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Travel by Novel: ParisBest Historical Novels for Travelers to Paris and Versailles
"Paris is for lovers," they say. Whether you travel by novel or in person, it truly is one of the world's most romantic cities. Its elegance shows it was home to French royalty, as does the opulence of nearby Versailles, once the playground of the aristocracy, now open to all (for a fee). Visitors to Paris can't miss the art: the buildings themselves are works of art. Still, it would be a shame not to visit the Louvre and some of the art museums devoted to the French Impressionists. The artists of nineteenth-century Paris were known for their love affairs; novels about them can be supremely romantic. Even Quasimodo, the hunchbacked bell-ringer of medieval Notre Dame was in love. Paris also has a darker history: the French Revolution was triggered by the heartless behavior of the eighteenth-century aristocracy and made bloody by the revolutionaries' revenge on guilty and innocent alike. The city won its carefree approach to life only after surviving a time when Parisians had to guard their tongues and watch their steps to stay alive! Jump to: Medieval Paris Imagining the Past in Paris, an article by Thad Carhart, author of Across the Endless River Medieval Paris
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Michelle Cameron, The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz (2009), about the wife of the Jewish scholar Meir ben Baruch of Rothenberg and the struggle of her and her husband to find safety in Paris and then Germany amid the anti-Semitism raging through Europe in the thirteenth century. Review at Reading the Past Cecelia Holland, The Lords of Vaumartin Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1931), the classic tale of a hunchback taken in as a baby by the clerics of Notre Dame Cathedral and trained to ring the bells. Review at Man of la Book. Free online at Project Gutenberg.
Catherine de Medici and her Time
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C.W. Gortner, The Confessions of Catherine de Medici (2010), a sympathetic portrayal of the infamous sixteenth-century French queen. Review or Author Interview Judith Merkle Riley, The Master of all Desires Seventeenth Century Paris
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Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers, the classic swashbuckler about three soldiers in Louis XIII's Paris; #1 in the Three Musketeers series. Review at Becky's Book Reviews. Free ebook download at Project Gutenberg Susanne Dunlap, Emilie’s Voice, about a beautiful singer in seventeenth century Paris and Versailles. Review at History and Women Umberto Eco, The Island of the Day Before, set in seventeenth-century Paris during the age of astronomical discoveries. Judith Merkle Riley, The Oracle Glass Versailles, Playground of French Royalty
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Sandra Gulland, Mistress of the Sun (2008), about Louise de la Valliere, the remarkable horsewoman who became the first mistress of King Louis XIV of France. Review Rosalind Laker, To Dance with Kings Frederic Richaud, Gardener to the King Anne Golon, Angelique: Marquise of the Angels Kathryn Davis, Versailles, a sympathetic portrayal of Marie Antoinette. Review at the Yale Review of Books
Eighteenth Century Paris before the Revolution
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Patrick Suskind, Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, a gritty literary novel about the sense of smell, set in eighteenth century Paris; magical realism. Stéphane Audeguy, The Only Son (2008), about Jean-Jacques Rousseau's elder brother, a libertine who worked in a brothel where he embarked on a study of the many varieties of desire. Rikki Ducornet, The Fan-Maker's Inquisition: A Novel of the Marquis de Sade, an eighteenth century woman is put on trial for co-authoring books with the Marquis de Sade. Lion Feuchtwanger, 'Tis folly to be wise: Or, Death and Transfiguration of Jean-Jacques Rosseau Marie AntoinetteClick on the title to go to the listing at Powell's Books or another online source
Victoria Holt, The Queen's Confession Sena Jeter Naslund, Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette (2006), about Marie Antoinette. Chantal Thomas, Farewell, My Queen (2003), the story of Marie Antoinette, narrated by one of her attendants. Review at The Guardian
Madame Guillotine: The French Revolution
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Michelle de Kretser, The Rose Grower, an American balloonist lands in France and is caught up in the French Revolution. Review at January Magazine Catherine Delors, Mistress of the Revolution, about a young woman from an aristocratic family and her struggle to survive a brutal marriage and the upheavals of the French Revolution; told in the form of a memoir she writes years later after escaping to England. Review
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859), about a beautiful young woman, her long-imprisoned father and a kind-hearted nobleman caught up in the French Revolution. Review Tanith Lee, The Gods are Thirsty, about the journalist Camille Desmoulins and his role in the French Revolution. Review at The Austin Chronicle Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety (1993), about Georges-Jacques Danton, Maximilien Robespierre, Camille Desmoulins and the French Revolution. Diana Norman, The Sparks Fly Upward, a young Englishwoman tries to rescue an aristocratic Frenchman from the guillotine during the French Revolution. Review at Dear Author Marge Piercy, City of Darkness, City of Light, about three women who worked for reforms during the French Revolution. Review at the Orlando Sentinel
Napoleon's Paris
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Max Gallo, The Song Of Departure Max Gallo, The Sun of Austerlitz (English edition, 2004), about Napoleon from 1799 when he becomes First Consul in France until his victory at Austerlitz, #2 in the Napoleon quartet. Max Gallo, The Emperor of Kings Max Gallo, The Immortal of St. Helena (English edition, 2005; also titled The Immortal Man of Saint Helena Sandra Gulland, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. (1995), about the early life of Josephine through the time she meets Napoleon; #1 in the Josephine trilogy. Review Sandra Gulland, Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe (1998), about Josephine, the wife of Napoleon, during the years of his rise to power; #2 in the Josephine trilogy. Review at the Historical Tapestry blog Sandra Gulland, The Last Great Dance on Earth (2000), about Napoleon’s wife Josephine during the difficult years leading up to their divorce and his exile; #3 in the Josephine trilogy. Review at Aunt Nanci's blog Simon Leys, The Death of Napoleon, a humorous novella in which Napoleon escapes from St. Helena and is compelled to live as an ordinary French citizen while plotting his return to power. Review at Kirkus Reviews Norah Lofts, A Rose for Virtue (1971), about Hortense de Beauharnais, the daughter of Josephine Bonaparte and stepdaughter of Napoleon, who married Napoleon's brother and became the mother of Napoleon III. Review by Susan Higginbotham
Nineteenth-Century Paris Culture: Art, Music and Love Affairs
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Sarah Bayliss, Utrillo's Mother Stephanie Cowell, Claude and Camille (2010), about the French Impressionist artist Claude Monet and his first wife Camille Doncieux. Review or Author Interview Gioia Diliberto, I Am Madame X, about the artist John Singer Sargent, the beautiful Paris socialite he painted in a low-cut black dress in 1884, and the controversy over the painting that ruined her reputation. Review at BookPage Susanne Dunlap, Liszt’s Kiss, about a sheltered young woman pianist during a cholera epidemic in nineteenth century Paris. Review at Curled Up With a Good Book Arabella Edge, The God of Spring (titled The Raft Rosalind Laker, Brilliance Pierre La Mure, Clair de Lune Pierre La Mure, Moulin Rouge Jude Morgan, Symphony (2007), about the nineteenth century French composer Berlioz and the actress who was his muse. Review at Genre Go Round Reviews Kate Mosse, Sepulchre (2008), spooky historical fantasy about a young woman in 1891 Paris who lives in the same apartment as the composer Claude Debussy, and a modern woman researching both the composer and her own ancestry. Review at The Telegraph Elizabeth Robards, With Violets (2005), a romantic novel exploring the possibility that the impressionist painters Edouard Manet and Berthe Morisot may have been lovers. Review at the Historical Novel Society Susan Vreeland, Luncheon of the Boating Party (2007), about the men and women the nineteenth century French artist Renoir portrayed in his famous impressionist painting. Review at the Book Reporter Susan Vreeland, Life Studies (2004), short stories about artists and the people their art touches, most but not all set in the nineteenth century Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods. Review at Hackwriters.com
Nineteenth-Century Paris: Life and Work
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Jill Dawson, Wild Boy (2003), about an autistic boy found running wild in the woods in the years after the French Revolution and brought to Paris by a young doctor who studies him while training him to live in civilized society. Review at The Guardian Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo (originally published in serial form 1845-1846), about a man wrongfully imprisoned on the accusation of supporting Napoleon Bonaparte after Bonaparte's defeat and exile to Elba. Review at Booksquawk.com. Free ebook at Project Gutenberg Rachel Field, All This, and Heaven Too (1938), about the young governess Henriette Deluzy-Desportes, who takes a job with the Duc and Duchesse de Choiseul-Praslin and a few years later finds herself at the center of a scandalous murder trial; based on historical events. Review Rebecca Stott, The Coral Thief (2008), about a Scottish medical student and the beautiful young woman who steals from him when they share a stagecoach while traveling to Paris in 1815 in the wake of Napoleoon's defeat. Review at The Independent Peter Vansittart, Hermes in Paris (2000), about the Greek trickster god Hermes, who visits Paris during the reign of Napoleon III and his empress Eugenie to play a joke.
Paris at the Turn of the Twentieth Century
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M. Allen Cunningham, Lost Son (2007), about the young German poet Rainer Maria Rilke in 1902, when he travels to Paris to write a study of the sculptor Auguste Rodin and experiences a personal crisis. Review at January Magazine
Paris During World War II
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Tatiana de Rosnay, Sarah's Key (2007), about a contemporary American journalist who discovers her French husband's family acquired their Paris apartment 60 years earlier during the German occupation when the Jewish family who lived there was forcibly deported. Review at Curled Up With a Good Book
Mysteries Set in Paris
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Fiona Buckley, Queen's Ransom (2000), about a noblewoman sent on a secret mission to Catherine de Medici in France for Queen Elizabeth I; #3 in the Ursula Blanchard mystery series; Fiona Buckley is a pen name of Valerie Anand. Judith Rock, The Rhetoric of Death (2010), about a seventeenth-century Paris dance teacher who sets out to investigate when one of his students goes missing. Review at the Curled Up With a Good Book blog Susanne Alleyn, The Cavalier of the Apocalypse (2009), about a penniless writer in Paris on the eve of the French Revolution who becomes the chief suspect in a murder investigation after he discovers a corpse in a graveyard; #3 in the Aristide Ravel mystery series (a prequel to Game of Patience and A Treasury of Regrets). Review or Interview with Susanne Alleyn P.C. Doherty, The Masked Man Lou Jane Temple, Death du Jour, a cook for a wealthy household in Paris must solve a murder mystery on the eve of the Revolution. Review at the Women in World History blog Catherine Delors, For the King (2010), a thriller about a Paris police inspector who must hunt down the conspirators involved in a bloody assassination plot against Napoleon. Review or Author Interview Boris Akunin, Murder on the Leviathan (2004; also titled Leviathan), about a Russian gentleman sleuth competing with a French detective to find out who murdered an Englishman in nineteenth-century Paris; #3 in the Erast Fandorin mystery series. Review at The Boston Phoenix Louis Bayard, The Black Tower (2008), a literary thriller about a French police detective in 1818 who suspects that the son of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, believed to have died after the Revolution, may still be alive. Review Claude Izner, Murder on the Eiffel Tower (2008), about a young bookseller who investigates an unlikely death on the newly built Eiffel Tower during the 1889 Universal Exposition; #1 in the planned Victor Legris mystery series. Review at Euro Crime Carol McCleary, The Alchemy of Murder (2010), a mystery in which reporter Nellie Bly, novelist Jules Verne and scientist Louis Pasteur team up to solve a murder at the 1889 Paris World's Fair. Review at Reviewing the Evidence Kate Taylor, A Man in Uniform (2011), a mystery about an attorney recruited by a mysterious and attractive young widow to appeal the French government's case against Albert Dreyfus. Review at the Globe and Mail Barbara Cleverly, Folly Du Jour (2007), about a Scotland Yard detective trying to clear the name of a friend who has been arrested for murder in Paris during the 1920s; #7 in the Detective Joe Sandilands mystery series. Review at Mysterious Reviews
Novels for Teens
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Gloria Skurzynski, Spider's Voice (1999), about a boy in twelfth-century Paris who carries messages between his master, Abelard, and Abelard's beautiful student Eloise. Theresa Breslin, The Nostradamus Prophecy (2008), about a minstrel's thirteen-year-old daughter who asks for the help of the sixteenth-century seer Nostradamus after his prediction of misfortune for her family comes true. Beth Levine Ain, The Revolution of Sabine (2009), about a sixteen-year-old Paris girl from an aristocratic family who, after meeting Benjamin Franklin in 1776, questions the marriage her parents have planned for her. Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution (2010), about a modern teenage girl from New York whose father takes her to Paris, where she slips back in time after reading the diary of a French girl who was the companion to the doomed son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Patricia Elliott, The Pale Assassin (2009), about a girl in a convent school in Paris who has no idea that the French Revolution is about to change her life; #1 in the Pimpernelles series. Sally Gardner, The Red Necklace (2007), about a fourteen-year-old gypsy boy working as a magician's assistant during the French Revolution. Review Gladys Malvern, Patriot's Daughter Carolyn Meyer, The Bad Queen (2010); about Marie-Antoinette, the extravagant queen of France until the French Revolution toppled the monarchy; #6 in the Young Royals series. Celia Rees, Sovay (2008), about a French girl raised in England after the French Revolution who sets out to find her missing father and brother. Sharon Stewart, The Princess in the Tower (2005; previously published in 1998 as The Dark Tower), about the daughter of the King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, Princess Marie Thérèse Charlotte, who was imprisoned during the French Revolution. Gladys Malvern, Stephanie Carolyn Meyer, Marie, Dancing (2005), about a fourteen-year-old ballet dancer in the Paris Opera who models for the artist Edgar Degas in the late nineteenth century.
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Abraham B. Yehoshua, 
(1988), about an orphaned nobleman in fourteenth century Paris.
(1999), about the French queen, Catherine de Medici, and Nostradamus. 
(1994), about a young woman in seventeenth-century Paris who makes her living masquerading as a 150-year-old sorceress. 
, a family saga about four generations of women beginning with a fan-maker's daughter who joins the court at Versailles during the seventeenth century reign of Louis XIV. 
, about the gardener at Louis XIV's Versailles. 
, about a seventeenth century French nobleman's daughter; #1 in the extensive Angelique series (originally published in a single volume with The Road to Versailles under the pen name Sergeanne Golon). If you read French try it in the original language: 
. See the website devoted to the Angelique series: 
(1952), about a young French aristocrat whose father hosts the French philosopher Rousseau in 1778 at the end of his life. 
Carolly Erickson, 
(1968), about Marie Antoinette. 
Lorenzo Borghese, 
(English edition, 2004), about the first thirty years of Napoleon's life and his rise to power in the French Revolution, #1 in the Napoleon quartet. 
(English edition, 2004), about Napoleon's quest for power from 1806 to his 1812 Russian campaign, #3 in the Napoleon quartet.
), about Napoleon as his Russian campaign falters and Europe takes its revenge, #4 in the Napoleon quartet. 
(1987), about the late nineteenth century Parisian artist Suzanne Valadon, whose reputation was eclipsed by that of her son, Maurice Utrillo. 
in the U.K.), a literary novel about an early nineteenth century French artist who paints a shipwreck. 
, about a love affair in the late nineteenth century Paris film industry. 
(1962), a biographical novel about the French composer Claude Debussy.
(1950), about the nineteenth century French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
, an investigation into the identity of the "man in the iron mask," a mysterious prisoner in eighteenth-century Paris.
(1960), about the daughter of the Marquis de Lafayette, whose family is arrested during the turmoil following the French Revolution after he returns from fighting in America's War of Independence.
(1956), about a niece of Josephine Bonaparte who grows up in poverty until Josephine summons her to Paris, sends her to a finishing school, and brings her to Napoleon's court.