Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
3/5
Audiobook13 hours
Left Bank: Art, Passion, and the Rebirth of Paris, 1940-50
Written by Agnès Poirier
Narrated by Christa Lewis
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
About this audiobook
In this fascinating tour of a celebrated city during one of its most trying, significant, and ultimately triumphant eras, Agnes Poirier unspools the stories of the poets, writers, painters, and philosophers whose lives collided to extraordinary effect between 1940 and 1950. She gives us the human drama behind some of the most celebrated works of the twentieth century, along with the origin stories of now legendary movements, from Existentialism to the Theatre of the Absurd, New Journalism, bebop, and French feminism.
We follow Arthur Koestler and Norman Mailer as young men, peek inside Picasso's studio, and trail the twists of Camus's, Sartre's, and Beauvoir's epic love stories. We witness the births and deaths of newspapers and literary journals and peer through keyholes to see the first kisses and last nights of many ill-advised bedfellows. At every turn, Poirier deftly hones in on the most compelling and colorful history. She brings to life the flawed, visionary Parisians who fell in love and out of it, who infuriated and inspired one another, all while reconfiguring the world's political, intellectual, and creative landscapes. With its balance of clear-eyed historical narrative and irresistible anecdotal charm, Left Bank transports listeners to a Paris teeming with passion, drama, and life.
We follow Arthur Koestler and Norman Mailer as young men, peek inside Picasso's studio, and trail the twists of Camus's, Sartre's, and Beauvoir's epic love stories. We witness the births and deaths of newspapers and literary journals and peer through keyholes to see the first kisses and last nights of many ill-advised bedfellows. At every turn, Poirier deftly hones in on the most compelling and colorful history. She brings to life the flawed, visionary Parisians who fell in love and out of it, who infuriated and inspired one another, all while reconfiguring the world's political, intellectual, and creative landscapes. With its balance of clear-eyed historical narrative and irresistible anecdotal charm, Left Bank transports listeners to a Paris teeming with passion, drama, and life.
Author
Agnès Poirier
Agnes Poirier is a Paris-born and London-educated journalist, broadcaster, critic, and writer. A regular contributor to the British and American media, (The Guardian, The Observer, The Times[London], The Nation, BBC, Sky News, CNN, among others) and the UK editor for the French political weekly Marianne, she is the author of four books about how France and Britain do things in opposite ways, including Touche: A French Woman's Take on the English. She has taught at the Paris Institute of Political Sciences (Sciences Po) and preselects British films for the Cannes Film Festival. She divides her time between Paris and London and loves cycling and listening to Charles Trenet.
Related to Left Bank
Related audiobooks
Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris Tete-a-Tete: The Tumultuous Lives and Loves of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Seven Ages of Paris Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Young Bloomsbury: The Generation That Redefined Love, Freedom, and Self-Expression in 1920s England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Lost Generation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5American Rhapsody: Writers, Musicians, Movie Stars, and One Great Building Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Paris: After the Liberation 1944-1949 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Empire: 1875-1914 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Weimar Culture: The Outsider as Insider Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jena 1800: The Republic of Free Spirits Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCritics, Monsters, Fanatics, and Other Literary Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Transcendentalists and Their World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Age of Capital: 1848-1875 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Glossy: The inside story of Vogue Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice, and London Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Paris France Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Picasso the Foreigner: An Artist in France, 1900-1973 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue Des Martyrs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Burning Man: The Trials of D.H. Lawrence Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Art of Rivalry: Four Friendships, Betrayals, and Breakthroughs in Modern Art Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Fontainebleau: An American Boy in France Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Picasso's War: The Destruction of Guernica, and the Masterpiece That Changed the World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Saint-Germain-des-Pres: Paris's Rebel Quarter Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5St. Marks Is Dead: The Many Lives of America's Hippest Street Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
European History For You
The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sovietistan: Travels in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Our Hideous Progeny: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diana: Her True Story in Her Own Words Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Teutonic Knights: A Military History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Invention of Murder: How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and the Rise of the Tudors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Royal Witches: Witchcraft and the Nobility in Fifteenth-Century England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The War on the West Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: with Pearl and Sir Orfeo Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ghost Map Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Professor and The Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Over My Dead Body: Unearthing the Hidden History of American Cemeteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reformation: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Templars: The History and the Myth: From Solomon's Temple to the Freemasons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Chernobyl 01:23:40: The Incredible True Story of the World's Worst Nuclear Disaster Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Royal Art of Poison: Filthy Palaces, Fatal Cosmetics, Deadly Medicine, and Murder Most Foul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related podcast episodes
