HAUSSMANN, OR THE DISTINCTION

Reading history is so much more pleasant when it’s penned by a writer who weaves fiction with the facts. Thinking that Paris was always as it is now, one is amazed to learn that it was transformed from a maze of dirty little lanes to a grand city with parks and wide avenues by the architect Georges-Eugene Haussmann. His fascinating lifestyle and the passions from which he patterned his life are given a sensitive understanding by Eric Bauersfeld. He reads with the subtlety of one who is standing in for the author, but indeed he gives full color to the story. As his voice and manner offer the sound of the Old World, he takes us through the upheaval of a changing social order--and we enjoy the sound of it. J.P. © AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine [Published: AUG/ SEP 04]