City of creativity

THE title of this beautifully illustrated volume is a significant mistranslation of its original French title, Paris 1919-1939: Art, Vie et Culture.

Clearly a labour of love by its two authors, Vincent Bouvet and Gérard Durozol, this intelligent and acute look at art, life and culture in the French capital during the inter-war period, now re-issued by Thames and Hudson, is actually everything that the title in English does not suggest.

Indeed the gulf between the intention and inspiration of this work, and its marketing to English-speaking readers, reinforces the argument that the French state should persevere in its efforts to preserve ‘la Vie Francaise’ from encroachments of Anglo-Saxon bowdlerisation.