The Measure of Paris

Paris remains one of the most fascinating cities in the world. It provides a measure of excellence in many areas of culture, and it is itself constantly being measured, both by its lovers and by its critics. This book presents a series of studies on the images of Paris presented by writers (mostly Canadian, from John Glassco to Mavis Gallant to Lola Lemire Tostevin), but also in such other areas as social history and personal memoir. The result is a wide-ranging discussion of the city's history in 20th century literature and thought, which will appeal to all those who love Paris, or who have ever walked on its streets. Governor General's Award-winning poet, literary critic, and flâneur explores and riffs off Paris's literary spirit. Stephen Scobie, flâneur extraordinaire, deftly blends travelogue, memoir, literary criticism, and poetry in The Measure of Paris. He re-presents a "peripatetic speculation" on Paris and those others who have walked and written this "infinite city." Scobie's graceful wanderings into Parisian art, history, architecture, city planning, and flânerie prepare readers for his prolonged meditations on fellow Canadian writers such as Sheila Watson, Mavis Gallant, Gail Scott, Lola Lemire Tostevin, John Glassco, and Gerry Shikatani, and other literary visitors such as Gertrude Stein and Djuna Barnes. Scobie leaves us with personal observations, journal entries and lucid poems to mark and measure his own time there. Seldom do pleasures of form and content align so perfectly. Those who enjoy travel, great writing and great writers, and the city of light will love The Measure of Paris. B&W photographs, index #4 on the Edmonton Journal "Edmonton Top 10" Bestseller list "Stephen Scobie is a prolific poet and literary critic, the author of 23 books, the founding publisher of Longspoon Press, a retired University of Alberta English professor and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In his latest work, Scobie takes the measure of Paris through personal journal entries, poetry, literary theory and criticism as well as through architectural and cultural history. It is the act of moving through the city on foot, however, that ties these disparate approaches together.. The Measure of Paris is also autobiography; it is an expression of personal fascination by a lifelong intellectual. When walking Paris with Scobie, the reader is alternatively dazed by a surfeit of the unfamiliar and exhilarated by the thrill of discovery." Doug Horner, Alberta Views "Measure of Paris by Stephen Scobie is a travelogue, memoir, literary criticism and poetic look at Paris.... Scobie is the ultimate flâneur and his philosophical meanderings through Paris takes readers to sites of art, architecture and transit. His history of the city planning, and the itineraries of Canadian writers in Paris, makes for interesting reading and a different look at a city that is larger than life. His personal musings were my favourite, along with the insights into Haussman¹s influence and transformation of Paris through the large-scale construction of the streets and boulevards that make the Paris we know today." September 26, 2010 [http://www.somisguided.com/weblog/book-review-measure-of-paris-by-stephen-s cobie/ "...Scobie weaves together a book that is part straightforward academic criticism, part anecdotal history and part autobiography." Michael Brown, http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/en/NewsArticles/2010/08/Authorlooksbackat theEnglishdepartmentsrisetoprominence.aspx #7 on the Edmonton Top 10 Non-Fiction List (Edmonton Journal), Aug 15/10 "As Alain De Botton does in The Art of Travel (2002), Scobie offers a personal, evocative meditation on the meaning of place. For him, the place is Paris, a city that has inspired a multitude of literary responses. This one--which is illustrated with romantic, painterly photographs by Eugene Atget (1857-1927)--is especially notable: with a poet's sensibility and eloquence, the author combines literary criticis