Books by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (translated by Ralph Manheim)
“I was impressed by the fact that Paris was a real city and had this underground quality to it. There could be really deeply subversive people living and working and creating here. I was particularly fascinated by Céline’s portrait of the city because Paris is one of the characters in the book. You get a real sense of what Paris looked like. Céline walked everywhere. He was a mad walker. He came from the suburbs and he lived and worked around Clichy and Courbevoie. When I first moved to Paris I lived for a year not far from Place de Clichy and I found myself going to the same places and seeing the same kinds of scenes described in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and they really seemed to be current—people hanging out in cafés and drinking madly and living much of their lives in a public sphere, outside on the streets.” Read more...
David Downie, Travel Writer
Interviews where books by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (translated by Ralph Manheim) were recommended
Novels Set In Paris
If you’re planning a trip to the City of Lights—or in the mood for a bit of armchair travel—then you might like to get yourself in the mood by picking up a novel set in Paris. From the Francophone masterpieces of Victor Hugo to more modern classics by Hemingway and Mantel, you’re sure to find a book to suit your tastes among our expert recommendations.
Rachel Kushner on Books That Influenced Her
Rachel Kushner, author of The Flamethrowers and The Mars Room, which has been shortlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize, discusses the five books that have most influenced her writing, from Dostoyevsky to Marguerite Duras. She muses on the question of what fiction can offer: “A novel itself, if it is good, and effective at whatever its particular aesthetic and philosophical aim is, can answer the question best, so that a novelist doesn’t have to.”
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1
Down and Out in Paris and London
by George Orwell -
2
Journey to the End of the Night
by Louis-Ferdinand Céline (translated by Ralph Manheim) -
3
Overhead in a Balloon
by Mavis Gallant -
4
The Belly of Paris
by Emile Zola, translated by Mark Kurlansky -
5
Dictionnaire Historique des Rues de Paris
by Jacques Hillairet
The best books on Paris, recommended by David Downie
The best books on Paris, recommended by David Downie
The city of romance and art is also, like most big cities, a place of grit and grime. The American writer and long-time Paris resident David Downie tells us where to look if we’re to understand the people and past of this most alluring city.
