12 h 49 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 12 h 49 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
In Belle Époque Paris, the salon and the underworld sit close together—and society itself becomes a stage.
In Parisian Dust, Jean Lorrain turns his eye on the city he knows from within: its theatres, salons, cafes, and late nights. A poet, novelist, and newspaper columnist, he mixes reporting with opinion and wit. This is Paris seen through a dandy’s eye, where style is a principle of life.
Respectable society is only part of the view. Lorrain is drawn to the city’s edges, its pleasures, vices, and strange characters. His sharp public voice brings scandal into the picture, too. As he watches people play their parts, the glitter of Paris shares the page with its darker side.
What you’ll discover
- Paris from within Enter the theatres, salons, and cafes that form the world of Lorrain’s Parisian chronicles.
- Society as theatre See how a dandy’s eye turns social life into a stage of carefully played parts.
- Wit with an edge Meet a columnist whose blend of reporting and opinion leaves room for cruelty and scandal.
- Beyond the respectable salon Follow Lorrain’s interest in the nightlife, pleasures, and vices beside the city’s polished social world.
- The decadent sensibility Explore a view of Paris shaped by style, sharp gossip, and the fin de siècle.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy diaries, theatre history, art criticism and gossip with a sharp eye. It suits anyone curious about Belle Époque Paris and the people who filled its boxes, cafes and studios.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Grief and gossip share the page
- City chatter reveals public anxieties
- Bernhardt joins performance with publicity
- Compassion lives beside the gossip
- Political division exposes the chronicler's prejudice
- Southern journeys widen the stage
- Art criticism begins with close looking
- The Exposition displays modern Paris
- Memory matters amid the city's changes
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Parisian Dust
by Jean Lorrain · 1896
A dandy walks Paris from wrestling rings to Sarah Bernhardt's dressing room, noting each scandal of 1899 and 1900.
Challenging5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What does a Paris dandy see when he walks out every night for two years? In Parisian Dust, Jean Lorrain answers with hundreds of dated entries.
Parisian Dust at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 15 min5 h 45 min fast, 8 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 103,400 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1896by Jean Lorrain
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A poet's death opens the chronicle
The chronicle opens on New Year's Day 1899 with a death. The poet Georges Rodenbach, barely forty, has just died, and the writer says the year just ended took many artists with it. He calls that year a killer of poets.
He does not go to the funeral. He cannot stand the false faces and the predictable speeches. Instead he turns to Rodenbach's last poem, about an old church in a dead city, and copies its melancholy lines into his page.
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1896
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Lorrain, Jean. Parisian Dust. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/parisian-dust.
Lorrain, J. (2026). Parisian dust. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/parisian-dust (Original work published 1896)
Lorrain, Jean. Parisian Dust. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/parisian-dust.
@book{lorrain2026parisian,
author = {Lorrain, Jean},
title = {Parisian Dust},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/parisian-dust},
note = {First published 1896}
}
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What is Parisian Dust about?
It is a collection of dated daily entries by Jean Lorrain, covering Paris from January 1899 to late 1900. He writes about theatre, art, society gossip, fairs, travel in the south and the 1900 Exposition, with the Dreyfus Affair in the background.
Who wrote Parisian Dust and when?
Jean Lorrain, a French writer and journalist who died in 1906, wrote it. The entries come from his newspaper columns of 1899 and 1900, and they were later gathered into a book, so each one stands as a short, dated scene.
Is Parisian Dust a true story?
Yes, it is nonfiction. It records real events, plays, exhibitions and people of the period, such as Sarah Bernhardt, Rodin and Doctor Pozzi. Lorrain adds his own opinions, and some overheard talk is set down in a lively, literary way.
The author
Jean Lorrain
1855–1906 · French Symbolist poet and novelist
Jean Lorrain was the pen name of Paul Duval, a French poet, novelist and journalist. He was born in Fécamp in 1855 and died in Paris in 1906. He lived in Paris and wrote poetry, stories and novels, including Monsieur de Bougrelon (1897) and Monsieur de Phocas (1901).
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