“Vivid, informed, delectably readable…an enlightened introduction to the city’s best-kept secrets. No visitor to France should go without it.”—Sunday Times (UK)Paris captures everyone’s imaginations: It’s a backdrop for Proust’s fictional pederast, Robert Doisneau’s photographic kiss, and Edith Piaf’s serenaded soldier-lovers; a home as much to romance and love poems as to prostitution and opium dens. The city’s dynamic, conflicted identity is visible everywhere—between cobblestones, in bars, on the métro.Andrew Hussey brings to life the urchins and artists who’ve left their marks on the city, filling in the gaps of a history that affected the disenfranchised as much as the nobility. Paris: The Secret History ranges across centuries, movements, and cultural and political beliefs, from Napoleon’s overcrowded cemeteries to Balzac’s nocturnal flight from his debts. Hussey takes us on a picaresque journey through royal palaces, brothels, and sidewalk cafés, uncovering the rich, exotic, and often lurid history of the world’s most beloved city.