Book Review: "Paris Stories" edited by Shaun Whiteside

I love reading stories about Paris and when it comes to shorter fiction, there is normally a lot I'm familiar with in an athology anyway. I was surprised to see in this anthology though, compared to other anthologies of the Everyman Editions I have read, it is far better organised and seriously has a sense of calm. This is what I'm looking for in an anthology - a sense of calm whilst reading. This one is in order of when the stories were written and published. Some are short excerpts from books and others are stand-alone pieces. Let's take a look at this review of Paris Stories edited by Shaun Whiteside.

The first few stories were from some of the greatest writers in French History, starting off with François Rabelais and moving through all the way to Honore de Balzac and of course, it wouldn't be an anthology about Paris if there was not an excerpt from the epic Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. The extract from Les Miserables discusses the state of Paris, what it looks and feels like, the idea of Paris in the minds of others and really, I thought that this was the perfect extract to use in this anthology. Beautiful and filled with revolution in the air, it represents Paris as a great city where absolutely anything, including magic, can happen.

Gustave Flaubert is one of the biggest writers of the late nineteenth century in France and honestly, to have his Sentimental Education as a part of the anthology is something that adds to the experience of Paris. It starts off with an atmosphere before bringing in the important characters. We imagine ourselves travelling down a Paris street in the late 1860s and so, when we come to the darkness of Emile Zola's incredible L'Assommoir, we have a great view of what Paris, a changing city, looks like during this time period.

Zola's extract from the brilliant L'Assommoir gives the reader a view of the bleak, dark side of Paris deep in the undercrust of society. I love Emile Zola's books so seeing this from one of my top five favourite Zola novels in the anthology was a real treat and a change from the constant romanticisation of Paris. Putting Zola here instead of any other writer, I feel leads nicely into writers such as: Huysmans, Colette and Jean Rhys for their almost anti-romanticisation and focus on the individual, the soul and the purpose of life in such a large, bustling city. Everything is tinged with existentialism.

We also get people writing about Paris who don't necessarily come from France. Writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and an extract from his book Tender is the Night appear later on in the anthology alongside The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs and Corso in Paris by Barry Miles. One of my favourite writers of all time appears in this book - James Baldwin and an extract from his incredible novel Giovanni's Room appears with Georges Perec's Things. Honestly, I feel like this is a grand anthology of a city with literary variation across the years.

Paris literature causes all different kinds of emotions from the philosophical Rabelais which makes the reader think deeply about grand questions, to Victor Hugo who's books make you want to fight in a revolution. Paris is a city of literary variation not just because of this anthology, but because of its grand and extensive addition to modern literature itself. This anthology though, is a great place to begin that jounrey to reading literature from the city. It does happen to cover some of the most important markers in the city's fiction.