Desperate Characters by Paula Fox: Author William Fiennes joins Andy and John for a … 0% found this document usefulBetty & Miles Davis 0% found this document usefulAnne Boleyn through Cromwell's eyes 0% found this document usefulInfidels: A Novel 0% found this document useful576 Love and Art in a Time of Hate - How European Artists and Intellectuals Survived the 1930s (with Florian Illies) 0% found this document usefulMarion Turner, "Chaucer: A European Life" (Princeton UP, 2019): An interview with Marion Turner 0% found this document usefulLouis Menand, "The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War" (FSG, 2021): An interview with Louis Menand 0% found this document usefulLouis Menand, "The Free World: Art and Thought in the Cold War" (FSG, 2021): An interview with Louis Menand 0% found this document usefulModernist Utopias: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mad, bad world of modern utopias. 0% found this document usefulModernist Utopias: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the mad, bad world of modern utopias. 0% found this document usefulThe Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Discussion with Marion Turner: An interview with Marion Turner 0% found this document usefulOn Virginia Woolf’s "Mrs Dalloway": A Discussion with Dora Zhang 0% found this document useful
Related articles
Standing Room Only: On Overtravel And The Joy Of The Unsung Literary HubArticle
Standing Room Only: On Overtravel And The Joy Of The Unsung
Aug 23, 2019
13 min readAndy Warhol’s Superstars and the Invention of Downtown New York Literary HubArticle
Andy Warhol’s Superstars and the Invention of Downtown New York
Jul 20, 2017
4 min readThe Reckoning Is Yet to Come The AtlanticArticle
The Reckoning Is Yet to Come
Apr 11, 2022
7 min readNine Books About Groups That Changed the World The AtlanticArticle
Nine Books About Groups That Changed the World
Jun 26, 2022
7 min readLooking For Paris’s Old Left Bank In The Footsteps Of Simone De Beauvoir Literary HubArticle
Looking For Paris’s Old Left Bank In The Footsteps Of Simone De Beauvoir
Jul 24, 2018
7 min readBalzac And The Reassembly Of France The Paris ReviewArticle
Balzac And The Reassembly Of France
Apr 10, 2019
6 min readIs the Pen Mightier Than Trump? Ask the 'Paris Review' NewsweekArticle
Is the Pen Mightier Than Trump? Ask the 'Paris Review'
Feb 17, 2017
7 min readSix Books That Will Change How You Look at Art The AtlanticArticle
Six Books That Will Change How You Look at Art
Feb 4, 2023
5 min readThe Spiritual Sisters of Simone de Beauvoir Literary HubArticle
The Spiritual Sisters of Simone de Beauvoir
Feb 22, 2018
8 min readLove After an Apocalypse Foreign Policy MagazineArticle
Love After an Apocalypse
Jan 22, 2019
4 min readThey Loved Paris Art & AntiquesArticle
They Loved Paris
May 1, 2024
6 min readComing To America The RakeArticle
Coming To America
Oct 12, 2018
14 min read2023 Books Of The Year BBC History MagazineArticle
2023 Books Of The Year
Nov 23, 2023
12 min readIn Search Of The Right Stuff The Critic MagazineArticle
In Search Of The Right Stuff
Jun 24, 2021
THE SECRET AUTHOR is not a Conservative. He rarely looks at the current Cabinet without feeling the need of a bath, and his position is that of a disillusioned Labour voter who believes that the greatest political tragedy of the past thirty years was
3 min readImperial Exiles BBC History MagazineArticle
Imperial Exiles
Dec 28, 2022
3 min readARTS & CULTURE All About HistoryArticle
ARTS & CULTURE
Jan 28, 2021
5 min readSUR Real Life Dazed and Confused MagazineArticle
SUR Real Life
Sep 20, 2022
5 min readHow Paris Turned Me Into a Writer Literary HubArticle
How Paris Turned Me Into a Writer
Oct 12, 2017
4 min read“My Own History And Actual History Have Been Interwoven -I Was Born during A V2 Raid On London” BBC History MagazineArticle
“My Own History And Actual History Have Been Interwoven -I Was Born during A V2 Raid On London”
Oct 27, 2022
3 min readA Lost Piece of Trans History The Paris ReviewArticle
A Lost Piece of Trans History
Jan 15, 2019
7 min readThe Decade John Berger Became an Art World Revolutionary Literary HubArticle
The Decade John Berger Became an Art World Revolutionary
Apr 21, 2020
7 min readChris Jennings ApertureArticle
Chris Jennings
Dec 8, 2020
3 min readThe Republic And LGBTQ + History All About HistoryArticle
The Republic And LGBTQ + History
Jul 14, 2022
Queer culture is often depicted as ‘flourishing’ during the Weimar period, how true is this? Queer culture really did take off in new and exciting ways after the end of the First World War in Germany, with new clubs, bars, magazines and political org
4 min readViennese Whirl The OldieArticle
Viennese Whirl
Aug 23, 2023
3 min readFrom The Trojan War To Conflict In Ukraine The Critic MagazineArticle
From The Trojan War To Conflict In Ukraine
Nov 30, 2023
THE YEAR 2023 HAS BEENrich in works composed in tempore belli. The most impressive is Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine (William Collins, £26) by General David Petraeus and the historian Andrew Roberts. This is an ambitious and
6 min readSeven Books That Will Make You Smarter The AtlanticArticle
Seven Books That Will Make You Smarter
Nov 28, 2022
5 min readWhen Making Art Means Leaving the United States The AtlanticArticle
When Making Art Means Leaving the United States
Jun 26, 2023
6 min readThe Mystery Within The Enigma Country LifeArticle
The Mystery Within The Enigma
Sep 7, 2022
5 min readWhat a Decade! Cobblestone American History and Current Events for Kids and ChildrenArticle
What a Decade!
Jul 1, 2020
1 min readPerverse Albion Art & AntiquesArticle
Perverse Albion
Apr 1, 2020
5 min read
Reviews for Left Bank
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews