Haussmann, or the Distinction

Paul La Farge's stunning, imaginative novel about the great architect of Paris "full of artful prose, wit, and provocative ideas.” ( The Philadelphia Inquirer ) Baron Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who demolished and rebuilt Paris in the middle of the nineteenth century, was the first urbanist of the modern era--and perhaps the greatest. He presided over two decades of riches, peace, and progress in a city the likes of which no one had ever seen before, with boulevards monumentally conceived and bril