The Seine: The River That Made Paris (B&N Exclusive Edition)

by Elaine Sciolino

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Former Paris bureau chief of The New York Times, Elaine Sciolino, dives deep into the history, the mystery and the intimacy of this 483 mile estuary river—the source of pride amongst the French and the endless fascination of people worldwide. Truth be told, it's one of the most romantic rivers anywhere, and the lovely way Sciolino describes the Seine can only be described as true affection. It is a delightful read that can be consumed bit by bit or in one bite. It is armchair travel writing at its finest but it's clearly a look into Sciolino's heart.

“Elaine Sciolino has laid one more beautiful and amusing wreath on the altar of the City of Light.”—Edmund White, New York Times

Blending memoir, travelogue, and history, The Seine is a love letter to Paris and the river that determined its destiny. Master storyteller and longtime New York Times foreign correspondent Elaine Sciolino explores the Seine through its lively characters—a bargewoman, a riverbank bookseller, a houseboat dweller, a famous cinematographer—and follows it from the remote plateaus of Burgundy, through Paris, and to the sea. The Seine is a vivid, enchanting portrait of the world’s most irresistible river.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393867367
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	09/29/2020
Edition description:	B&N Exclusive Edition
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	214,079
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Elaine Sciolino is a contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief for the New York Times. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Only Street in Paris. She has lived in Paris since 2002.

Editorial Reviews

08/12/2019

In this entertaining and informative travel memoir, former New York Times Paris bureau chief Sciolino (The Only Street in Paris) explores France’s celebrated river, the Seine. “In the spring of 1978 I was seduced by a river,” writes Sciolino, who then describes the Seine as “the most romantic river in the world” and explains how it has served as a strategic waterway in times of war (it slowed Hitler’s retreat after D-Day) and peace (it was an important shipping route for the Romans). She ventures to its inauspicious source in Burgundy—a “little hole in a man-made limestone grotto in the middle of nowhere”—and is inspired by the fable of the Gallo-Roman “healing goddess” Sequana for whom the river was named. Following its course, she meets a fourth-generation grape grower in Champagne; rowers who preserve historic boats; the River Brigade, who are “just like Miami Vice, no?”; and an elderly barge-woman mourning her landlocked retirement. Anecdotes abound of the bridges that cross the Seine in Paris, seasonal sand-and-palm-tree “beaches,” and “bouqinistes... the literary gatekeepers” who sell books beside the river. In a timely afterword following the 2019 fire at Notre Dame, she writes, “On the night of the great fire, the river was the cathedral’s salvation,” providing half the water used to douse the blaze. Sciolino’s enthusiasm buoys readers in this fluid literary work. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

★ 10/01/2019

There are rivers that are longer (Nile), deeper (Congo), wider (Amazon), and busier (Yangtze). There are rivers that are the largest in Europe (Volga), traverse more countries (Danube), and flow through major cities (Thames and Hudson). But, as Sciolino (The Only Street in Paris) points out, there are few more iconic, romantic, and beloved bodies of water in the world than the Seine. In tracing the river's geographic course from a small French village in Burgundy through Paris to the massive international port of Le Havre, the author also affectionately describes its origins in Roman antiquity to the role played by the Seine in quelling the 2019 Notre Dame cathedral fire. Written in an enjoyable journalistic style, the book is both a travelog and a cultural history of not only the river itself but the people who have lived, worked, and taken inspiration from it as it winds its way to the sea. For them, the phrase sur la Seine is the meaning of life itself. VERDICT For readers who have walked along the banks of the Seine or dream of someday doing so, this love letter to a river is highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 4/28/19.]—Linda Frederiksen, formerly with Washington State Univ. Lib., Vancouver

Library Journal

★ 2019-09-15
The veteran New York Times contributing writer and former Paris bureau chief shares her love affair with Paris and the Seine with enchanting anecdotes and insights.

Sciolino (The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs, 2016, etc.), who has lived in Paris since 2002, presents more of a voyage than a history, from Burgundy to the sea, traveling the 483 miles on the river's looping path from the Plateau de Langres to Honfleur and the English Channel. Along the way, the Seine is anchored by Paris and then Rouen, where it widens enough for oceangoing ships to reach the port of Le Havre. The source of the river is the underground springs where the Gauls worshiped the healing goddess Sequana, who, according to the author, is the true symbol of the river. Through the years, the river has been altered many times. Napoleon eliminated many of the islands to ease navigation, and he established the river as the center point for Paris' street-numbering system. Baron Haussmann transformed the riverfront with bridges, locks, and dams as well as tree-shaded promenades. As we travel downriver with our genial guide, we note that the right side of the river symbolizes money, politics, scandal, and the power of the media while the left signifies freedom, liberty, free speech, and free sex. Throughout, Sciolino provides wonderful, detailed interviews of former barge people, houseboat dwellers, booksellers, and members of the River Brigade, which polices the river. The author also takes us into the world of the impressionists, and in Rouen, once the most important port, we find ancient windmills, Joan of Arc, and the place where Monet obsessed over the light on the cathedral. Then it's on to Le Havre, the port created by François I in 1517, and finally, Honfleur, which "travel guides often refer to…as one of the prettiest towns in France."

Francophiles will adore this book, and others may become Francophiles as they read.

Kirkus Reviews