{"id":7054,"date":"2019-11-17T11:39:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-17T10:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/?p=7054"},"modified":"2025-09-07T00:22:52","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:22:52","slug":"france-1900-frankreich-um-1900-marc-walter-sabine-arque","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lesestunden.de\/en\/2019\/11\/france-1900-marc-walter-sabine-arque\/","title":{"rendered":"France 1900 \u2022 Marc Walter & Sabine Arqu\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

For me, the greatest writers of all time are the French authors of the nineteenth century, and I\u2019ve spent countless hours in France of that era. Together with authors like Balzac, Dumas, Flaubert, Hugo, Stendhal, and Maupassant, I\u2019ve traveled through the most diverse regions of France\u2014above all, of course, Paris. Some of the great authors were active a few decades earlier, yet the Belle \u00c9poque<\/em> exerts a special magic that captivates me again and again\u2014literarily, but also in documentaries and photographs. The illustrated volume France 1900<\/em>, which I\u2019d like to introduce today, is probably the most extensive collection of photographs from that period and, in its overall design, a work of art. It\u2019s certainly the largest book I now own, and whether its contents are equally grand is what you\u2019ll find out in this review.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The Belle \u00c9poque<\/em> covers a not entirely clearly defined period around the turn of the century. It begins roughly with the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and extends to the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. In these years\u2014thanks to the ensuing period of peace and technological progress (and thus the continuation of the Industrial Revolution)\u2014Europe experienced a flowering. This was clearly felt economically and culturally, even if the upswing did not reach all social classes and was concentrated especially in the cities. One of the major centers of this boom was Paris, which hosted the 1889 Exposition Universelle. There, the newly built Eiffel Tower was presented, along with inventions such as the phonograph and the telephone.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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I\u2019ve repeatedly watched documentaries about this era. For example, Arte once aired a good documentary about photographs that shopkeepers in particular liked to have taken of themselves and their storefronts. Some time ago I also blogged about a book with a fitting documentary on Colette<\/a>. If you browse the web a bit, you\u2019ll also find film footage from the Belle \u00c9poque<\/em>. I also thought the documentary Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen, Im Spiegel der Malerei<\/em> (\u201cSplendor and Misery of Courtesans, in the Mirror of Painting\u201d) was brilliant, as well as the video about the painter Toulouse-Lautrec<\/em> (whose posters can also be found in this volume). I find this period in France particularly fascinating because it was a turning point: traces of the country\u2019s turbulent past still clung to it, and yet modernity\u2014with technological development and numerous inventions\u2014was already beginning to upend society completely. Over everything hangs an atmosphere very close to what Balzac describes, and especially when you read Maupassant\u2019s novellas you notice that people back then already thought in many ways much as we do. It\u2019s precisely the surge in art, industry, architecture, technology, travel, gastronomy, and nightlife with its demi-monde that makes this period such fertile ground for stories\u2014and a wellspring for dreaming.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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After browsing the catalog of the newly discovered Taschen publishing house<\/a>, I came across this book and thought its subject was just right, but I was surprised at the premium price. When the book finally arrived at my home, it quickly became clear why. Photos never quite convey it, but the book is a powerhouse. I expected something in the format of MoonFire<\/a>, which had already blown me away in terms of format, size, and production\u2014but the volume before me exceeded my expectations. France 1900<\/em> is simply massive and by far the largest book I own; it doesn\u2019t fit anywhere in my shelves unless I lay it on its side\u2014and even then it sticks out quite a bit. It comes in a large box with a carrying handle, and at the top you can see a picture of the book on my reading chair\u2014you can already tell how big it is. Its production values are as top-notch as MoonFire<\/em>, and to me it\u2019s clear that in the realm of illustrated books, few can rival Taschen anytime soon. The sturdy cloth binding, the thread stitching, the paper, the high-quality printing\u2014everything is perfect. It even has a ribbon bookmark, though to be honest, it\u2019s more of a ribbon strap<\/em>, given how thick it is.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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So the production and look are already excellent; naturally the question turns to its substance. At the heart of this volume are numerous photochrom prints. These are black-and-white photographs that were colored using a lithographic process. Especially in the years before the First World War, they were very popular and widely distributed. These photochromes look like hand-colored black-and-white photos; they\u2019re pleasant to look at, yet they still feel very old and have their own nostalgic aura\u2014much like old postcards. In addition, there are advertising posters, lithographs, hotel luggage labels, and ordinary photographs. As the introduction reveals, some images were also later colorized using digital processes. I particularly like the old advertising posters (primarily from the PLM railway company): they\u2019re simply beautiful and evoke that typical mood associated with the period. The photochromes also give you a good sense of what things roughly looked like back then. Thanks to the large format, everything makes a strong impression, and once again I found myself diving deep into that vanished world.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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The book is trilingual, meaning all texts and captions appear in English, French, and German. That\u2019s no problem, since there\u2019s plenty of space at this size. While the book as a whole has less text than MoonFire<\/em>, it still provides enough information to learn quite a bit about the period and the scenes depicted. Apart from the introduction and the index at the end, it\u2019s organized by region and offers the following chapters:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n