The miraculous history of Notre Dame de Paris – its construction, near destructions and survival against all odds
‘Vivid and engrossing… the opening chapter repays the cover price.’ Observer
Winner of The 2022 French Heritage Society Book Award
The profound emotion felt around the world upon seeing images of Notre-Dame in flames opens up a series of questions: Why was everyone so deeply moved? Why does Notre-Dame so clearly crystallise what our civilisation is about? What makes ‘Our Lady of Paris’ the soul of a nation and a symbol of human achievement? What is it that speaks so directly to us today?
In answer, Agnès Poirier turns to the defining moments in Notre-Dame’s history. Beginning with the laying of the corner stone in 1163, she recounts the conversion of Henri IV to Catholicism, the coronation of Napoleon, Victor Hugo’s nineteenth-century campaign to preserve the cathedral, Baron Haussmann’s clearing of the streets in front of it, the Liberation in 1944, the 1950s film of The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, starring Gina Lollobrigida and Anthony Quinn, and the state funeral of Charles de Gaulle, before returning to the present.
The conflict over Notre-Dame’s reconstruction promises to be fierce. Nothing short of a cultural war is already brewing between the wise and the daring, the sincere and the opportunist, historians and militants, the devout and secularists. It is here that Poirier reveals the deep malaise – gilet jaunes and all – at the heart of the France.
- 256 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Praise for Notre-Dame: The Soul of France
- Also by Agnès Poirier
- Title Page
- Epigraphs
- Dedication
- Contents
- Map
- Prologue
- 1 The Night of the Fire
- 2 The First Stone
- 3 The Bourbons
- 4 Reason, Supreme Being and Wine
- 5 The Coronation of Napoleon
- 6 How Victor Hugo’s Novel Saved Notre-Dame
- 7 Viollet-le-Duc
- 8 Haussmann ‘Unclutters’ the Île de la Cité
- 9 De Gaulle at the Liberation
- 10 The Bells of Notre-Dame
- 11 The Battle for the Reconstruction of Notre-Dame
- 12 The Race to Rebuild Notre-Dame
- Bibliography
- Notes
- Acknowledgements
- Plate Section
- Imprint Page
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Yes, you can access Notre-Dame by Agnès Poirier in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Religious Architecture. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.