an Incomparable Cast of Characters the Literati, the Philosophers and the Artists-Balzac, Baudelaire, Blanqui, Flaubert, Hugo, Maney, and Proust, of Course; but Also Doisneau, Nerval and Rousseau. It is a Paris Dyed a Deep Red in Its Convictions. It is Haunted and Vitalized by the History of the Barricades, Which Hazan Retells in Rich Detail. the Invention of Paris Opens a Window on the Forgotten Byways of the Capital's Vibrant and Bloody Past, Revealing the City in Striking New Colors.