NEW YORK:

HURST & CO., PUBLISHERS,

122 NASSAU STREET.





PREFACE.


The contents of this volume are the result of two visits to Paris. The
first when Louis Napoleon was president of the Republic; and the second
when Napoleon III. was emperor of France. I have sketched people and
places as I saw them at both periods, and the reader should bear this in
mind.

I have not endeavored to make a hand-book to Paris, but have described
those places and objects which came more particularly under my notice. I
have also thought it best, instead of devoting my whole space to the
description of places, or the manners of the people--a subject which has
been pretty well exhausted by other writers--to give a few sketches of
the great men of Paris and of France; and among them, a few of the
representative literary men of the past. There is not a general
knowledge of French literature and authors, either past or present,
among the mass of readers; and Paris and France can only be truly known
through French authors and literature.