A Passion for Paris: Romanticism and Romance in the City of Light

Part I. Romantic Encounters in a Maid's Room, or how the innocent author from San Francisco followed Felix Nadar to Paris and was seduced by the city, becoming obsessed by the world's obsessions and fantasies about romance in the City of Light -- 1. Overhead in a Balloon -- 2. Deciphering the Paris Palimpsest -- 3. A Tramp Steamer to Pere-Lachaise Cemetery -- Part II. Discovering the First Great Romantic Circle in my new Backyard, the Marais and Ile Saint Louis -- 1. Bastille Day -- 2. Guest Appearances -- 3. The Romance of Rebelliosness -- 4. Defining the Undefinable : Romanticism -- 5. An Arsenal of Poetic Weaponry -- 6. Love Triangle : Victor, Adele and Sainte-Beuve -- 7. The Battle of Hernani -- 8. Romeo Seeks Juliette -- 9. The Conquest of Victor -- 10. Knight Templar -- 11. The Historic Present -- 12. Balzac's Marais -- Part III. Baudelaire's Island -- 1. Joie de Tristesse or The Romance of Unhappiness -- 2. Sex, Drugs and Striking Poses -- 3. Islands in the Dream -- Part IV. The Cult of the Les Grands Hommes (et Les Femmes?) or How the Pantheon of Gods came to Earth in Paris' Latin Quarter -- 1. The Architecture of Romance -- 2. The Anti-Romantics -- 3. The Academy of the Dead -- Part V. Romantic Romps in the Luxembourg Garden, Latin Quarter, and Saint Germain des Pres -- 1. A Leafy Pantheon of Romance -- 2. The Sand Pit -- 3. Butterfly Catcher -- 4. Merry-go-Rounds and Talking Heads -- 5. Merging into Bohemia -- 6. The Water Drinkers -- 7. Momus is the Word -- 8. Color Versus Line -- 9. A Drunken Boat, a Starving Writer, and Two Giant Clarinets -- 10. Delacroix's Last Stand -- Part VI. Quai Voltaire -- 1. The Seine's Scene -- 2. D'Artagnan's Cask of Amontillado -- 3. Delacroix Rebuffs Dumas -- Part VII. The New Athens and Montmartre, From the Heyday of Romanticism to the Resurgence of Romantic Decadence and the Birth of Modernism -- 1. Delacroix's Permanent Ephemera -- 2. Parisian Acropolis -- 3. Chopin's Hand -- 4. A Real Butte -- 5. Devil May Care -- 6. Slumming Stein and Picasso's Blue Rose -- 7. Spirits Set in Stone -- Part VIII. Open Endings and Musings on the Looping Lanes that Link the Balzac House and the Great Romantics to their Unwitting Descendants and Modern-Day Paris -- 1. The Long and Winding Road -- 2. Quiet Days in Passy -- 3. Sending Out an SMS : From Balzac With Love -- Key Dates -- Key Characters. xiv, 304 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm