Translated by Howard Eiland and Kevin Mclaughlin

PREPARED ON TIlE BASIS OF TIlE GERMAN VOLUME EDITED BY ROLF TIEDEM

ANN

THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS

CAMBRIIlGE, MASSACHUSETTS , AND LONDON , ENGLAND 1999
 CONTENTS

Copyrigflt 0 1999 by the Praidc:nt and FdIows of Harvard College

Translators ' Forew ord
Allrighu~
Printc:d in lhc: United SuIc:S of Amc:rica '"
TIm work is a tr:uulation of Wah a Benjamin, Da.s /Wsag<'ll .WtrA:, edited by RoIfTICd
anann, copyrigtu
o 1982 by Suhrkamp \bUg; voIumc: 5 of \-IhI(c:r Bc:njamin. Gutuuuflt &ltrjftnt, prepared with the: 00- Exposes 1
opc:ntion oCTheodor W Adorno and Gc:rshom Schokm, edited by RoIflic:d
c:mann and Hc:rm:um "Paris, the Capital of the Ninete enth Centur y" (1935) 3
Schwq>pc:nhaUKr, copyrigbt 0 1972, 1974, 1977, 1982, 1985, 1989 by Suhrkam
p \b'Iag, ~Diakctia at a "Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century" (1939)
Standstill." by RolfTICdc:mann. w:u lint published in F.ngIUh by MIT Prest, copyrigh 14
t 0 1988 by the
Manac:husc:tu Institute oC1Cchnology.

Publication of this book has bern 5Upponc:d by a grant from the: National
Endowment for the Humani· Convolutes 27
ties, an independent fedc:ral agency.
Overvi ew 29
Cover photo: Walter Benjamin, ca. 1932. Photographa unknown. Courtesy of the
Theodor W. Adorno
Archiv, Frankfurt am Main.
First Sk etches 827
Frontispieo::: Panage:JoulTroy, 1845-1847. Photographer unknown. Courtesy
Mus~ Camavalet, Paris.
Photo copyrigbt 0 Photothtque des Musles de Ia Ville de Paris.
Early Drafts
"Vignettes: pages i, 1, 825,891, 1074, Institul Fraoo;:ais d'Arcltitecture; page: 27,
Hans Meyu-~; "Arcades" 871
page: 869, Robc:n. Doisnau.
"The Arcades of Paris" 873
Library of Congress Cataloging.in·Publication Data "The Ring of Saturn " 885
Benjamin. Walter, 1892- 1940.
[Pauagc:n·W:rk. English) 99 201 75 Adden da
The:u-cades projea I Walla Benjamin:
translated by Howard Eiland and i«;vin McLaughlin; Expose of 1935, Early Version 893
prepared on the balis of the Gc:rrua.tl m lumc: ediled by RoIfT>edemann. Materials for the Expose of 1935 899
p. ou.
Includes index.
Materials for "Arcades" 919
ISBN ().{j74..()4326-X (alk . paper)
I.liedem;uUl. Rolf. IL litle.
PT2603.FA55 Pl3513 1999 "Dialectics at a Standstill," by RolfTtedema nn 929
944' .361081- d.:21 99-27615
, "The Story of Old Benjamin," by Lisa F"ittko 946
Dc:sign«1 by G-n Nefsky Frankfddl Transla tors' Notes 955
Guide to Names and Tenus 10 16
Ind"" 1055
nIustrations

Shops in the Passage Vero-Dadat 3< A page of Benjamin's manwcript from Convolute N 457
Glass roof and iron girders, Passage Vivienne 35 A gall")' of the PaIai.-RoyaI 491

The Passage des Panoramas 36 A panorama under colutruction 529

A branch of La Belle Jardiniere in Marseilles 47 A diorama on the Rue de Bondy 534
The Passage de 1'000ra, 1822-1823 49 Self-portrait by Nadar 680
Street scene in front of the Passage des Panoramas 50 Nadar in his balloon, by Honore Dawnier 682
Au Bon Marthe department store in Paris 59
1?te Origin ofPainting 683
I.e Pont de; planete;, by Grandville 65
Rue 1'raJUlIonain, Ie 15 auri11834, by H onart Daumier 717
Fashionable courtesans wearing crinolines, by H onore Dawnier 67
Honore Dawnier, by Nadar 742
Tools used by Haussmann's workers 134
Victor Hugo, by Etienne: Catjat 747
Interior of the Crystal Palace, London 159
L'Artiste et l'amateur du dix-neuuiime Jude ~50
La Caue-ttte-omanie, ou La Fureur du j our 164
L'Homme de ['art daTU I'mbarras de J01I milia- 751
The Paris Stock Exchange, mid-nineteenth century 165
Alexandre Dumas p(n=, by Nadar 752
The Palais de l'Industrie at the world exhibition of 1855 166
L'Etrangomanie hlamie, au D 'Elre R-anrou it n} a pas d'tiffronl 783
I.e 1'riompht du lcaliidOJcope, ou I.e tombeau dujeu ,hinou 169
Aaualiti, a caricature of the painter Gustave Courhet 792
Exterior of the Crystal Palace, London 185
A barricade of the Paris Commune 794
Charles Baudelaire, by Nadar 229
TIle Fourierist missionary JeanJoumet, by Nadar 813
The Pont-Neuf, by Charles Meryon 232
Theophile Gautier, by Nadar 242 Walter Benjamin consulting the Grand Dictionnaire univu.sel 888

The sewers of Paris, by Nadar 413 Walter Benjamin at the card cataJogue of the Bibliothcque Nationale 889
A Paris omnibus, by Honore Daumier 433 The Passage Choiseul 927
 Translators' Foreword

T
he materials assembled in Volume 5 of Walter Benjamin's G~.samm
t/tt
Schriflm, under the: title DflJ pQJ.kJgen-WerA (first publish ed in 1982), repre­
sent researc h that Benjam in carried out, over a period of thirteen
years, on
e subject of the Paris arcade s-les pa.ssagt.l-whic h he considered
the most
important archite ctural form of the ninetee nth cenrury, and which he linked
with
a numbe r of pheno mena charact eristic of that century's major and
minor preoc­
cupatio ns. A glance at the overvie w preced ing the "Convo lutes"
at the center of
the work reveals the range of these phenom ena. which extend from
the literary
and philosophical to the political, econom ic, and technol ogical, with
all sorts of
intennediate relations. Benjamin's intention from the first, it would seem,
was to
grasp such diverse materia l under the general categor y of Urgtsdiich/e, signifyi
ng
the "primal history '" of the ninetee nth cencury. This was someth ing
that could be
realized only indirectly, throug h "cunning" : it was not the great
men and cele­
brated eventS of traditio nal historio graphy but rather the "refuse"
and "detriru s n
of history, the half-<:oncealed, variega ted traces of the daily life of
"the collective,n
that was to be the object of study, and with the aid of m ethods more akin-a bove
all, in their depend ence on chanc e-to the method s of the ninetee nth-cen
tury
collecto r of antiqui ties and curiosities, or indeed to the m ethods
of the nine­
teenth- century ragpick er, than to those of the modem historia n. Not
conceptu..al
anruysis but someth ing like dream interpr etation was the model. The
ninetee nth
century was the collective dream which we, its heirs, were obliged
to reenter, as
patiend y and minute ly as possible, in order to follow out its ramific
ations and,
finally, awaken from it_lbis, at any rate, was how it looked at the
outset of the
project, which wore a good many faces over time.
Begun in 1927 as a planned collabo ration for a newspa per article
o n the
arcades , the project had quickly burgeo ned under the influen ce of
Surreal ism, a
movem ent toward which Benjam in always mainta ined a pronow
lced ambiva ­
lence. Before long, it was an essay he had in mind, "Parise r Passag
en: Eine
dialekti sche Feerie n (Paris Arcade s: A Dialectical Fairyla nd), and
then, a few
years later, a book, Paro, die Hauptsladt du XIX. Jahrhunderts (Paris,
the Capital
of the Ninete enth Centur y). Fo r som e two-an d-a-hal f years, at
the end of the
Twenties, having express ed his sense of alienati on from contem porary
Germa n
writers and his affinity with the French cultura l milieu, Benjam in
worked inter­
mittend y on reams of notes and sketche s, produc ing one shon
essay, " Der
Sarumring oder Etwas vom Eisenbau" (The Ring of Saturn, or Some Remarks
on Iron Construction), which is included here in the section "Early Drafts." A
hiatus of about four years ensued, until, in 1934, Benjamin resumed work on the
arcades with an eye to "new and far-reaching sociological perspectives." The
scope of the undertaking, the volume of materials collected, was assuming epic
proportions, and no less epic was the manifest intenninabili~ ~f the task, which
Benjamin pursued in his usual fearless way-~tep by step, nskin~ c:ngulfment­
beneath the ornamented vaulting of the reading room of the Blbliotheque Na­
tionale in Paris. Already in a letter of 1930, he refers to Tht AraukJ Projtct as "the
theater of all my struggles and all my ideas."
In 1935, at the request of his colleagues at the Instirute of Social Research in
New York, Benjantin drew up an expose, or documentary synopsis, of the main
lines of 1M AraukJ Project.. another expose, based largely on the first but more
exclusively theoretical, was written in French, in 1939, in an attempt to interest
an American sponsor. Aside from these remarkably concentrate~ essays, an~ ~e
brief text "The Ring of Saturn," the entire Arcadu complex (WIthout ddininve
tide, to be sure) remained in the form of several hundred notes and rdl.ections of
varying length, which Benjamin revised and grouped in sheafs, or "con~lutes,"
according to a host of topics. Additionally, from the late Twenties on, It ~uld
appear, citations were incorporated into these materials-passages drawn mainly
from an array of nineteenth-century sources, but also from the works of key
contemporaries (Marcel ProUSt, Paul Valery, Louis Aragon, Andre Breton, Georg
Simmel, Emst Bloch , Siegfried Kracauer, Theodor Adorno). These proliferating
individual passages, extracted from their original context like collectibles, were
eventually set up to communicate among themsdves, often in a ra¢.er subterra­
nean manner. The organized masses of historical objects- the particular items of
Benjamin's display (drafts and excerpts)-together give rise to "a world of secret
affinities," and each separate article in the collection, each entry, was to constitute
a "magic encyclopedia" of the epoch from which it derived. An imagt of that
epoch. In the background of this theory of the historical image, constituent of a
historical "mirror world," stands the idea of the monad-an idea given its most
comprehensive fonnulation in the pages on origin in the prologue to Benjamin's
book on German tragic drama, Ursprung tks ckulJchen 7Taumpiels (Origin of the
German Trauerspiel)-and back of this the doctrine of the re8ective medium, in
its significance for the object, as expounded in Benjamin's 1919 dissertation,
"Der BegrifT der Kunstkritik in der deutschen Romantik" (The Concept of Criti·
cism in Gennan Romanticism). At bottom, a canon of (nonsensuous) similitude
rules the conception of the Arcadts.
Was this conception realized? In the text we have before us, is the world of
secret affinities in any sense perceptible? Can one even speak of a "world" in the
case of a literary fragment? For, since the publication of the PasJagen-WtrR, it has
become customary to regard the text which Benjamin himself usually called the
Passagenarheit, or just the PaJJag~, as at best a "torso," a monumental fragment
or ruin, and at worst a mere notebook, which the author supposedly intended to
mine for mon: extended discursive applications (such as the carefully outlined
and possibly half<ompleted book 011 Baudelaire, which he worked on from 1937
to 1939). Certainly, the project as a whole is unfinished ; Benjamin abandoned
work on it in the spring of 1940, when he was forced to Bee Paris before the
advancing Genllan army. Did he leave behind anything more than a large-scale
plan or prospectus? No, it is argued, '!ht ArcadeJ Project is JUSt that: the blueprint
­
for an unimaginably massive and labyrinthine architecture-a dream city, in
effect. This argument is predicated on the classic distinction between research
and application, rorschung and Darsttflung (see, for example, entry N4a,5 in the
"Convolutes"), a distinction which Benjamin himself invokes at times. as in a
letter to Gershom Scholem of March 3, 1934, where he wonders about ways in
which his research on the arcades might be put to use, or in a letter of May 3,
1936, where he tdls Scholem that not a syllable of the actual text (tigenllichen
'text) of the PasJagt1lllrbeil exists yet. In another of his letters to Scholem of this
period, he speaks of the future construction of a literary form for this text. Similar
statements appear in letters to Adorno and others, Where 1k Arauks Projtct is
concerned, then, we may distinguish between various stages of research, more or
less advanced, but there is no question of a realized work. So runs the lament.
Nevertheless, questions remain, not least as a consequence of the radical stants
of "srudy" in Benjamin's thinking (see the Kafka essay of 1934, or Convolute m
of the Arcades, "Idleness"). For one thing, as we have indicated, many of the
passages of reflection in the "Convolutes" section represent revisions of earlier
drafts, notes, or letters. Why revise for a notebook? The fact that Benjamin also
transferred masses of quotations from actual notebooks to the manuscript of the
convolutes, and the elaborate organization of these cited materials in that manu­
script (including the use of numerous epigraphs), might likewise bespeak a com­
positional principle at work in the project, and not just an advanced stage of
research. In fact, the montage fonn-with its philosophic play of distances, tran­
sitions, and intersections, its perperually shifting contexts and ironic juxtaposi­
tions-had become a favorite device in Benjamin's later investigations; among
his major works, we have examples of this in EinbaJmslraJJt (One-Way Street),
lhrlitw Kiru1hei1 um N'ronuhnhurukrt (A Berlin Childhood around 1900), "Ober
den Begriff der Geschichte" (On the Concept of History), and "Zentralpark"
(Central Park). What is distinctive about 1k Arauks Projul-in Benjamin's
mind, it always dwelt apart-is the working of quotations intO the framework of
montage, so much so that they eventually far outnumber the commentaries. If
we now were to regard this ostensible patchwork as, de facto, a determinate
literary form, one that has effectively constructed itself (that is, fragmented it­
sclf), like the JOUf'7UlUX inh'mts of Baudelaire, then surrly there would be sig­
nificant repercussions for the direction and tempo of its reading, to say the least.
TIle transcendence of the conventional book form would go together, in this
case, with the blasting apart of pragmatic historicism-grounded, as this always
is, on the premise of a continuous and homogeneous temporality. Citation and
commentary might then be perceived as intersecting at a thousand different
angles, setting up vibrations across the epochs of recent history, so as to effect
"the cracking open of natural teleology." And all this would unfold through the
medium of hints or "blinks"-a discontinuous presentation deliberately opposed
to traditional modes of argument. At any rate, it seems undeniable that despite
the infonnal, epistolary aIUlouncements of a "book" in the works, an tigenl/jchtn
Buch, the research project had become an end in itself.
 Of course, many readers will concur with the German editor of the Pauagtn­
WerA, Rolf TIedemann, when he speaks, in his essay "'Dialectics at a Standstill"
(first published as the introduction to the German edition, and reproduced here
in translation), of the "'oppressive chunks of quotations" filling its pages. Part of
Benjamin's purpose was to document as concretely as possible, and thus lend a
"heightened graphicness" to, the scene of revolutionary change that was the
nineteenth century. At issue was what he caJJed the "conunodification of things."
He was interested in the unsettling effects of incipient high capitalism on the most
intimate areas of life and work-espccially as reBected in the work of an (its
composition, its dissemination, its reception). In this "projection of the historical
into the intimate," it was a matter not of demonstrating any straightforward
cultural "decline," but rather of bringing to light an uncanny sense of crisis and of
security, of crisis in security. Particularly from the perspective of the nineteenth­
century domestic interior, which Benjamin likens to the inside of a mollusk's
shell, things were coming to seem more entirely material than ever and, at the
same time, more spectral and estranged. In the society at large (and in Baude­
laire's writing par excellence), an unHinching realism was cultivated alongside a
rhapsodic idealism. "This essentially ambiguous situation-one could caJJ it, using
the tenn favored by a number of the writers studied in 1M Arcades Projut,
"phantasmagoricaJ"-sets the tone for Benjamin's deployment of motifs, for his
recurrent topographies, his mobile cast of characters, his gallery of types. For
example, these nineteenth-century types (Bineur, collector, and gambler head the
list) generally constitute figures in the middle-that is, figures residing within
as well as outside the marketplace, between the worlds of money and magic­
figures on the threshold. H ere, funhermore, in the wakening to crisis (crisis
masked by habitual complacency), was the link to present-day concerns. Not the
least cunning aspeCt of this historical awakening-which is, at the same time, an
awakening to myth-was the critical role assigned to humor, sometimes humor
of an infernal kind. "This was one way in which the documentary and the artistic,
the sociological and the theological, were to meet head-on.
To speak of awakening was to speak of the "afterlife of works," something
broUght to pass through the medium of the "'dialectical image." The latter is
Benjamin's central tenn, in The Arcade; Project, for the historical object of inter­
pretation : that which, under the divinatory gaze of the collector, is taken up into
the collector's own particular time and place, thereby throwing a pointed light on
what has been. ~lcomed into a present moment that semlS to be waiting just
for it-"'actualized," as Benjamin likes to say-the moment from the past comes
alive as never before. In this way, the "now" is itself experienced as preformed in
the "'then," as its distillation- thus the leading motif of "precursors" in the text.
The historical object is rebonl as such into a present day capable of receiving it,
of suddenly "recognizing" it. "This is the fanlous "now of recognizability" a eht
tier ErAennharAe-it), which has the character of a Iighming Bash . In the dusty,
cluttered corridors of the arcades, where street and interior are one, .historical
time is broken up into kaleidoscopic distractions and momentary come-ons,
myriad displays of ephemera, thresholds for the passage of what Gerard de
Nerval (in Aurilia) calls "the ghOSts of material things." Here, at a distance from
what is nonnally meant by "progress," is the ur-histOrical, collective redemption
of lost time, of the rimes embedded in the spaces of things.
The German edition of the Pauagen-Werk contains-besides the two exposes we
have mentioned, the long series of convolutes that follow, the "Erste Notizen"
r
(here translated as "Flnlt Sketches") and "Friihe EnlWiirfe" ("Early Drafts") at the
end-a ....realth of supplementary material relating to the genesis of 17u Arcades
Project. From this textual-oitical apparatus, drawn on for the Translators' Notes,
we have extracted three additional sets of preliminary drafts and notations and
translated them in the Addenda; we have also reproduced the introduction by the
~-
German editOr, Rolfiiedemann, as well as an account of Benjamin's last days
written by Lisa Fittko and printed in the original English at the end of the
German edition. Omitted from our volume are some 100 pages of excerpts from
[
letters to and from Benjamin, docwnenting the growth of the project (the major­
ity of these letters appear elsewhere in English); a partial bibliography, compiled
by TIedemann, of 850 works cited in the "Convolutes"; and, finally, precise
descriptions of Benjamin's manuscripts and manuscript variants (see translators'
initial note to the "Convolutes"). In an elTon to respect the unique constitution of
these manuscripts, we have adopted Tiedemann's practice of using angle brack­
ets to indicate editorial insertions into the text.
A salient feature of the German edition of Benjamin's "Convolutes"
("'Aufzeiclmungen und Materialien") is the use of two different typefaces: a larger
one for his reBections in German and a smaller one for his numerous citations in
French and German. According to Tiedemann's introduction, the larger type was
used for entries containing significant conunentary by Benjamin. (In "First
Sketches," the two different typefaces are used to demarcate canceled passages.)
This typographic distinction, designed no doubt for the convenience of readers,
although it is without textual basis in Benjamin's manuscript, has been main­
tained in the English translation. ~ have chosen, however, to use typefaces
differing in style rather than in size, so as to avoid the hierarchical implication of
the German edition (the privileging of Benjamin's re.8ections over his citations,
and, in general, of German over French). What Benjamin seems to have con­
ceived was a dialectical relation-a fonnal and thematic interfusion of citation
and commentary. It is an open, societary relation, as in the protocol to the
imaginary world inn (itself an unacknowledged citation from Baudelaire's
Paradis artificiels) mentioned in the "Convolutes" atJ75,2.
As for the bilingual character of the text as a whole, this has been, if not
entirely eliminated in the English-language edition, then necessarily reduced to
merely the citation of the original titles of Benjamin's sources. (Previously pub­
lished translations of these sources have been used, and duly noted, wherever
possible; where two or more published translations of a passage are available, we
have tried to choose the one best suited to Benjamin's context.) In most cases we
have regularized the citation of year and place of book publication, as well as
volunle and issue number of periodicals ; bits of infonnation, such as first names,
have occasionally been supplied in angle brackets. Otherwise, Benjamin's irregu­
lar if relatively scrupulous editorial practices have been preserved .
As a funher aid to readers, the English-language edition of 1"he Arcades Projut
includes an extensive if not exhaustive "Guide to Names and TemlS"; translators'
notes intended to help contextualize Benjamin's citations and reflections; and
cross-references serving to link particular items in the "FIest Sketches" and "Early
Drafts" to corresponding entries in the "Convolutes."
 Translation duties for this edition were divided as follows: Kevin McLaughlin
translated the Expose of 1939 and the previously unttanslated French passages
in Convolutes A-C, F, H , K, M (second half) , 0 , Q-I, and p-r. Howard Eiland
translated Iknjamin's German throughout and was responsible for previously
untranslated material in Convolutes D, E, G, I,j , L, M (first half), N, P, and m, as
well as for the Translators' Foreword.

In conclusion, a word about the translation of Kon uolut. As used for the grouping
of the thirty-six alphabetized sections of the PaJJagen manuscript, this tenn, it
would seem, derives not from Benjaniln himself but from his friend Adorno (this
according to a communication from Rolf Tiedemann, who studied with
Adorno). It was Adorno who first sifted through the manuscript of the "Aufzeich­
POSES
nungen und Materia1ien," as Tiedemann later called it, after it had been hidden
away by Georges Bataille in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France during the
Second \r\brld War and then retrieved and delivered to New York at the end of
1947. In Germany, the term Konvolut has a common philological application: it
refers to a larger or smaller assemblage-literally, a bundle-of manuscripts or
printed materials that belong together. The noun "convolute" in English means
"something of a convoluted form." VW:: have chosen it as the translation of the
German term over a number of other possibilities, the most prominent being
"folder," "file," and "sheaf." The problem with these more common English
terms is that each carries inappropriate connotations, whether of office supplies,
computerese, agriculture, or archery. "Convolute" is strange, at least on first
acquaintance, but so is Iknjamin's projea and its principle of sectioning. Aside
from its desirable closeness to the German rubric, which. we have suggested, is
both philologically and historically legitimated, it remains the most precise and
most evocative tenn for designating the elaboratdy intertwined coUecuons of
"notes and materials" that make up the central division of this most various and
colorful ofIknjaminian texts.

The translators are grateful to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a
two-year grant in suppon of the translation, and to the Dean of the Graduate
School of Brown University, Itder Estrup, for a generous publication subven­
tion. Special thanks are due Michael W. Jennings for checking the entire manu­
script of the translation and making many vaJuable suggestions. VW:: are funher
indebted to Wmfried Menninghaus and Susan Bernstein for reading portions of
the manuscript and offering excellent advice. Rolf Tiedemann kindly and
promptly answered our inquiries concerning specific problems. The reviev.'t.TS
enlisted by Harvard University Press to evaluate the tranSlation also provided
much help with some of the more difficult passages. Other scholars who gener­
ously provided bibliographic information are named in the relevant Translators'
Notes. Our work has greauy benefited at the end from the resourceful , vigilant
editing of Maria Ascher and at every stage from the for:esight and discerning
judgment of Lindsay Waters.
Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century
<Expose of 1935>

The waters aR blue, the plants pink; the evening is SWttt to

look on;
One goes for a walk; the (;ramUs damn go for a walk; behind
thc:m stroll the petius tkJ~s.
- Nguyen Trong ffiep, Pans, Ulpitak tk fa Frail"; Rtctl ffl ck IJUJ
(Hanoi. 1897), poem 25

I. Fourier, or the Arcades

The magic columns of these palaces
Show to the amateur on all sides,
In the objects their porticos display,
That industry is the rival of the am.
- ){OU IXIJIIX Tabkau ck Paris (Paris, 1828), vol. 1, p. Xl

Most of the Paris arcades come intO being in the decade and a half after 1822.
The first condition for their emcr~nce is the boom in the textile trade. Magasins
de nouveau/h, the first establishments to keep large stocks of merchandise on the
premises, make their appearance, I They are the forerulUler5 of department
stores. This was the period of which Balzac wrote: "The great poem of display
chants its stanzas of color from the Church of the Madeleine to the Fbne Saint­
IXnis.'" The arcades are a center of commerce in luxury items. In fitting them
Out, art enters lhe service of the merchant. Contemporaries never tire of admir­
ing them, and for a long time they remain a drawing point for foreigners. An
llIuJirated Guide /0 Paris says: "These arcades, a recent invention of industrial
luxury, are glass-roofed, marble·paneled corridors extending through whole
blocks of buildings, whose owners have joined together for such enterprises.
Lining both sides of these corridors, which get their light from above, are the
most elegant shops, so that the jJaJJage is a city, a world in miniature." The
arcades are the scene of the first gas lighting.
The second condition for the emergence of the arcades is the beginning of iron
construction. The Empire saw in this technology a contribution to the revival of
 architecture in the classical Greek sense. The architectural theorist Boetticher
expresses the general view of the matter when he says that, "with regard to the
art fonns of the new system, the formal principle of the Hellenic mode" must
come to prevail.s Empire is the style of revolutionary terrorism, for which the
state is an end in itself. just as Napoleon failed to understand the functional
naoore of the state as an instrument of domination by the bourgeois class, so the
architects of his time failed to understand the functional nature of iron, with
which the constructive principle begins its domination of architecture. These
architects design supports resembling Pompeian columns, and factories that imi­
tate residential houses, just as later the first railroad stations will be modeled on
chalets. "Construction plays the role of the subconscious.>U Nevertheless, the
concept of engineer, which dates from the revolutionary wars, starts to gain
ground, and the rivalry begins between builder and decorator, Ecole Polytech­
nique and Ecole des Beaux-Arts.
For the first time in the history of architecture, an arti6cia1 building materia]
appears: iron. It undergoes an evolution whose tempo will accelerate in the
COUTSC: of the century. 11tis development enters a decisive new phase when it
becomes clear that the locomotive-on which experiments have been conducted
since the end of the 1820s-is compatible only with iron tracks. The rail be;.
comes the first prefabricated iron component, the precursor of the girder. Iron is
avoided in home construction but used in arcades, exhibition halls, train Sta­
tions-buildings that serve transitory purposes. At the same time, the range of
architecrural applications for glass expands, although the social prerequisites for
its widened application as building materia] will come to the fore only a hundred
years later. In Scheerbart's Glasarchitdtur (1914), it still appears in the COntext of
utopia. s
Each epoch dreams the ont: to rouow-.
-Michdct, "AvaW-! Avenir!'"
e:om:spo~ding to the form of the new means of production, which in the begin­
rung IS still ruled by the form of the old (Marx), are images in the collective
~ns~ousnes~ in which the old and the new interpenetrate. These images are
:nsh una.ges; In them the collective seeks both to overcome and to transfigure the
unmatunty of the social product and the inadequacies in the social organization
of production. At the same time, what emerges in these wish images is the
resolute effort to distance oneself from all that is antiquated- which includes,
however, the recent past. These tendencies deflect the imagination (which is
given impetus by the new) back upon the primal past. In the dream in which t'.ach
epoch entertains images of its successor, the latter appears \\-edded to elements of
primal history <Urgt:Jdlicht~that is, to elements of a classless society. And the
experiences of such a society-as stored in the unconscious of the collective­
engender, through interpenetration with what is new, the utopia that has left its
trace in a thousand configurations of life, from enduring edifices to passing
fashions.
These relations are disttmible in the utopia conceived by Fourier. Its secret cue
-
is the advent of machines. But this fa ct is not directly expressed in the Fourierist
literature, which takes, as its point of departure, the amorality of the business
world and the false morality enlisted in its service. The pha1anstery is designed to
restore human beings to relationships in which morality becomes superfluous.
The highly complicated organization of the phaJanstery appears as machinery.
The meshing of the passions, the intricate collaboration of j>aJJioru miCIJnute; with
the j>aJJion ClJhaJilte, is a primitive contrivance formed-on analogy with the
machine-from materials of psychology. This mechanism made of men pro­
duces the land of milk and honey, the primeval wish symbol that Fourier's utopia
has 6l1ed with new life.
In the arcades, Fourier saw the architectural canon of the pha1anstery. Their
reactionary metamorphosis with him is characteristic: whereas they originally
serve commercial ends, they become, for him, places of habitation. The phalan·
stery becomes a city of arcades. Fourier establishes, in the Empire's austere world
of fonns , the colorful idyll of Biedermeier. Its brilliance persists, however faded,
up through Zola, who takes up Fourier's ideas in his book Trauai/, just as he bids
farewell to the arcades in his 1lztrt;e Raquin. -Marx came to the defense of
Fourier in his critique of Carl Griin, emphasizing the fonner's "colossal concep­
tion of man.") He also directed attention to Fourier's humor. In fact,jean Paul, in
his "Levana," is as closely allied to Fourier the pedagogue as Scheerbart, in his
GiaJJ Architecture, is to Fourier the utopian.·
U. Daguerre, or the Panoramas
Sun, look out for yoursdf!
-A.J. WJatt, (hum IiUirafm (Paris. 1870), p. 374
just as architecture, with the first appearance of iron construction, begins to
outgrow art, so does painting, in its rum, with the first appearantt of the pano­
r:un as . The high point in the diffusion of panoramas coincides with the introdUC-1
Mn of arcades. One sought tirelessly, through technical devices, to make
panoramas the scenes of a perfect imitation of nature. An attempt was made to
reprodutt the changing daylight in the landscape, the rising of the moon, the
rush of waterfalls. gacques·Louis> David counsels his pupils to draw from nature
as it is shown in panoramas. In their attempt to produce deceptively lifelike
changes in represented naoore, the panoramas prepare the way not only for
photography but for <silent> film and sound film.
Contemporary with the panoramas is a panoramic literaoore. Le Liure de;
cent-et-un [TIle Book of a Hundred-and-One], Le; Franrau peinLJ par eux-mime;
[The French Painted by Themselves], Le Diab/e a Pari; [TIle Devil in Paris], and
La Grande Ville [The Big City] belong to this. Thcse books prepare the belletristic
collaboration for which Girardin, in the 1830s, will create a home in the feuille­
ton. They consist of individuaJ sketches, whose anecdotal fonn corresponds to
the panoramas' plastically arranged foreground , and whose infonnational base
corresponds to their painted background. This literature is also sociaJly pano­
ramic. For the last time, the worker appears, isolated from his class, as part of the
setting in an idyll.
Announcing an upheaval in the relation of an to technology, panoramas are at
the same time an expression of a new attitude toward life. The city dweller,
whose political supremacy over the provinces is demonstrated many times in the
course of the century, attempts to bring the countryside into town. In panoramas,
the city opens out to landscape-as it will do later, in subtler fashion, for the
fi1neurs . Daguerre is a srudent of the panorama painter Prevost, whose estab­
lishment is located in the Passage des Panoramas. Description of the panoramas
of Prevost and Daguerre. In 1839 Daguerre's panorama bums down. In the same
year, he announces the invention of the daguerreotype.
(Fran~ois) Arago presents photography in a speech to the National Assembly.
H e assigns it a place in the history of technology and prophesies its scientific
applications. On the other side, artists begin to debate its artistic value. Photogra­
phy leads to the extinction of the great profession of portrait miniarurist. This
happens not just for economic reasons. The early photograph was artistically
superior to the miniature portrait. The technical grounds for this advantage lie in
the long exposure time, which requires of a subject the highest concentration ; the
social grounds for it lie in the fact that the first photographers belonged to the
avant-garde, from which most of their clientele came. Nadar's superiority to his
colleagues is shown by his attempt to take photographs in the Paris sewer system:
for the first time, discoveries were demanded of the lens. Its importance becomes
still greater as, in view of the new technological and sociaJ reality, the subjective
strain in pictoriaJ and graphic infonnation is called into question.
The world exhibition of 1855 offers for the first time a speciaJ display called
"Photography." In the same year, Wiertz publishes his great article on photogra·
phy, in which he defines its task as the philosophical enlightenment of painting.'
This "enlightenment" is understood, as his own paintings show, in a political
sense. Wiertz can be characterized as the first to demand, if not actually foresee ,
the use of photographic montage for politica1 agitation. With the increasing \
scope of communications and transport, the infonnational value of painting di­
minishes. 10 reaction to photography, painting begins to stress the elements of
color in the picture. By the time Impressionism yields to Cubism, painting has
created for itself a broader domain into which, for the time being, photography
cannOt follow. For its part, photography greatly extends the sphere of commodity \
exchange, from mid-century onward, by Hooding the market with countless im­
ages of figures, landscapes, and events which had previously been available
either not at all or only as pictures for individual customers. To increase turnover, I
it renewed its subject matter through modish variations in camera technique­
innovatioHs that will detemline the subsequent history of photography.
Ill. G r andville, o r the World Exhibitio ns
"'lb. when all the world from Paris to China
Pays heed to your doctrine, 0 divine Saint-Simon,
The glorious Golden Age will be reborn.
Rivers will Bow with chocolate and tea,
Sheep roasted whole will frisk on the plain,
And sauteed pike will swim in the Seine.
Fricassttd spinach will grow on the ground,
Garnished with crushed fried croutons;
The trees will bring forth apple compotes,
And fanners will harvest boots and coau.
It will snow wine, it will rain chickens,
And duds cooked with turnips will fall from the sky.
_~ and Vanderburdt, u,uis-Brottu d k Saillt-Sinwnicz
(lbUu-e du Pa!ais·Royal, February 27, 1832)10
\r\brld exlubitions are places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetish. "Europe is
off to view the merchandise," says Taine in 1855. 11 The world exhibitions are
preceded by national exhibitions of industry, the first of which takes place on the
Champ de Mars in 1798. It arises from the wish "to entertain the working classes,
and it becomes for them a festival of emancipation."12 The worker occupies the
foreground, as customer. The framework of the entertainment industry has not
yet taken shape; the popular festival provides this. Chapw's speech on industry
opens the 1798 exhibition.-The Saint-5imonians, who envision the industriali­
zation of the earth, take up the idea of world exhibitions. Chevalier, the
first authority in the new field, is a student of Enfantin and editor of the Saint­
" Simonian newspaper I.e Globe. The Saint-5imonians anticipated the development
of the global economy, but not the class snuggle. Next to their active participa­
" tion in industrial and commercial enterprises around the middJe of the cenmry
stands their helplessness on all questions concerning the proletariat.
\\brld exhibitions glorify the exchange vaJue of the commodity. They create a
framework in which its use value recedes intO the background. They open a
phantaSmagoria which a person enters in order to be distracted. The entertain­
ment industry makes this easier by elevating the person to the level of the
commodity. H e surrenders to its manipulations while enjoying his alienation
from himself and others.- The enthronement of the commodity, with its luster
of distraction, is the secret theme of Grandville's art. This is consistent with the
split between utopian and cynica.1 elements in his work. Its ingenuity in repre­
senting inanimate objects corresponds to what Marx ca1Is the "theological nice­
ties" of the commodity.13 They are manifest clearly in the spiciaJili--a category of
goods which appears at this time in the luxuries industry. Under Grandvill~'s
pencil, the whole of nature is transfonned into specialties. He presents them 10
the same spirit in which the advertisement (the tenn ric/arne also originates at this
point) begins to present its articles. He ends in madness.
 Fashion: "Madam Death! Madam Deathl"
impinge 011 social ones. In the: formati on of his private environ ment,
- Leopardi, KOialogue: bcl....'CCn Fashion alld Dc:ath~ " both are
kept out. From this arise the phantas magori as of the interior- which,
for the
\r\Qrld t:xhibitions propag ate the universe of commodities. Grandville's private man, represents the universe. In the interior, he brings togethe
fantasies r the far
confer a commo dity charact er on the universe. They modern ize it. away and the long ago. His living room is a box in the theater of the
Saturn's ring world.
becomes a cast-iron balcony on which the inhabit ants of Saturn take Excursus on Jugend stil. The shatteri ng of the interior occurs viaJuge
the evening ndstil
air. The literary counter part to this graphic utopia is found in the books around the tum of the century. Of course, according to its own
of the ideolog y, the
Fourierist naturalist Tousse nel.-Fa shion prescribe! the ritual accordi
the commo dity fetish demand s to be worshipped. Grandv ille extends
ng to which
Jugend stil movem ent seems to bring with it the co":,wn mation .0:
The transfiguration of the solitary soul appears to be Its goal. indIVId
the. inte.n~r.
ualism IS Its
the author­
ity of fashion to objects of everyda y use, as well as to the cosmos. In theory. With van de Velde, the house becomes an expression of the
taking it to personality.
an extrem e, he reveals its nature. Fashion stands in opposit ion to the Ornam ent is to this house what the signature is to a painting.
organic. It But the real
couples the living body to the inorgan ic world. To the living, it defends meanin g of Jugend stil is not expressed in this ideology. It represe
the rights nts the last
of the corpse. The fetishism that succumbs to the sex appeal of the inorgan attempt ed sortie of an art besieged in its ivory tower by technology.
ic is its This attempt
vital nerve. The cult of the commo dity presses such fetishism into its mobilizes all the reserves of inwardness. They find their expression
service . in the medi­
For the Paris world t:xhibition of 1867, Victor Hugo issues a manifes wnistic language of the line, in the Hower as symbol of a naked vegetal
to: "To the nature
Peoples of Europe .n Earlier, and more unequiv ocally, their interest confron ted by the technologically anned world. The new elements
s had been of iron con­
champi oned by delegations of French worker s, of which the first had structio n-gird er forms- preocc upyJug endstil .1n orname nt, it endeav
been sent to ors to win
the London world exhibit ion of 1851 and the second , numbe ring 750 back these forms for art. Concre te presents it with new possibilities
delegates, for plastic
to that of 1862. The latter delegation was of indirect importa nce creation in architecture. Around this time, the real gravitational center
for Marx's of living
foundin g of the Interna tional \r\brkin gmen's Association.- The phantas space shifts to the office. The irrca1 center makes its place in the
magori a home. The
of capitalist culrure attains its most radiant unfoldi ng in the world consequences ofJugen dstil are depicted in Ibsen's MtzJter Buikkr: the
exhibit ion of attemp t by
1867. The Second Empire is at the height of its power. Paris is acknow the individual, on the strengt h of his inward ness, to vie with technol
ledged as ogy leads to
the capital of luxury and fashion. Offenb ach sets the rhytlun of Parisian his downfall.
life. The
operett a is the ironic utopia of an endurin g reign of capital.

I be:lieve ... in my soul: the lbing.

IV. Loui8 Philip pe, or the Interio r - Uoll Dc:ubc:l, Ont/lffl (Paris. 1929), p. 193

The head ...

On the: night table, like a ranunculus, The interior is the asylwn of an. The collector is the true resident of
the interior.
Rests. He makes his concern the transfiguration of things. To him falls the
Sisyphe an
task of divesting things of their commo dity charact er by taking possess
- Baudc:lain:, KUne: Manyn:~l$ ion of
them. But he bestows on them only connoi sseur value, rather than
use value.
Under Louis Philippe, the private individual makes his entranc e on The collector dreams his way not only into a distant or bygone world
the stage of but also
history. The expans ion of the democr atic apparat us through a new into a better one-o ne in which, to be sure, human beings are no better
electoral law provide d
coincides with the parlian u:ntary comlpt ion organit ed by Guttot. with what they need than in the everyda y world, but in which things
Under cover are freed
of this cOmlpt ion, the ruling class makes history ; that is, it pursues from the drudge ry of being useful.
its affairs. It The interior is not just the universe but also the eM of the private
funhers railway constru ction in order to improv e its stock holdings. individual.
It promot es To dwell means to leave traces. In the interior, these are accentuated.
the reign of Louis Philippe as that of the private individual managi ng Coverlets
his affairs. and antimacassars, cases and containers are devised in abunda nce;
With theJuly Revolu tion, the bourgeoisie realized the goals of 1789 in these, the
(Marx). traces of the most ordinar y objects of use are imprint ed. In just the same
For the private individual, the place of dwelling is for the first time oppose way, the
d to traces of the inhabit ant are imprinted in the interior. Enter the detectiv
the place of "'Ork. The former constitutes itself as the interior. Its comple e story,
ment is which pursues these traces. Fbe, in his "Philosophy of Fumiru re n as
the office. The private individual, who in the office has to deal with well as in his
reality, needs detective fi ction, shows himself to be the first physiognomist of
the domestic interior to sustain him in his illusions. This necessity is the domest ic
all the more interior. The criminals in early detective novels are neither gentlem
pressing since he has no intentio n of allowing his commercial consi~e en nor
rations to
apaches, but private citizens of the middle class.
 V. Baudelaire. or the Streets of Paris
Everything becomes an allegory for me.
-Baudelairc, ~Lc Cygne~ 16
'0
Baudelaire's genius, which is nourished on melancholy, is an allegorical geni~.
! For the first time, with Baudelaire, Paris becomes the subject of lyric poetry. This
poetry is no hymn to the homeland; rather, the gaze of the allegorist, as it falls on
the city, is the gaze of the alienated man. It is the gaze of ~e Saneur, ~hose way
of life still conceals behind a mitigating nimbus the conung desolabOn of the
big-city dweller. The Baneur still stands on the threshold~of ~e metropolis as of
the middle class. Neither has him in its power yet. In neither 15 he at home. He
seeks refuge in the crowd. Early contributions to a physiognomi~ of the ~~d
are found in Engels and Poe. The crowd is the veil through which the familiar
city beckons to the flineur as phantaSmagoria-now a landscape, now a. ~m.
Both become elements of the department store, which makes use of Banene Itself
to sell goods. The departtnent store is the last promenade for the San:ur.
In the flineur, the intelligentsia sets foot in the marketplace-ostensibly to look
around but in truth to find a buyer. In this intennediate stage, in which it still has
patrons'but is already beginning to familiarize itself with the market, it appears as
the hoMme. To the uncertainty of its economic position corresponds the uncer­
tainty of its political function. The latter is manifest n:o~t. ~learly in the ~~f~­
siona! conspirators, who all belong to the hoMme. ThetT nutial field of aCtlVl~ IS
the anny; later it becomes the petty bourgeoisie, occasi0n.a.tIy th~ proletanat.
Nevertheless, this group views the true leaders of the proletanat as Its advers.ary.
The Communist Manifesto brings their political existence to an end. Baudelarre's
poetry draws its strength from the rebellious pathos of this class. He sides with
the asocial. He realizes his only sexual corrununion with a whore.
Easy the way that leads into Avemus.
-vrrgil, 1M Aroeid' l
It is the unique provision of Baudelaire's poetry that the image of the woman and
the image of death intermingle in a third: that of Paris. The Paris o~his poems is
a sunken city, and more submarine than subterranean. The chthoruc ~ements of
the city-its topographic fonnations, the old abandoned bed of the Serne-have
evidendy found in him a mold. Decisive for Baudelaire in the "death-frau.ght
idyll" of the city, however, is a social, a modem substrate. The modem 15 a
principal accent of his poetry. A:s spl~en.' it fractu~. the i~eal ("~pleen et ideal"1'
But precisely the modem, la moderlllti, IS always cIWlg pnmal history. Here, ~
occurs through the ambiguity peculiar to the social relations and products of this
epoch. Ambiguity is the manifest imaging of dialectic, the law of dialectics at a
standstill. This standstill is utopia and the dialectical image, therefore, dream
image. Such an image is afforded by the commodity per se: as fetish. Such an
image is presented by the arcades, which are house no less th~ street. Such
an image is the prostitute- seller and sold in one.
I travel in order to get to know my geography.
- Note of a madman, in Man:cl R~a. Uri ,lin lufous (Paris, 1907). p. 13 1
TIle last poem of U s F/eurs du mal: "Lc Voyage.'" "Death, old admiral, up anchor
now." The last journey of the Saneur: death. Its destination: the new. "Deep in
the Unknown to find the new!"''' Newness is a quality independent of the use
value of the commodity. It is the origin of the illusory appearance that belongs
inalienably to images produced by the collective unconscious. It is the quintes­
sence of that false consciousness whose indefatigable agent is fashion. 'Ibis sem­
blance of the new is reSected, like one mirror in another, in the semblance of the
ever recurrent. The product of this reSection is the phantaSmagoria of "cu1tural
history," in which the bourgeoisie enjoys its false consciousness to the full. The
art that begins to doubt its taSk and ceases to be "inseparable from <••• ) utility"
{Baudelaire)'9must make novelty into its highest value. The arbiter novarum rerum
for such an art becomes the snob. He is to art what the dandy is to fashion.-Just
as in the seventeenth century it is allegory that becomes the canon of dialectical
images, in the nineteenth century it is novelty. Newspapers Sourish, along with
magasins de nouveautb . The press organizes the market in spirirual values, in
which at first there is a boom. Nonconformists rebel against consigning art to the
marketplace. They rally round the banner of ['art pour /'art. From this watchword
derives the conception of the "total work of art"-the Gesamtkunstwerk-which
wou1d seal art off from the developments of teclmology. The solemn rite with
which it is celebrated is the pendant to the distraction that transfigures the com­
modity. Both abstract from the social existence of human beings. Baudelaire
succumbs to the rage for Wagner.
VI. Haussmann, or the Barricades
I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and all things great;
Beautiful nature, on which great art rests-
How it enchants the ear and channs the eye!
I love spring in blossom: women and roses.
- Baron Haussmann, OJ'!foJSilJ1l d'un filln dnJrou uirox'llJ
The Howery realm of decorations,
The chann of landscape, of architecture,
And all the effect of scenery rest
Solely on the law of perspective.
- Franz BOhle, 'llItal"- Caltchism uJ (Munich), p. 74
Haussmann's ideal in city planning consisted of long perspectives down broad
straight thoroughfares. Such an ideal corresponds to the tendency-corrunon in
the nineteenth century-to ennoble teclUlological necessities through artistic
ends. The instirutions of the bourgeoisie's worldly and spirirual dominance were
to find their apotheosis within the framework of the boulevards. Before their
completion, boulevards were draped across with canvas and unveiled like monu­
ments.-Haussmann's acnvtty is linked to Napoleonic imperialism. Louis
Napoleon promotes invesnnent capital, and Paris experiences a rash of specula­
tion. Trading on the stock exchange displaces the fonus of gambling handed
down from feudal society. The phantasmagorias of space to which the Raneur
devotes himself find a counterpart in the phantasmagorias of time to which the
gambler is addicted. Gambling converts time into a narcotic. <Paul) Lafargue
explains gambling as an imitation in miniature of the mysteries of economic
Ructuation?l The expropriations carried out under Haussmann call forth a wave
of fraudulent speculation. The rulings of the Coun of Cassation, which are
inspired by the bourgeois and Orleanist opposition, increase the financial risks of
Haussmannization.
Haussmann tries to shore up his dictatorship by placing Paris under an emer­
gency regime. In 1864, in a speech before the National Assembly, he vents his
hatred of the rootless urban popuJation, which keeps increasing as a result of his
projects. Rising rents drive the proletariat into the suburbs. The quarriers of Paris
in this way lose their distinctive physiognomy. The "red belt" fonus. Haussmann
gave himself the title of "demolition artist," artiste dimQIU$wr. H e viewed his
work as a calling, and emphasizes this in his memoirs. Meanwhile he estranges
the Parisians from their city. They no longer feel at home there, and start to
become conscious of the inhuman character of the metropolis. Maxime Du
Camp's monumental work Paris owes its inception to this consciousness.72 The
]irimUuies d'un Hauumannisi give it the fOIm of a biblicallament.:13
The true goal of Haussmann's projects was to secure the city against civil war.
He wanted to make the erection of barricades in Paris impossible for all time.
With the same end in mind, Louis Philippe had already introduced wooden
paving. Nonetheless, barricades played a role in the February Revolution. Engels
studies the tactics of barricade fighting. 2-4 Haussmann seeks to neutralize these
tactics on two fronts. Widening the streets is designed to make the erection of
barricades impossible, and new streets are to furnish the shonest route between
the barracks and the workers' districts. Contemporaries christen the operation
"strategic embellishment."
Reveal to these depraved,
o Republic, by foiling their plots,
\bur great Medusa face
Ringed by red lightning.
- \\brkc:rs' sOllg from about 1850, in Adolf Stahr, Zwei
M01U/le ;1I Pam (Oldenburg, 1851 ), vol. 2, p. 1992:1
The barricade is resurrected during the CommWle. It is stronger and better
secured than ever. It stretches across the great boulevards, often reaching a height
of two stories, and shields the trenches behind it. J ust as the Communist Mani.fos/o
ends the age of professional conspirators, so the Commune puts an end to the
phantasmagoria holding sway over the early years of the proletariat. It dispels the
illusion that the task of the proletarian revolution is to complete the work of 1789
hand in hand with the bourgeoisie. This illusion dominates the period 183 1­
1871, from the Lyons uprising to the Commune. The bourgeoisie never shared in
this error. Its battle against the social rights of the proletariat dates back to the
great Revolution, and converges with the philanthropic movement that gives it
cover and that is in its heyday under Napoleon III. U nder his reign, this move­
ment's monumental work appears: Le Play's Ouun"ers europ(rns [European "\-\brk­
ers].:lfi Side by side with the concealed position of philanthropy, the bourgeoisie
has always maintained openly the position of class warfare.:n As early as 1831 , in
the Journal de; dibau, it acknowledges that "every manufacturer lives in his
factory like a plantation owner among his slaves." If it is the misfonune of the
worke~' rebellions of old that no theory of revolution directs their course, it is
also this absence of theory that, from another perspective, makes possible their
spontaneous energy and the enthusiasm with which they set about establishing a
new society. TIlls enthusiasm, which reaches its peak in the Commune, wins over
to the working class at times the best elements of the bourgeoisie, but leads it in
the end to succumb to their worst elements. Rimbaud and Courbet declare their
suppon for the Commune. The burning of Paris is the worthy conclusion to
Haussmann's work of destruction.
My good father had been in Paris.
-Karl Gutzkow, Briefl aIlS Paro (Leipzig, 1842), vol. I, p. 58
Balzac was the first to speak of the ruins of the bourgeoisie.~8 But it was Surreal­
ism that first opened our eyes to them. The development of the forces of produc­
tion shattered the wish symbols of the previous century, even before the
monuments representing them had collapsed . In the nineteenth century this
development worked to emancipate the fonus of consnuction from art,just as in
the sixteenth century the sciences freed themselves from philosophy. A start is
made with architecture as engineered consnuction. Then comes the reproduc­
tion of nature as photography. The creation of fantasy prepares to become prac­
ticaJ as commercial art. Literature submits to montage in the feuilleton. All these
products are on the point of entering the market as commodities. But they linger
on the threshold. From this epoch derive the arcades and in/in"eurs, the exhibition
halls and panoramas. They are residues of a dream world. The realization of
dream elements, in the course of waking up, is the paradigm of dialecticaJ think­
ing. Thus, dialectical thinking is the organ of historical awakcning. Every epoch,
in fact , not only dreams the one to follow but, in dreaming, precipitates its
awakening. It bears its end within itself and unfolds it-as Hegel already no­
ticed-by cunning. With the destabilizing of the market economy, .....e begin to
recognize the monuments of the bourgeoisie as ruins even before they have
crumbled.

Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century
Expose <of 1939>
Inl rodu ction
History is likeJanus; it has two faces. Whether it loolu at the put or at the prc:sc:nt, it
sees the same things.
-Maxim~ Ou Camp. Pam, vol. 6, p. 315
The subject of this book is an illusion expressed by Schopenhauer in the reUaw­
ing formula : to sdze the essence of history, it suffices to compare Herodotus and
the morning newspaper.l What is expressed hen: is a Ceding of vertigo charac­
teristic of the nineteenth century's conception of history. It corresponds to a
viewpoint according to which the course of the world is an endless series of facts
congealed in the form of things. The characteristic residue of this conception is
what has been called the "History of Civilization," which makes an inventory,
point by point. of humanity's life fonns and creations. The riches thus amassed
in the aerarium of civilization henceforth appear as though identified for all time.
This conception of history minimizes the fact that such riches owe not omy their
existence but also their transmission to a constant effon of society-an elTon,
moreover, by which these riches are strangely altered. Our investigation proposes
to show how, as a consequence of this reifying representation of civilitation, the
new fonns of behavior and the new economically and technologically based
creations that we owe to the nineteenth century enter the universe of a phantas­
magoria. These creations undergo this "illumination" not only in a theoretical
manner, by an ideological transposition, but also in the immediacy of their per­
ceptible presence. They are manifest as phantasmagorias. Thus appear the ar­
cades-first entry in the field of iron construction; thus appear the world
exhibitions, whose link to the entenairuncnt industry is significant. Also included
in this order of phenomena is the experience of the £Iineur, who abandons
himself to the phantasmagorias of the marketplace. Corresponding to these:
phantasmagorias of the market, where people appear only as types, are the
phantasmagorias of the interior, which are constituted by man's imperious need
to leave the imprint of his private individual existence on the rooms he inhabits.
As for the phantasmagoria of civilization itself, it found its champion in H auss­
mann and its manifest expression in his transfonnations ofParis.-Nevertheless,
the pomp and the splendor with which commodity-producing society surrounds
itself, as well as its illusory sense of security, are nOt immune to dangers; the
collapse of the Second Empire and the Commune of Paris remind it of that. In
the same period, the most dreaded adversary of this society, Blanqui, revealed to
it, in his last piece of writing, the terrifying features of this phantasmagoria.
Humanity figures there as damned. Everything new it could hope for tums out
to be a reality that has always been present; and this newness will be as little
capable of furnishing it with a liberating solution as a new fashion is capable of
rejuvenating society. Blanqui's cosmic speculation conveys this lesson: that hu­
manity will be prey to a mythic anguish so long as phantasmagoria occupies a
place in it.
A. Fourier, o r t be Arcad es
I
The magic columns of these palau
Show to enthusiasts from all pans,
With the objects their porticos display,
1bat industry is the rival of the am.
- NoUIWQI/It 'T"ableQI/X de PQm (Puis, 1828), p. Xl
Most of the Paris arcades are built in the fifteen years following 1822. The first
condition for their development is the boom in the textile trade. Magasiru de
nouveoutis, the first establishments to keep large stocks of merchandise on the
premises, make their appearance. They are the forerunners of department stores.
TIlls is the period of which Balz.ac writes: "The great poem of display chants its
stanzas of color from the Church of the Madeleine to the Porte Saint-Denis." The
arcades are centers of commerce in luxury items. In fitting them out, art enters
the service of the merchant. Contemporaries never tire of admiring them. For a
long time they remain an attraction for tourists. An Illustrated Guide to Paris says:
"These arcades, a recent invention of industrial luxury, are glass-roofed, marble­
paneled corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners
have joined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of the arcade, which
gets its light from above, are the most elegant shops, so that the passage is a city,
a world in miniature." The arcades are the scene of the first attempts at gas
lighting.
The second condition for the emergence of the arcades is the beginning of iron
construction. Under the Empire, this technology was seen as a contribution to
the revival of architecrure in the classical Greek sense. The architectural theorist
Boetticher expresses the general view of the matter when he says that, "with
regard to the art fonos of the new system, the Hellenic mode" must come to
prevail. The Empire style is the style of revolutionary terrorism, for which the
state is an end in itself. J ust as Napoleon failed to understand the functional
nature of the state as an insuument of domination by the bourgeoisie, so the
architects of his time failed to understand the functional nature of iron, with
which the constructive principle begins its domination of architecture. Th~
architects design SUppolU resembling Fbmpcian columns, and factories that imi­
tate residential houses, just as later the firSt railroad stations will assume the look
of chalets. Construction plays the role of the subconscious. Nevertheless, the
concept of engineer, which dates from the revolutionary wars, starts to gain
ground, and the rivalry begins between builder and decorator, Ecole Fblytech­
nique and Ecole des Beaux-Arts.-For the first time since the Romans, a new
artificial building material appears : iron. It will undergo an evolutio n whose pace
will accelerate in the course of the cennny. This development enters a decisive
new phase when it becomes clear that the locomotive-object of the most diverse
experiments since the years 1828-1829-usefully functions only on iron rails.
The rail becomes the first prefabricated iron component, the precursor of the
girder. Iron is avoided in ho me construction but used in arcades, exhibition halls,
train stations-buildings that serve transitory purposes.
II
It i.! easy to understand that every IIWS·type "interest" which
asserts itsclfhistorically goes far beyond its real limits in the
"idea" or "imagination," when it firSt comes on the scene.
- Marx and Engels, Die Mi/itt Nmiliil
The secret cue for the Fourierist utopia is the advent of machines. The phalan­
stery is designed. to restore human beings to a system of relationships in which
morality becomes superfiuous. Nero, in such a context, would become a more
useful member of society than Fenelon. Fourier does not dream of relying on
virtue for this; rather, he relies on an efficient functioning of society, whose
motive forces are the passions. In the gearing of the passio ns, in the complex
meshing of the pa.ssi()TU micanistes with the pa.s.sion cobo.liste, Fourier imagines the
collective psychology as a clockwork mechanism. Fourierist hannony is the nec­
essary product of this combinatory play.
Fourier introduces into the Empire's world of austere fonos an idyll colored by
the style of the 1830s. H e devises a system in which the products of his colorful
vision and of his idiosyncratic treatment of numbers blend together. Fourier's
"harmonies" are in no way akin to a mystique of numbers taken from any other
traditio n. They are in fact direct outcomes of his own pronouncements-lucubra­
tions of his organizational imagination, which was very highly developed. Thus,
he foresaw how significant meetings 'would becom e to the citizen. For the phalan·
stery's inhabitants, the day is organized nOt around the home but in large halls
sinlilar to those of the Stock Exchange, where meetings are arranged by brokers.
In the arcades, Fourier recognittd the arc.hitecrural canon of the phalanstery.
TIils is what distinguishes the "empire" character of his utopia, which Fourier
himself naively acknowledges: "111e societarian state will be all the more brilliant
at its inception for having been so long deferred . C rttce in the age of Solon and
Pericles could already have undertaken it.", The arcades, which o riginally were
designed to serve commercial ends, become dwelling places in Fourier. The
phalanstery is a city composed of arcades. In this ville en pa.uages, the engineer's
constrUction takes on a phantasmagorical character. The "city of arcades" is a
dream that will Chaml the fancy of Parisians well into the second half of the
cenrury. As late as 1869, Fourier's "street-galleries" provide the blueprint for
Moilin's Paris en l'an 2000.' H ere the city assumes a structure that makes it- with
its shops and apartments-the ideal backdrop fo r the fueur.
Marx took a stand against Carl CrUn in order to defend Fourier and to
accentuate his "colossal conception of man.") He considered Fourier the only
man besides H egeJ to have revealed the essential mediocrity of the petty bour·
geois. The systematic overcoming of this type in H egel corresponds to its humor­
ous annihilation in Fourier. One of the most remarkable features of the Fourierist
utOpia is that it never advocated the exploitation of narure by man, an idea that
became widespread in the following period. Instead, in Fourier, technology ap­
pears as the spark that ignites the powder of nature. Perhaps this is the key to his
strange representation of the phalanstery as propagating itself "by explosion."
The later conception of man's exploitation of nature reflects the actual exploita­
tion of man by the owners of the means of production. If the integration of the
technological into social life failed, the fault lies in this exploitation.
B. Grandville, or the World Exhibitions
I
'b, when all the world from Paris to China
Pays heed to your doctrine, 0 divine Saint-Simon,
"The glorious Golden Age will be: reborn.
Rivers will flow with chocolate and tea,
Sheep roasted whole will frisk on the plain,
And sauteed pike will swim in the Seine.
Fricasseed spinach will grow on the ground,
Garnished with crushed fried croutons;
The trees will bring forth apple compotes,
And fanners will harvest boots and coats.
It will snow wine, it will rain chickens,
And ducks cooked with turnips will fall from the sky.
-Langl~ a.nd Vandcrburch, lAuis-Bro"u (I k Sai"I·Sim(l"irn
(Thlitrc du Palais· Royal. February 27, 1832)
WOrld exhibitions are places of pilgrimage to the commodity fetis h. "Europe is
ofT LO view lhe merchandise," says Taine in 1855.6 The world exhibitions were
preceded by national exhibitions of industry, the first of which took place on the
C hamp de Mars in 1798. It arose from the wish "to entertain the working classes,
and it becomes for thenl a festival of emancipation."1 The workers would consti­
tute their first clientele. The frame ......o rk of the entertairunent industry has not yet
taken shape ; the popular festival provides this. Chaptal's celebrated speech on

industry opens the 1798 exhibition.-The Saint-Simonians, who envision the
industrialization of the eaM, take up the idea of world exhibitions. C hevalier, the
first authority in this new field, is a student of Enfantin and editor of the Saint­
Simonian newspaper i.e Globe. The Saint-Simonians anticipated the development
of the global economy, but not the class struggle. Thus, we see that despite their
participation in industrial and conunercia1 enterprises around the middle of the
cenrury, they were helpless on all questions concerning the proletariat.
~rld exhibitions glorify the exchange value of the conunodity. They create a
framework in which its use value becomes secondary. They are a school in which
the masses, forcibly excluded from consumption, are imbued with the exchange
value of conunodities to the point of identifying with it: "Do not touch the items
on display." ~r1d exhibitions thus provide access to a phantasmagoria which a
person enters in order to be distracted. Within these divertWmlt:TIts, to which the
individual abandons himself in the framework of the entertainment industry, he
remains always an dement of a compact mass. This mass delights in amusement
parks-with their roller coasters, their "twisters," their "caterpillars"-in an atti·
tude that is pure reaction. It is thus led to that state of subjection which propa­
ganda, industrial as well as political, relies on.-The enthronement of the
conunodity, with its glitter of distractions, is the secret theme of Grandville's art.
Whence the split between its utopian and cynical elements in his work. The
subtle artifices with which it represents inanimate objects correspond to what
Marx. calls the "theological niceties" of the conunodity.' The concrete expression
of this is clearly found in the spiciaJiti-a category of goods which appears at this
time in the luxuries industry. WOrld exhibitions construct a universe of spiciaJitiJ.
The fantasies of Grandville achieve the same thing. They modernize the uni­
verse. In his work, the ring of Sarum becomes a cast-iron balcony on which the
inhabitants of Saturn take the evening air. By the same token, at world exhibi·
tions, a balcony of cast·iron would represent the ring of Sarum, and people who
venture out on it would find themselves carried away in a phantasmagoria where
they seem to have been transformed intO inhabitants of Sarum. The literary
counterpart to this graphic utopia is the work of the Fourierist savant Toussenel.
Toussenel was the narural-sciences editor for a JX>pular newspaper. His zoology
classifies the animal world according to the rule of fas hion. H e considers woman
the intemlediary between man and the animals. She is in a sense the decorator of
the animal world, which, in exchange, places at her feet its plumage and its furs.
"The lion likes nothing better than having its nails trimmed, provided it is a
pretty girl that widds the scissors.'"
II
Fashion: "Madam Death! Madam Death!"
- Leopard!, ~Dialoguc between Fa.d uon and Ocalh~!'
Fashion prescribes the rirual according to which the commodity fetish demands
to be worshipped. Grandville extends the authority of fashion to objects of
everyday use, as well as to the cosmos. In taking it to an extreme, he reveals its
narure. It couples the living body to the inorganic world. To the living, it defends
the rights of the corpse. The fetishism which thus succumbs to the sex appeal of
the inorganic is its vital nelVe. The fantasies of Grandville correspond to the
spirit of fashion that Apollinaire later described with this image: "Any material
from narure's domain can now be introduced into the composition of women's
clothes. I saw a channing dress made of corks.... Steel, wool, sandstone, and
files have suddenly entered the vestmentary arts. . . . They're doing shoes in
Venetian glass and hats in Baccarat crystal."l!
C. Louis Philippe, or the Interior
I
I believe ... in my soul: the 1lUng.
-Uon Deubel, CInnnu (Paris, 1929). p. 193
Under the reign of Louis Philippe, the private individual makes his en~ into
history. For the private individual, places of d...."Clling are for the first rune op-­
posed to places of work. The former come to constirute the interior. Its comple·
ment is the office. (For its part, the office is distinguished clearly from the shop
counter, which, with its globes, wall maps, and railings, looks like a relic of the
baroque forms that preceded the rooms in taday's residences.) The private indi­
vidual, who in the office has to deal with realities, needs the domestic interior to
sustain him in his illusions. This necessity is all the more pressing since he has no
intention of grafting onto his business interests a clear perception of his social
function. In the arrangement of his private surrounding!, he suppresses both of
these concerns. From this derive the phantasmagorias of the interior-which, for
the private individual, represents the universe. In the interior, he bring! together
remote locales and memories of the past. His living room is a box in the theater
of the world.
The interior is the asylum where art takes refuge. The collector proves to be
the true resident of the interior. He makes his concern the idealization of objects.
To him falls the Sisyphean task of divesting things of their conunoclity character
by taking possession of them. But he can bestow on them only conno~ur
value, rather than use value. The collector delights in evoking a world that 15 not
just distant and long gone but also better-a world in which, to be sure, h~
beings are no better provided with what they need than in the real world, but m
which things are freed from the drudgery of being useful.
II
The head .
On the night table, like a ranunculus,
""~.
The interior is not just the universe of the private individual; it is also his eM.
Ever since the time of Louis Philippe, the bourgeois has shown a tendency to
compensate for the absence of any trace of private life in the big city. He tries to
do this within the four walls of his apartment. It is as ifhe had made it a point of
honor not to allow the traces of his everyday objects and accessories to get lost.
Indefatigably, he takes the impression of a host of objects; for his slippers and his
watches, his blankets and his umbrellas, he devises coverlets and cases. He has a
marked preference for velour and plush, which preserve the imprint of all con­
tact. In the style characteristic of the &cond Empire, the apartment becomes a
sort of cockpit. The traces of its inhabitant are molded into the interior. Hue is
the origin of the detective story, which inquires into these traces and follows these
tracks. Poe-with his "Philosophy of Furniture" and with his "new detectives"­
becomes the first physiognomist of the domestic interior. The criminals in early
detective fiction are neither gentlemen nor apaches, but simple private citizens of
the middle class ("The Black Cat," "The Tell-Tale H eart," "Wtlliam Wtlson") .
III
This seeking for my home ... was myafBiction.... Where is­
nry home? I ask and seek and have sought for it; I have not found it.
-Nicwdle, AiH Jprad! ,Qrath/I.Jtra1 3
The liquidation of the interior took place during the last years of the nineteenth
century, in the work ofJugendstil, but it had been coming for a long time. The art
of the interior was an art of genre.Jugendstil sounds the death knell of the genre.
It rises up against the infatuation of genre in the name of a mol du Jude, of a
perpetually open·armed aspiration. Jugendstil for the first time takes into consid­
eration certain tectonic forms. It also strives to disengage them from their func­
tional relations and to present them as natural constants ; it saives, in shon, to
stylize them. The new elements of iron construction-especially the girder­
command the attention of this "modem style." In the domain of ornamentation,
it endeavors to integrate these fonus into an. Concrete puts at its disposal new
potentialities for architecture. With van de VeJde, the house becomes the plastic
expression of the personality. Ornament is to this house what the signature is to a
painting. It exults in speaking a linear, mediumistic language in which the 80wer,
symbol of vegetal life, insinuates itself into the very lines of construction. (Ibe
curved line ofJugendstil appears at the same time as the title U J Fll!llrJ du mal. A
SOrt of garland marks the passage from the "Flowers of Evil" to the "souls of
flowers " in Odilon Redon and on to Swann's ./airt: talleya. )'4-Henceforth, as
Fourier had foreseen, the true framework for the life of the private citizen must be
sought increasingly in offices and commercial centers. The 6ctiona1 framewo rk
for the individual's life is constituted in the private home. It is thus that The
Ma.;ler Builder takes the measure ofJugendstil. The attempt by the individual to
vie with tecllllology by relying on his ulller Sights leads to his downfall : the
architect SohlesS kills himself by plunging from his tower. IS
D. Baudelaire, or tbe Streets of Parie
I
Everything for me becomes aUegory.
- Baudelaire. MLc CygneWl6
Baudelaire's genius, which feeds on melancholy, is an allegorical genius. With
Baudelaire, Paris becomes for the first time the subject of lyric poetry. 1hls
poetry of place is the opposite of all poetry of the soil The gaze which the
allegorical genius turns on the city betrays, instead, a profound alienation. It is
the gaze of the 8aneur, whose way of life conceals behind a beneficent mirage the
anxiety of the future inhabitants of our metropolises. The 8aneur seeks refuge in
the crowd. The crowd is the veil through which the familiar city is rransfonned
for the 8aneur into phantasmagoria. This phantasmagoria, in which the city
appears now as a landscape, now as a room. seems later to have inspired the
decor of department stores, which thus put Binerie to work for profit. In any
case, department stores are the last precincts of 8anerie.
In the person of the 8!neur, the intc:lligentsia becomes acquainted with the
marketplace. It surrenders itself to the market, thinking merely to look around;
but in fact it is already seeking a buyer. In this intennediate stage, in which it still
has patrons but is starting to bend to the demands of the market (in the guise of
the feuilleton), it constirutes the bohnne. The uncertainty of its economic position
corresponds to the ambiguity of its political function. The latter is manifest
especially clearly in the figures of the professional conspirators, who are reauitc:d
from the hohhM. Blanqui is the most remarkable representative of this class. No
one else in the nineteenth cenrury had a revolutionary authority comparable to
his. The image of Blanqui passes like a Bash of lightning through Baudelaire's
"Litanies de Satan." Nevertheless, Baudelaire's rebellion is always that of the
asocial man: it is at an impasse. The only sexual communion of his life was with
a prostirute.
II
They were the same, had risen from the same hell,
These centenarian twins.
-Bauddaire, MLes Sqx Vic:illanh RI7
The 8aneur plays the role of scout in the marketplace. flu such, he is also the
explorer of the crowd. Within the man who abandons himself to it, the crowd
inspires a sort of drunkenness, one accompanied by very specific illusions: the
man 8atters himself that, on seeing a passerby swept along by the crowd, he has
accurately classified him, seen straight through to the innermost recesses of his
soul-all on the basis of his external appearance. Physiologies of the time
abound in evidence of this singular conception. Balzac's work provides excellent
examples. The typical characters seen in passersby make such an impression on
the senses that one cannot be surprised at the ~ultant curiosity to go beyond
them and capture the special singularity of each person. But the nighunare that
corresponds to the illusory perspicacity of the aforementioned physiognomist
consists in seeing those distinctive traits- traits peculiar to the person-revealed
to be nothing more than the elements of a new type; so that in the finaJ analysis a
person of the greatest individuality would turn out to be the exemplar of a type.
TIlls points to an agonizing phantasmagoria at the heart of fiinerie. Baudelaire
develops it with great vigor in "Les Sept Vieillards," a poem that deals with the
seven·fold apparition of a repulsive·looking old man. TIlls individual, presented
as always the same in his multiplicity, testifies to the anguish of the city dwcller
who is unable to break the magic circle of the type even though he cultivates the
most eccentric peculiarities. Baudelaire: describes this procession as "infernal" in
appearance. But the newness for which he was on the lookout all his life consists
in nothing other than this phantasmagoria of what is "always the same." (The
evidence one could cite to show that this poe:m transcribes the reveries of a
hashish eater in no way ""'eakeflS this interpretation.)
III
Ikep in the Unknown to find the new!
- Bauddain:, ~Lc \byage"ll
The key to the allegorical fonn in Baudelaire is bound up with the specific
signification which the commodity acquires by virtue of its price. The singular
debasement of things through their signification, something characteristic of sev·
entttnth-century allegory, corresponds to the singular debasement of things
through their price as commodities. TIlls degradation, to which things are subject
because they can be taxed as commodities, is counterbalanced in Baudelaire by
the inestimable value of novelty. La nouveauti represents that absolute which is
no longer accessible to any interpretation or comparison. It becomes the ultimate
entrenchment of art. The final poe:m of Le; Flnm du mal: "u Voyage." "Death,
old admira.l, up anchor now."I' The final voyage of the flineur: death. Its destina·
tion: the new. Newness is a quality independent of the use value of the commod·
ity. It is the source of that illusion of which fashion is the tireless purveyor. The
fact that art's last line of resistance should coincide with the commodity's most
advanced line of attack-this had to remain hidden from Baudelaire:.
"Spleen et ideaJ"-in the title of this first cycle of poems in UJ FleurJ du mal,
the oldest loanword in the French language was joined to the most recent one. ~
For Baudelaire, there is no contradiction between the two concepts. He recog·
nizes in spleen the latest transfiguration of the idea.! ; the ideal seems to him the
first exp~sion of spleen. With this title, in which the supremely new is presented
to the reader as something "supremely old," Baudelaire has given the liveliest
foml to his concept of the modem. The linchpin of his entire theory of art is
"'modem beauty," and for him the proof of modernity seems to be this: it is
marked with the fatality of being one day antiquity, and it reveals this to whoever
witnesses its birth. Here we meet the quintes~nce of the unforeseen, which for
Baudelaire is an ul.alienable quality of the beautiful. The face of modernity itself
blasts us with its immemorial gaze. Such was the gaze of Medusa for the Greeks.
E. Hausslllntm, or tJle Barricades
I
I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and aU thinV great;
Beaurifulnalure, on which great an rests-
How it enchant.! the ear and charms the: eye!
I IO\-"C: spring in blossom: women and rosa.
-Baron Hauumann, DmfiMion d'Il" liqn dnJ.nt1l tI~l
Haussmann's activity is incorporated intO Napoleonic imperialism, which favon
investment capital. In Paris, speculation is at its height. Haussmann's expropria·
tions give rise to speculation that borders on fraud. The rulings of the Coun of
Cassation, which are inspired by the bourgeois and Orleanist opposition, in·
crease the financial risks of Haussmannization. H aussmann tries to shore up his
dictatorship by placing Paris under an emergency regime. In 1864, in a speech
before the National Assembly, he vents his hatred of the rootless urban popula·
tion. TIlls population grows ever larger as a result of his projects. Rising I"C:nts
drive the proletariat into the suburbs. The quartim of Paris in this way lose their
distinctive physiognomy. The "'red belt" forms. Haussmarm gave himself the title
of "demolition artist." He believed he had a vocation for his \'lOrk, and empha­
sizes this in his memoirs. The central marketplace passes for Haussmann's most
successful construction-and this is an interesting symptom. It has been said of
the De de la C ite, the cradle of the city, that in the wake of Haussmann only one
church, one public building, and one barracks remained. Hugo and Merimee
suggest how much the transformations made by Haussmann appear to Parisians
as a monwnent of Napoleonic despotism. The inhabitants of the city no longer
feel at home there; they start to become conscious of the inhuman character of
the metropolis. Maxime Du Camp's monumental work Paris owes its existence
to this daw'uing awareness. The etchings of Meryon (around 1850) constitute the
death mask of old Paris.
The true goal of Haussmann's projects was to secure the city against civil war.
H e wanted to make the erection of barricades in the streets of Paris impossible
for all time. With the same end in mind, Louis Philippe had already introduced
wooden paving. Nevertheless, barricades had played a considerable role in the
February Revolution. Engels studied the tacties of barricade fighting. H aussmann
seeks to forestall such combat in two ways. 'Widening the streets will make the
erection of barricades impossible, and new streets will COiUlect the barracks in
straight lines with the workers' districts. Contemporaries christened the opera­
tion "strategic embdlishment."
 II
The flowery rnlm of decorations,
TIle chann of landscape, of architecture,
And aIIlhc: effect of scenery rest
$oldy on the law of perspective.
- Franz Bohle, Tlltaler'-Catu hismus (Munich), p. 74
Haussmann's ideal in city planning consisted of long straight streets opening
onto broad perspectives. This ideal corresponds to the tendency-common in
the nineteenth century-to ennoble technological necessities through spurious
artistic ends. The temples of the bourgeoisie's spiritual and secular power were to
find their apotheosis within the framework of these long streets. The perspec­
tives, prior to their inauguration, were screened with canvas draperies and un­
veiled like monuments; the view would then disclose a church, a train station, an
equestrian statue, or some other symbol of civilization. With the Haussmanniza­
cion of Paris, the phantasmagoria was rendered in stone. Though intended to en­
dure in quasi-perperuity, it also reveals its brittleness. The Avenue de l'Optra
- which, according to a malicious saying of the day, affords a perspective on the
port~r 's lodge at the Louvre-shows how unrestrained the prefect's megaJo­
marna was.
III
Reveal to these depraved,
o Republic, by foiling their plots,
\bur great Medusa face
Ring<d by "" lightning.
-Piem:: Dupont, Chanl us 'IIf1ritn
The barricade is resurrected during the Commune. It is stronger and better
d~igned than ever. It stretches across the great bouJevarcis, often reaching a
height of two stories, and shidds the trenches behind it. Just as the Communut
Man/u fO ends the age of professional conspirators, so the Commune puts an end
to the phantasmagoria that dominates the earliest aspirations of the proletariat. It
dispels the illusion that the task of the proletarian revolution is to comple~ the
work of '89 in close collaboration with the bourgeoisie. nus illusion had marked
the period 1831-1871, from the Lyons riots to the Commune. The bourgeoisie
never shared in this error. Its battle against the social rights of the proletariat
dates back to the great Revolution, and converges with the philanthropic move­
ment that gives it cover and that was in its heyday under Napoleon III. Under his
reign, this movement's monumental work appeared: Le Play's Oullrial etJropicu
[European \\brkers].
Side by side with the oven position of philanthropy, the bourgeoisie has aJways
maintained the covert position of class struggle.n As early as 1831, in the Journal
del tlibats, it acknowledged that "every manufacturer lives in his factory like jl
plantation owner among his slaves." If it was fatal for the workers' rebellions of
old that no theory of revolution had directed their course, it was this absence of
theory that, from another perspective, made possible their spontaneous energy
and the enthusiasm with which they set about establishing a new society. TIlls
enthusiasm, which reaches its peak in the Conunune, at times WOIl over to the
workers' cause the best clements of the bourgeoisie, but in the end lcd the
'w orkers to succumb to its worst d ements. Rimbaud and Courbet took sides with
the Commune. The burning of Paris is the worthy conclusion to Baron Hauss­
mann's ,",,'Ork of destruction.
Conclusion
Men of the nineteenth century, the hour of our apparition5 is
fixed foro.'CJ', and always brings w back the vcry same ones.
- Auguste 8lanqui, L'EI~ili par kJ lJJlTtJ (Paris, 1872), pp. 74-75
During the Commune, Blanqui was hdd prisoner in the fon:ress of Taureau. It
was there that he wrote his L'Etmli/i par leJ a.stm (Etemity via the Stars). This
book completes the century's constellation of phantasmagorias with one last,
cosmic phantasmagoria which implicitly comprehends the severest critique of all
the others. The ingenuous reflections of an autodidaa, which form the principal
portion of this work, open the way to merciless speculations that give the tie to
the author's revolutionary ,Han. The conception of the universe which Blanqui
develops in this book, taking his basic premises rrom the mechanistic natural
scicnces, proves to be a vision of hell. It is, moreover, the complement of that
society which Blanqui, near the end of his life, was forced to admit had defeated
him. The irony of this .scheme-an irony which doubtless escaped the author
himself-is that the terrible indictment he pronounces against society takes the
fmm of an unqualified submission to its results. Blanqui's book presents the idea
of eternaJ return ten years before <arafhullra-ul a mrulller scarcely less moving
than that of Nietzsche, and with an extreme hallucinatory power.
TIlls power is anything but triumphant; it leaves, on the contrary, a reeling of
oppression. Blanqui here strives to trace an image of progress that (inllllemorial
antiquity parading as up-to-date novelty) rums out to be the phantasmagoria of
history itself. Here is the essential passage:
The entire universe .is composed of astral systems. To create mem, nature has only a
hundred simplt bodits at its disposal. Despite t.he great advantab'C it derives from
these resources, and the innumerable combinations t.hat these resources afford its
fecundity, the result is necessarily afin;tt number, like thal of me elements them­
selves; and in order to 6lJ its expanse, nacure must repeat to infinity each of its
urigif!9l combinatioru or Iy/NJ. So each heavenly body, whatever it might be, exists in
infinite number in time and space, IlOI. only in {)nt of its aspects but as it .is at cadI
second of its existence, from birth to death.... TIle earth ill one of these heavenly
bodies. Every human being .is thus etemal at every second of his or her existence.
What I write at this moment in a cell of the Fort du Tallreall I have written and shall
 write throughout all eternity-at a table, with a pen, clothed as I am now, in circum­
stances like these. And thus it is for everyone ... . The number of our doubles is
infinite in time and space. One cannOt in good conscience demand anything m OTe.
-nlese doubles exist in Oesh and bone-indeed. in trousers and jacket, in crinoline
and clugnon. They are by no means phantOJl1!l ; they are the present eternalized.
Here, nonethdcs.s, lies a great drawback: there is no progress.... \lVhat we call
"progress" is confined to each panicular world, and vanblhcs with it. Always and
everywhere in the terresoial arena, the same drama, the same setting, on the same
narrow stage-a noisy humanity infantated with its own grandeur, believing itself to
be the universe and living in its prison as though in some immense realm, only to
founder at an early date along with its globe. which has bome with dccpcst ~
the burden. of human arrogance. The same monotony, the same immobility, on
other heavenly bodies. The universe repeats itself endlessly and paws the ground in
place. In infuuty, eternity perfonru-imperturbably-the same routines.'l3

1bis resignation without hope is the last word of the great revolutionary. The
century was incapable of responding to the new technological possibilities with a
new social order. That is why the last word was left to the errant negotiators
betv.-een old and neW who are at the heart of these phantasmagorias. The world
dominated by its phantasmagorias- this, to make use of Baudelaire's tenn, is
"modemity.n Bianqui's vision has the entire universe emering the modernity of
which Baudelaire's seven old men are the heralds. In the end, Blanqui views
novelty as an attribute of all that is under sentence of damnation. Likewise in Ciel
et mItT" [Heaven and H ell], a vaudeville piece that slightly predates the book: in
this piece the tonnents of hell figure as the latest novelty of all time, as "pains
eternal and always new." The people of the nineteenth century, whom Blanqui
addresses as if they were apparitions, are natives of this region.
Overview

t\. Arcades, Magasins dt NrJUutQutiJ, '" Fourier 620

Sales Clerlu 3 1 X Marx 651
B Fashion 62 Y Photography 671
C Ancient Paris, Catacomb5, Z The Don, The Automaton 693
Demolitions, Decline of
Paris 82 a Social Movement 698
o Borroom, Eternal Return 101 b Daumier 740
E H,us,n""",,,uon, s.rr;"d, C
Fighting 120 d Literary History, Hugo 744
F lIon Construction 150 e
G Exhibitions, Advertising. I
Grandville 171
g The Stock. Exchange, Economic
H The CoUector 203 Hiuory 779
I TIlclntcrior, ThcTracc 212 h
~ Baudclaire 228 I Reproduction Technology,
K Dream City and Dream House, Lithography 786
Dreams of the FUNre, k The Commune 788
Anthropological Nihilism,
Jung 388 I The Seine, The Oldest Paris 196
L Dream House, Museum, Spa 405 JD Idleness 800
M TIle Flancur 416 D

N On the Theory of Knowlcdgt, o

Theory of Progress 456 P Anthropological Materialism,
o Prostitution, Gambling 489 History of Sects 807
p 1hc Strtcts of Paris 516 q
q Panorama 527 r Ecole Polyteclmique 818
R Mirron 537 •
S
T
Paintjng, Ju~ndst.il, No...dty
Modes of Lighting 562
543
•
u
U
V
Saint-Simon, Railroads 57 1
Conspiracies, Compagnonnagt! 603 .'
. '
A
[Arcades, Magasins de Nouveaules, Sales Clerks1

The: magic columns ohhe5e palaces

Show [0 the amateur on aU sides,
In the: objecu their porticos display,
TItat industry i.'J die rival o r the arts.
_MChanson nouveUe,ft Ciled in NouIXa ux rahlra ux dt Paris, Oil ObKTVll ­
h"tm.J sur Its m«urs t l ujagtJ tkJ Parisims au rommrnumrol du XlX'
s;jcu (ParU, 1828), vol. 1, p. 27

For sale the bodies, the voices, the tremendous unquestionable

wealth, what will ne\~r be sold.
-Rimbaud 1

"In speaking of the inner boulevards," says the JIluJtrated Guide to Paris, a com­
plete picture of the city o n the Seine and its environs from the year 1852, "we
have made mention again and again of the arcades which open o nto them. These
arcades, a recent inventio n of industrial luxury, arc: glass-roofed, marble-paneled
corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners have
joined together for such enterprises. Lining both sides of these corridors, which
get their light from above, arc: the most elegant shops, so that the arcade is a city,
o
a world in miniarure Flaneur 0, in which customers will find everything they
need. During sudden rainshowers, the arcades are a place of refuge for the
unprepared, to whom they offer a secure, if restricted, promenade-one from
which the merchants also benefit." 0 "'bther 0
This passage is the locus classicus for the presentation of the arcades; for not
only do the divagations on the 8aneur and the weather develop out of it, but,
also, what there is to be said about the construction of the arcades, in an eco­
nomic and architectural vein, would have a place here. [AI ,I)

Nallle, of mag a sin s (Ie 1I0U Vetlllles; La Fille d · HOllncuc. La Vcsl ule, Le Page Incon­
stant , I.e Masque de Fer <The Iroll Mask >. Le Pdit Chapcron Houge <LittJe Uetl
Riding Hood >, Petite Na nette. La ChaumiCr.:: allemande <The German Cottage),
Au Mumelouk , Le Coin {Ie In Rue <On the S I n.'t: l corn e r ) -II U lll e~ thut mostly come
frOlll liuccessfu l vUUllt:villcs. 0 Mythology 0 A glover : Au Ci-Devlln! J c une Homme.
A confectioner: Aux Armcs de WertlH!c.
"Tim nUIllC or the jeweler sltl nds over the shop door in large i,I'«id letrer. - inla id
with fin c illlilUlion gems." Eduanl Kroloff, Scllil<lerllllgetl (uUI Puru (I-I amburg,
1839). vol. 2, p. 73. " In I.hc Galeric W:ro-Dodat, I.herc i ~ a grocery store; abo ve its
door, one reads IIlc inscription ; ;Gllstronomie Cosmopoli te.' The individual char­
acters of the sign are formed . in comic fashion , from SlIilH:S, pheasanu, h arel.
antlers, lobsters . fi sh . bird killneYI. a nd so forth ." Kroloff, Scllil<lerungell (llUi
Ptlri•• vol. 2 .IJ. 75. 0 G randville 0 [A1.21
As business increased , the proprietor would purchase stock fOT a week and , to
make room for the goods being stored, would withdraw 10 the en tresol. In this
way, the boutique became a magaJin. [AI ,31
It was the time in which Balzac could write: "The great poem of display chants its
stanzas of colo r fro m the C hurch of the Madeleine to the Pone Saint·Denis." Le
Diahle Ii Paris (Paris, 1846), vol. 2, p . 9 1 (Balzac, "Les Boulevards de Paris").
[AI ,' )
"'fhe da y Ihe won! . pecinlty was discovered by Her Majesty Intlustry, queen of
France li nt! of neighboring regiolls: on that da y, it is said, Mercur y, . pecial god of
merehallts alld of several other social 'pec ialtie" knocked three time8 with his
ciuluccul 011 the front of the Stock Exchange and swore by the beard of Proserpine
that the wortl was fllle with him ." 0 Mythology 0 The word is used initially, how·
ever, only for luxury itcllis. La Grande Ville: NOUIJe(1Il Tableml de Paru (Pa ris,
(844), vol. 2, p . 57 (Marc f'our nier, " Les Specialih~s pariiliennes"). [A I,5]
" T he narrow I trt.-cts surrounding the Opera and the hazartlli to which pedestrianl
were exposcd on emcrging frolll tlus theater, which is always besieged by ca rr iage8.
gave a group of speculators in 1821 the idea of u8ing lome of the st.ructu res sepa­
r ating the new theater from the boulevard . I This enterprise, a sou rce of riche8 for
its originators, WilS lit the same time of great benefit to the public. I By way of a
small , lIarrow covered arcade built of wood , one had , in fact , dil"C(:t access, with
all the security of the O,.era's vestibule, to these gallerie8, and from there to the
houlevard . . . . Ahove the entablatu re of Doric pilasters di viding the shops rise
two floors of apartments , anti above the apa rtment!J-rulining the length of the
galleries-reigns all enurmolls g1ass-panetl roof. " J . A. Dulaure, HiMoire ph y­
. it/lle, civile el morllie de Pu ri. (Ielmi., 1821 jllJqll '(I nO$j our. (Puris, 1835). vol. 2,
pp .28- 29 . [AI ,6)
Until 1870, the cAr rillgc ruled Ihe stn..'CU. On t.he narrow sidewalks the PC(!t:~ tri a n
Will cxtrcmely crumpet!' 111111 ilO ~ Irolling look place principally in Ille arcade!!,
which off,'fj·tI prot e.·tion frum bllli weather li nd from the traffic. " O ur lurgcr
stn...'ts HIlII our willer ~ i . l cwHlk 8 a rc suitetlto the sweel fl iincrie that ftlr our fat her s
wa$ im po8~ ibl e cxcept in the :trcatles." 0 l-1ant:ur 0 Edmond Ueaurepairc, Puri.
d 'Mer et d 'ulljolird'llIli : l,.t. CI, roflilJll e de. rile. (Paris, 1900), p . 61. [Ala . I]
Names of arcades: Pau age des Panorillllils, Pa8liage Vero-Dodat , Passage dll Desir
(leading in ea rlier d aYI 10 II house of iU repu te). Punge Colbert , Pauage Vivi­
eline, Passage du Pont. Neuf, Pallage du Caire , Passage de la Reunion, Panage de
J'O,.er a , Passage de la Trinile, Passage dll Cheva l. Blanc, Passage Pressiere <Bes­
sieres?>, Pauage du Bois de Boulogu e, Piluage Grosse-tete. (The Passage dee
Panoramas was known at lirst as the Pan age Mirel.) [Ala,2]
The Passage Vero-Dada t (built between the Rue de Bouloy and the Rue Grenelle­
Saint-Honore) " owes its na me to two rich pork butchers, i\feuieurs Ver o and
Dodat, who in 1823 undertook iu construction together with that of the adjace.nt
buildings-an immense d evelopmcnt . This led IIOmeone at the time to describe thi8
arcade a8 a ' lovely work of art franletl by two neighborhoods. ,,, J . A. Dula ure,
lliltoire physique, civile et momie de Pari! depuil 1821 j wqu 'o no.jours (Paris,
1835), vol. 2 , p . 34. [Ala,3]
The Passage Vera-Dod at had marble flooring. The actress Hacbellived there for a
while. [Ala,4)
No. 26, Galerie Colbert : "There, in the guise of a female glover, shone a beauty
that was approachable but that, in the matter of youth, attached importance
only to its own; she required her favo ritel to supply her with the linery from
which she hOI.w to make a fortun e . ... This young and beautiful woman under
g1aSi was called ' the Ab80lute'; but phil080ph y would ha ve wasted its time pursu­
ing her. Her maid was the one who 80ld the gloves; 8he wanted it that way." 0 DaDs
o Prostitutes 0 <Charles> Lefeuve, u.Ancienne. lJ1oisoru de Pam, vol. 4 (Paris,
1875), p . 70 . [Ala,S)
Cour du Commer ce: " Here (using sheep) the Srs t experiments were conducted
with the r;uilIotine; its inve.ntor lived at that time on the Cour du Commerce and
the Rue de I'Ancienue-Comedie." Le.feuve, Les Ancienne. lJ1auoru de Pam, vol.
4 , p . 148. [Ala,6)
''The Passage du Caire ,t where the main business is lithogra phic printing, must
ha \'e decked itself out ill lightl when Na poleoll III abolished the stam p duty 011
Commercial cir cula rs; this emuncipation made the arcade rich , and it showed its
app reciation with eltlH:nditlires for bcautjlicatioll . Up to that point , when it
rained , II1nbrcllA8 had been neelled in its gallerics , which ill several plAces lacked
glass covering. Lefeuve, Les Ancien"es MlIi.ons de P«ru, vol. 2, p . 233. 0 Drea m
It
Houses 0 Weather 0 (Egyptian ornamentatiun). [Al a. 71
Impasse Ma uOOrt . former ly d ' Amboise. Around 1756, at Nos. 4-6, a IJoisoner
resided wilh her two assistants . AU three were found dead one morning-killed
through inhalation of loxic fUlll cs. [Ala,8)
Shops in the Passage Vbo-Dodat. Counesy of the Musee Camavalet, Paris. PhOto copyright
o PhOtOth~ue des Mustes de la Ville de Paris. See Ala,4.

Years of reckless financial speculation under Louis XVlII. With the dramatic
signage of the magasiru de nouueautis, art enters the service of the businessman.
[A l a,9)

"After t.he Pu nge de Panoramas , which we nt back to the year 1800 and which
had an esta blished rep utation in society, there was. by way of example. the gallery
that was opened in 1826 by the butchen Vero and Dodat and that was pictured in
t.he 1832 (jthograph by Arnout. After 1800 we must go all the wa y to 1822 to meet Glass roo~ and iron girders, Passage VivicIUlC. Photographer unknown. Collection of
wi th a new arcade: it is between this date and 1834 that the majority of these Joharul Fnw.ridl Gein; courtesy Prestel Verlag, Munich. See Ala,2.
l ingular pal8agewaya are cons tnJCled. The most important of them are grouped in
 an area bounded by the Rue Croix-des· Petitl.Cbamps to the south , the Rue de la
Grange·Bateliere to the north, the Boulevard de Sebastopol 10 the eaSI, and the
Rue Ventadour 10 the west ." Mal"1:e1 Poete , Une vie de cite (Pam. 1925), pp . 373­
374. (Ala, IO]

Shops in the Pal8age des Panoramas: Restaurant Veron, reading room, music
shop, Marquis, wine merebanu, hosier, haberdashen. tailon. bootmakera, ho-­
siers. book.shops, caricaturist, Theiitre des Varietes. Compared with this, the Pas.
sage Vivienne was the " solid" ar cade. There. one found no luxury shops. 0 Dream
Houses: arcade as nave with aide chalKls. 0 (M ,l ]

People associated the "genius of the J acobins with the genius of the industrials,"
but they also attributed to Louis Philippe the saying: "God be praised, and my
shops too." The arcades as temples of commodity capital. (A2,2]

The newest Paris al"1:ade , on the Champs·Elysoos , built by an American pearl

king; no longer in businel8. 0 Decline 0 (A2,3]

" Toward th~ end of the ancien regime, there were attempts to establish bazaar--like
shops and fixed· price stores in Paris. Some large magwiIU de nouveoutU--euch
as Le Diable Boitew;, Lea Dew; Magotl, Le Petit Ma telot, Pygmalion-were
founded during the Restoration and during the r eign of Louis Philippe; but these
were husinenes of an inferior sort compared to today's establishments . The era of
the department stores da tes, in fact, only from the Second Empire. They have
undergone a great deal of d evelopmenl aince 1870. and they continue to develop. "
[(mile> Levasseur, Hutoire du commerce de la France. vol. 2 (Paris, 1912),
p. "9. [A2.4]

Arcades as origin of department stores? Which of the magasiru named above

Wett located in arcades? [M ,S]

The regime ofspecialties furnishes also-this said in passing-the historical-mate­

rialist key to the 80urislUng (if not the inception) of genre painting in the rortics
of the previous cemury. With the growing interest of the bourgeoisie in matters
of an, this type of painting diversified; but in confonnity with the meager artistic
appreciation initially displayed by this class, it did so in terms of the content, in
terms of the objects represented. There appeared historical scenes, animal stud­
ies, scenes of childhood, scenes from the life of monks, the life of the family, the
life of the village- all as sharply defined genres. 0 Photography 0 (A2,6]

The in8uence of commercial affairs on Lautreamont and Rimbaud should be

TIle Passage des Panoramas. Watercolor by an unknown artist, ca. 18 10. Counc.sy of looked into ! (A2,7]
Agcnce Giraudon. Sec M ,I .
" Arlolher cha racteristic deriving ducHy rrom the Dire<:lor y [ presumably until
ar ound 1830??] would be the lightncu or rabrics; on even the coMest da y~, olle was
lieen only ra rel y in furs or warm overcoats. At the rilik of losing their skin , women
ciotilctl themselvcs us though the hars hness of wi nter no longer existed , as though
nuture II ad limldcnl y htlC n tl'unsfonned into an eternal paratlilie." <John) G rand ­
Ca l·teret, us Efig(lIIces de ia loiieft e ( Paris) . p. xxxh'. [A2.8]
In other respeCts as well, the theater in those days provided the vocabulary for
a a
articles of fashion. H ats la Tarare, la Theodore, it la Figaro, la Grande­ a
a
Pretresse, ::\ la IphigCnie, la Calpren ade, ::\ la Victoire. The same niaiserie that
seeks in ballet the origin of the real betrays itself when-around 1830-a news'
paper takes the name u Sylphe. 0 Fashion 0 [A2,9]
Alexandre Dumas at a dinner purt y given by Princess Mathilde. The verse is
aimed at Na poleon lH .
In their impcrial splendor,
The uncle anrlnephew are Cllual:
The uncle sei7.c~1 the capitals,
The nephew 8ci<l:e8 our capital.
Icy silence fo llowed . Reportc(1 in Memoires rlu cornIe fiora ce de Viel-Castel5l1r Ie
regne de Nnpo/eon Ill , vol. 2 (Paris, 1883), p . 185. [A2, IOj
" The cOlliisse b"u anllllccd the ongoing life of the Stock Exchange. Here there was
never closing time; tlu:re was almos t never night. When the Cafe Tortoni filially
closet! its tloors, the columll of stock jobbers would head across the adjacent
boulcvards a mi mea nder up and down there, collecting in front of thc Passage de
l'Opera." Julius Hodcnberg, PlJris bei Sonnenschein wltl LmnpenUcht (Leipzig,
1867), p. 97. [A2 ,ll j
S peculation in railroad s tocks under Louis PhiliplH!· IA2, !2]
" Of the same extraction , furthermore [thai is, from the house of Hothschild], iJl
the amazingly e!olluent Mires, who necds only to speak in order to convince his
cr editors that losses are profits- but whose name , afte r the scandalous trial
agains t him , was noncthel us ohliterated from the Passage l\lires, which there upon
bt-"1:amc the Passage Ilcs Princes (with the famous Ilining rOOIllS of Petcrs restau­
rant)." Hot/cnbcrg, PtJris bei S01lnenschein und L«IIIpen/ichl (Leipzig, 1867),
p. 98 . [A2a,l j
Cry of the vendors of stock-exchange lists on the sh'eel: In thc cvenl of a ri ~e in
pl'ices, "ni~e in the stock market! " In Ihe cvenl uf a fa ll. -'Va l'ialions ill the stock
market!" Tile tcrm " fall " wus forhilldell hy the police. [A2.a.2]
In its importance for the affairs of the couli.!.!" the Passage d e l'Opera is compara­
ble to the Kranzlcrecke. Speculator's argot "in the period preceding the outbreak
of the Gcnna.n war [of 1866]: the 3-percent intercst was Q.llcd Afph07lJille; the
land credit, Ie gros Erne.!t; the Italian revenue, k paul.!1"e VICtor; the credit for
movables, k petit Julu." In Rodenberg (Leipzig, 1867>, p , 100. [A2a,3]
Range of a stockbroker 's fee: between 2,000,000 (si,> and 1,400,000 fran cs.
[A2a,4j
" The arcades, nea rly all of which date from the Restoration. "" Theodore Muret ,
/.. 'HiMOire par k theatre (Paris, 1865), vol. 2, p. 300. [A2a,S)
Some details concerning Avant, pendant, e l «pres <Before, During, and After>, by
Scribe and Rougemont. Premier on June 28, 1828. The first part of the trilogy
represents the society of the ancien regime, the second part depicts the Reign of
Terror, and the third takes place in the society of the Restoration JH!riod. The
main character, the General, has in peacetime bl!i:ome an indus trialis t and indeed
a great manufacturer. "Her e manufacturing replaces, at the highest level, the field
worked by the soldier-laborer, The praises of industry, no less than the praises of
warriorJ and Mureates, wer e sung by Restoration vaudeville, The bourgeois class,
with its various levelli, was placed opposite the class of Dohles: the fortune ac­
quired by work was opposed to ancient heraldry, to the turrets of the old manor
house. This Third Estate, having become the dominant power, reeeived in turD its
flatt erers ." Theodore Muret, L 'Histoire par I.e theatre, vol. 2, p . 306. [A2a,6j
The Galeries de Bois, " which disappeared in 1828-1829 to make room for the
Galerie d ' Orieans, were made up of a triple line of shops that could hard1y be
called luxurious, There were two parallel lanes covered by canvas and plaDks,
with a few gJass panes to let the daylight in. Here one walked quite liimply on the
packed earth , which downpours sometimes transformed into mud, Yet people
came from all over to crowd into this place, which was nothing short of mag­
nificent , and stroll between the rows of shops that would seem like mere booths
compared to those that have come after them. These shops were occupied chiefly
by two industries, each having its own appeal. There were, first , a great many
milliners, who worked on large stools facing outward, without even a window to
separate them; and their s pirited expressions were, for many strollers, no small
part of the place's attraction. And then the Galeries de Bois were the ceuter of the
new book trade." Theodore Muret, L 'Histoire par Ie theatre, vol. 2, pp . 225--226.
[A2a,7]
Julius Hodenberg on the snlall reading room in the Passage de l' Opera: ';What a
cheerful air this small, half-darkened room has in my memory, wilh its high book­
shelves, its green ta bles, its red-haired gar,<on (a great lover of Looks. who was
always reading noveb illsteltd of bringing them to others), its German newspapers,
whieh every morn.ing gladdened Ihe heart of the German abroad (all except tile
Cologne paper, which on average made an appearance only once in ten days). 8uI
wilen there is any ncws in Paris, it is here thai one can receive it. Softly whispcr ell
(fur the redhead keeps a s harp lookout to make sure that Ileither he nor other
readers will be dis turhed b y this), it I)D Ue~ from lips to ear, paslles almost imlM!r.
(·t'p ti hly f rOIll pen to pape r. and finally from wriling del!k to nearb y lellerhox. The
good (la me till IJllrflflll ha ~ II fri elldl y ~ milc for 11 11 . a lU! pupers alUl enveiolH!Hfor
.·orrc ~ pollde ll u . The earl y mail is digpate hed . Cologn e D IUJ Augslmrg have their
news; and now- it is noolltime!- to the tave rn ." Rodcnbc r,;. Puris bei So nne n ­
5clleill llrul Lampell/icill (Leipzig, IS(7), pp. 6-7. [A2a,8j
"' Even wome u, who were forbidden 10 enter the Stock Exchange, allsemhletl at the
door in o nlcr 10 glea n sOllie indications uf ma rket price~ allli to relay their orders
lu brokers through tile iron gr itting. " 1.-£1 'fnlll s/o rlllfllioll de PariJ 50118 Ie Scco /u l
f~ mpire (a lilhor8 l)oCle . CIOlizot , lIt' nriot) dlari8. 1910). on the occasion of the
I'xllihitioll uf tilt' lilll·a ry and the historica l work,. of the ci ty of Pa ris, p . 66.
IA3, ' ]

" The I'uuage t!u Caire is highl y reminiscent , 011 a smaller sca le, of the Passage du
Saumon , which in the IJasl existed on the Rue Montmartre, 0 11 the site of the
present-d ay Rue Bllchullmont. " PIIIII L.eaullllld , " Vie ux Pa ris," Mercure de
Fnlllce (October 15. 19"27), p. 503. [A3, l !
" Shops on the old modd , devoted 10 tralles fOli lld nowllere d se, s urmounted by a
s ma U, old· fa shiOIlt..'11 meuanine with windows tha t ellch bea r a number, 0 11 an
esculcilt..'OIl , COrreSI)omlillg 10 a particular shop . From ti me to ti me, a doorwa y
giving 01110 a corridor; at Ihe elld of the corridor. a s mall ~ t a irw ay Icadillg to these
mezzanines. Near the knob of one of the,.e d oors, this handwritten !!ign :
The worker next door
would 1M! obliged if.
ill dOijing the door.
YOIl refrainc(1 from 81alllming it.
IA3~]
Ano ther sib'll is cited ill the same place ( U:a utaud , " Vieux Paris," Mercu re de
f'rclllce [1927] , pp . 502-503):
ANGELA
-\<\e have no specially"-lhis is what the well·known deaJer in secondhand
goods, Fremin, "the man with lhe head of gray," had written on the signboard
advertising his wares in the Place des Abbesses. H ere, in antique bric-a·brac,
reeme rges the old physiognomy of trade !.hat, ill the first d ecades of the p~ous
century, began to be supplanted by the rule o r the spicia/ili . This "s uperior
scrap--yaJ"d n was called Au Philosopht by its proprietor. What a demonstration and
demolition of s toicism ! O n his p lacard were the words : "Maidens, do not dally
u nder the Icaves!n And: "Purchase nothing by moonlighl." [A3,8!
E"idcntly people s moked in the a rcades at a tinle when it was not yet eustonlary 10
slIIoke in the s treet . " I IIlust say a word here abo ut life ill the arcades, favored
hllunl of stroller!! 1I lid s mokers, theater of operations for every killd of snlal!
husineu. In each a rcade Ihere is a t leas t one cleaning establis hment . In a saloll
t.hllt is as elega ntly fu rnis hed 8 S its intClided use permits, gentlemen sit upon high
~ t ool s a nd comfortably peruse a new ~ pape r while someone busily hrushes the dirt
off their clothing IIl1d boots. I I ~'erdin a nd VOli Gall . PlIri$ IHid Jeine Salom, vol. 2
~O ld cnhurg , 1845), PI). 22-23. [A3,9!
A first wintel· gardclI- a g1aue.i-in s pace with fl ower beds. esp alier s. and foun ­
lains , in pa rt ulltl e rgro und~ n the spot where , in the garden of t.he Palais-Royal
in 1864 (ami tod ay 3 S well?). the reservoir was located . Laill out in 1788. [A3,l O)

21111 H OOf, to the right

" It is at the cnd of the Restoration thai we see the first mag tlsins de nou tJellute.:
IA3)]
Les Ve pres Siciliellllc8, Le Solitaire . La Fille Mal Gardee, Le Solds t Laboureur.
1,,(:8 Deux l\1H go t~, Lc Petit SlIinl-Thomas, Le Gagne·Denier <P enll Y Winllingn."
Old name for d,'pa l·tment slol·es : dock! (I bOIl marcile-that i8, " discount duc ks."
<LucicIU Duhech alii! <PierreHr Es pezel. lIisloire d e Pa riJ ( Pa ris. 1926), p. 360.
<Sigfrieth Git..-dioll , /lfluen i,l Fmnl.-reicJl <l...eipzig and Berlin, 1928), p. 3 1.
[A3.Il!
IA3,4]

Evolutioll o f the dep artlllent s tore fro m the shop that was housed in arcades.
Principle of the department store: "The Boors foml a single space. They can be
taken in, so to speak, 'at a glance.'" Giedion, Bauen in Frankreich, p . 34. [A3,5!
Giedion shows (in Bauen in Frankreich, p . 35) how the axiom, " \\~lcome the
crowd and keep il seduccd n (&ie/lu d l'il1l/ustrie, 143 (1925J, p. 6), leads to
corrupt architectural practices in the construction of the department store Au
Printemps (1881 - 1889). Function o f commodity capital! [A3 .6!
'·In 1820 .. . the Pau age Viullct and the Pa§sagc tic,. Deux Pavilions were opened.
TlIt~s(" a rtlltle8 wen ' allIong the Ilovdties of thcir tlay. The result of p rivate initia ­
li\"I·. they w,'re co\·ercd galler i,'s housing ~ hol's th ut fa shion Illude prO"perolls . T he
/II" SI flltnous was Ihe Passage lie,. Panoru mas. wllil,lt fl ouris hed from 1823 to 183 1.
·Un Stuulays. · ohst n 't..'1 IMuu et. 0 111' ,,·,·nt en ma ul' ' to t.he Panora mas or d s(' to
tilt' I, uul"va rds: It W !18 IIlso prh'ate initiative Ihllt crell tl'ti, somllwhat hap·
hlIZ!t/"(ll y. tile housing llevdopnl1'nlS knowlJ as cile,. the s hol·t S lree t ~ or dead e nd ~
hu itt Ht s " ar~ i expl'lIiit' ],y a ~y lllli l'a t e or prop(·rt y o,,"n,'rs.·· Luciell Dubeeh a nd
I'i,·rrc II· E~ pt'zd . lIi!/oire tic " flriJ ( Paris. 1926). pp. 355-356. [AJa.l !
 In 1825 . opening of the " Pa 88ag~. Dauphine, Suucede, C hoiseul" auti o f t he Cite
- He rger t:. ;' 111 1827 ... the Passage8 Colbert , C ru n o l, de I'lnduSlric .... 1828 s aw
the oll,enillg ... of Ihe Pa881lgCIJ Brady a nd de8 GraviUie rs alltlthe l)eginnillji\:8 of
the Gale ri c d 'Orieans a l the Pa lai ~- R oya l , which re pla ced t he WO<.)j ll~1I galleries
thai 11 10111 IlIIrncd dowli that year.... Dubech li nd ,fEs l>t:zd , lIi.uoire cle Paris.
pp. 357-358. [A3a,2)
" The allccilor of the d e pa rtme nt slores, La Ville d e Puris, ap l>t:u r cll lit 174 Rue
Montmartre in 1843:' Dubech alld d ' Espezel, Ili.uoire de Pari$, p. 389. [A3a,3)
" Rainshowcn a lill oy me, 80 I g U\' e o ne the slip in a ll a rcad e. The re a re a great
ma n y of these g1uss-covercd walkwa ys, whic h often c ross through the bloc ks of
buildings and make several hranehings, thlls affording welcome shortcllts. Uere
and there they a re constructed with great elegance, alltl in bad weather or aft er
dark , wilen they are lit up br ight as da y, they offer promenades-a nd \'ery popu­
lar they are-past rows of glitter ing sho" s." Eduard De\-rient , Briefe au.s Pa ris
(Berlin , I8<W), p. 34. [A3a,4]
Rue-gtllerie.-"T he 5lreel-8(1ilery ... is the m08t important feature of a Ph alan­
steryand ... calillot be cOllceh 'ed of in civili7.alioll .... Street-galleries ... are
heatetl in winter and ventila ted in summer.... The street-gallery. or continuow
peri.style, extends along Ihe second IItOry.... Those who have seen the galler y of
the Louvre lIIay take it as a 1II(Hlel ror the street-gallery in Harmony." E. Silber­
ling, DicliQlllltlire tie sociologie plwlmulerielllUl War is. 1911), p. 386; citing
<Charlen Fourier, Th eorie de I'lIlIile Iltliverselle ( 1822), p. 462, and Le NOlLveau
Monde illtlll.slriel el socieltlire ( 1829), "p . 69, 125 , 272. In adilition: Culerie. ­
"AU portiolls or the central cdHice C8 11 be Iraverlled by meallt or a ""ide gallery
which rllns along the second fl oor .... Thus, e\'erythulg is linketl by 8 seriet of
pastageways which ar e shellercd , elegant , a nd comrortahle in winter thanks to the
help or heaten allli \'entilators," E, Silberling, DicliofUlaire. pp, 197- 198; citing
Fourier, 'fh eorie lIIixte, 011 5/JeCllllltive, et sYlltl,e5e rOlllilliere de r/l uociution.
p . 14.-' [A3a,5]
The Passage du Caire adjoining the rormer Cour de8 Miracles. Built in I i99 on the
site or the old ga rden of the COllvellt or the Daughten orCod. [A3a,6]
Trade and traffic are the two components of the street. Now, in the arcades the
second of these has effectively died out: the traffic there is rudimentary. The
arcade is a street of lascivious commerce only; it is whoUy adapted to arousing
desires, Because in this s[teet the juices slow to a standstill, the conunodity
proliferates along the margins and elUers into falUas tic combinations. like the
tissue in tumors.-The Haneur sabotages the traffic. Moreover, he is no buyer. He
is merchandise, [A3a.7]
For the first time in history, with the establishment of department stores, consum­
ers begin to consider themselves a mass, (Earlier it was only scarcity which
taught them that.) Hence, the circus·like and theatrical clement of conunerce is
quite extraordinariJy heightened, [M,l]
With the appearance of mass·produced anides, the concept of specialty arises. Its
relation to the concept of o riginality remains to be explored, 1A4,2)
" 1 gr ant that husmeu at the Pubis- Royal has h ad il8 da y; but I believe tha t this
should be attributed uot to the absence or streetwalkers but to the erection of new
a rcades, allilto the enlargement and rerurbis hing or sever al others, I will mention
the Passages de l' Oper a, du Gra nd-Cerf, dll Saulllon , de Vero-D(Hlat, Delorme, de
Choiseul , and des Panoramas." E F. A. Beraud , Le5 f"ille5 pltbfuJlle~ de Pari.s et Eo.
police qui le5 regit (Paris and I..cipzig, 1839), VI) I. I , P, 205. [A4,3]
" I do not know lfbusines8 at the Palais-Royal has really sufrered rrom the absence
of femme5 tie debauche; but what is certain is that public d«ency there has im­
proved enormously.. , , It seems to me, furthermore, that res pet:table women now
willingly do their shopping ill the shops of the galleries , , . ; this has to be an
ad vantage for the merch allts. For when the Palais-n oyal was invaded by a swarm
or practically nude prostitutetl, the gue or the crowd was tumed towa rd them and
the peo"le who enjoyed this llpet:tacle were never the oneil who patronized the iocal
butinelllle8. Some were already ruined by their ilisorderly life, while other l, yield­
ing to the allure orlibertinism, had no thought then or purch asing any goods, even
necessities. I believe I can affirm , .. that, during those times of inordinate toler­
ance, sever al shops at the Palnis-Royal were closed , a nd in other s buyer s were
rare. T hus, busines8 ilid nol at all prosper there, and it would be more accurate to
say that the stagnation or hllsine811 at that time was owing rather to the free cir cu­
lation or Ihe ftlles publique.s than to their absence, which today has brought back
into the galleries and the garden of this palace lIumerous strollen, who are fa r
nlore ravor able to busineu than pr08titutes and libertinell." F. F. A. 8 era ud , Le5
Fi/les publiques tie Pari5 (Paris and I..cipzig, 1839), vol. 1, pp. 207- 209, [A4,4]
The care. are fill ed
With gourmeu, with 8moke ....;
T he thealen are Ilac ked
With c heerfuI 8~t a t on .
The a ru dcBar e 8warminl!
With I!lIwken. with enthusiast8,
Ami pickpockel-f wriggle
Uchind th e flineur•.
Ennery II lId I..cmoine, Pa ris hI nuit, cited in H , Gourllon de Genoui.llac. 1£5 Re­
f ruin.s de la rue lie 1830 a 1870 (Pa ris . 1879). PI), 46-47.-'1'0 be cOllipa red with
Baudelaire's "Crcpuscule till -foir." lA4a. l]
" And those who cannot pay for ... a s helter ? They deep wherever they filul a
place, in pa ss age~. arcades, in corners where Ihe police and the oWllers lellve them
IIl1diSHlrlled. ·· F'riedrieh Engel", Die Ltlge der (lrlJeitcmien KltlS se in Eng /mid ,
2nd cd. ( Leipzig. 1848), p . 46 (" I)ie grossen Stii{lte").5 [A4a .2]
" III all the shops, like II uniform , the oak countel' is adOl' ned with counterfeit
coins, in ever y kind of melal and in ever y formal , me rcil es~ l y nailed in place like
Lirds of prey 011 a door- unim peachable evidence of the proprietor's scrupulous
hOllesty." Nadar, QlIllllcl j 'et(li$ photogmphe (Paris ( 1900) , p . 294 C" 1830 et enl'i­
rons"). [A4a,3]
Fotlrier 0 11 the s treet-galleries: "To speud a winter's da y in a Phalanstcry, to visit
all parts of it without ex posure to lilt: e1t:mellls, to go to the theater and the opera
in light clothes and colored s hoes wit hout worr ying about the mud and the cold,
would he a charm so novel tlial it alone wo uld s nffice to make our cities and castles
St..'C1II detestable, If the Pllalanstery wer e put to civilized uses , the lIIer e conven­
ience of its sheltered, heated , and ve ntilated passageways wo uJd make il enor­
mously ,·alua ble. b Its pro pel'l y value . .. would be double that of another huilding
its size." E. Poisson , Fourier [Anthology] ( Paris, 1932), p, 144. [A4a,4)
" The stn:e t-gllllerieli ar e u mode of internal cOlUmtlu.ication which would alone be
sufflcicnt to inspire disdain for the p alaces and great cities of civilization .... The
ki ng of France is one of thc leading mona rchs of civilization ; he d oes nol even have
a porch in his Tuilcries palace. The king, the quccn , Ihe royal famil y, when they
get into or out of their carriages, are forced 10 get as wet as a ny lH! tt y hourgt:ois
who s ummons a cab befol'c Ius shop. Doubtless the king will have on hand , in Ihe
event of rain, a good lIlany foolmcn and courtier s to hold an uillb rella for him . .. ;
hut he will still he lacking a porch 0 1' a roof that wouM shelter his party.... Let us
descrihe the sll't..oel-galleries which a l'e one of the mosl cha r ming and precious
features of a Palace j)f Ha rmony.... The Phalanx has 11 0 OUlside streets or open
road wllYs exposell to the elements. All portio ns of the central edifi ce can be tra­
l'ersed b y mea ns of a wide galler y which r uns along the second floo r of the whole
building. At each extremit y of this spacious corritlor there a re elevated passages,
sUI'Porte{1 by COIUlIIIIS, and also attractive ulUler ground passages which connect
all the pal·ts tlf Ihe Phalanx and the adj oining builtlings. Thus, ever ything is linked
hy 11 series of passageways which a re sheltered , elegllllt , ami comforta ble in wi nter
tlmn ks to the hell' of heaters alltl \·entilators.... The street-galler y, or contil/uous
peristyle, extends alollg the second stOI')'. It could not be piliced O ll tile ground
fl oor, since the lower par i of the huilding will be trllversetl by ca lTi llge en­
trances .... T he street-galler ies of a Phalanx wimlliiong just one side of ti m cell­
tl'al ed ifice ami s tl'etch to the elltl of elldl of its willgs. All of thesc wiu j9> eOlltllin a
tlouble row of 1'001118, Thus , 011" row of n XJIIIS looks Ollt upon the field s and gur­
tl"ns. a nd the ot her looks outupOIl the street-galler y. '1'1... stl'L't:t-gallt:r y. then . will
be 11'1'1;" Slot'i" s high witll will{lows on olle side .... The kitchens 11 1111 some of tl..:
puhlic han... will be located on the ground Roor. There will also be trap doors in the
Roors of the dining rooms on the second story. Thus, the ta bles may be set in the
kitchells below and simply raised through the trap doors when it is time to eat.
These Irap d oon will be particularl y nseful during festivities, such as the visils of
traveling caravans and legions, when there will he too man y people to eat in the
ordinar y dining rooms. Then double rows of tables will be set in the street-galler­
ies, alld the food will be passed up from the kitchen . I The principal public halls
should not be situated on the ground floor. There are two r eaSOns for this. The first
is that the patriarc hs and children , who have difficulty climbing stairs, should be
lodged in the lower parts of the building. The second is Ihat the children should be
kept in isolation from the nonindustrial activities of Ihe adults." Poisson , Fourier
[Anthology J (Paris, 1932), Pl" 139-144. 7 (AS)
Yes, JHlrbleu ! You know the power of Tibet .
Implacable enemy of proud innocence,
Hardly does it appear than it carries away
The bookkeeper's wife and the burgher's daughter,
The 8tern prude a nd the frigid coquette:
It signals the victory of lovers;
For fashion tolerate8 no usistance,
And not to have it puts one to shame.
Its fabric. hraving the current bon mot,
Softens in its folds Ihe arrows of ridicule;
Seeing it . you think of a magicaltaliJJman:
It braces the spirits and subjugates the heart;
For it 10 appear is already a triumph, ill coming a cont[Uest;
It reign~ U contlueror, as If()vereign, as mU leI';
And trealing iu quiver as a hurden quite useleu,
Love has fashioned its handeau of cashmere.
Edouard [d'Anglemont] , Le Cuchemire, one-act comedy in verse, performed for
the first time in Paris at the Theatre Royal de l' Odeon , on December 16, 1826
(Paris, 1827) , p. 30 . [A5a,l)
Delvau on Chodruc-Duclos: " Under the reign of Louis P hilippe , who owed him
nothing, he ... did what he had done under the reign of Charles X, who in fa ct
owed him something.... His bones took more time to 1'0 1 Ihan his name took to
erase itself from the memory of men ." AUred Delvau , Les Lions dlt jour (Paris,
1867), pp . 2&-29. [A5a.2)
" I t was IIOt until after the expedition to Egypt ,~ when l)CUple in France gave
thought to expanding the u se of precious cas hmere fabric, that a womun , Greek by
hirth , introduced it to Paris. M. Ternaux ... conceived the admirable project of
raising Hindustani goats in France. Since then , . . . there h ave been plcnty of
wor kers to train and trades to establis h , in order for us to compete s uccessfull y
against prod ucts renowned through so llIany centuries! Our manufaetllf't:rS arc
 beginning to triumph ... over wome n '~ prej udice against French shawls.... We
have managed to muke wOlllen rorgct ror a moment the ridiculous rabric-d esigns or
the Hindus by h uppil y re producing the vividness and brillia nt harmony or the
fl O""ers roulIIl in our own ga rdens. There is a book in wbich alltheae interestillg
~ ubj ect s are discussed both knowledgea bly and elegantl y. L 'lIi$,oire de, ,chail$ ,
by l\1 . Rey. though written ror the shawl manufacturers or Paris, is guaranteetl to
ca ptivate women .... This book, together with its author's magnificent manufac­
tured good s, will undoubtedly help to dissipate French people's infatuation with
the work or ro reign ers. M . Rey, manurac tu re r or sh awls made or wool, casbmere,
etc . ... has br ought Ollt several cas hmeres ranging in price (rom 170 to 500 (rancs.
We owe to hinl , umong other improvements , ... tbe graceful im.itation o( native­
.5
grown fl owers in 1>lace or the bizarre palms of the Orient . Our praise would not be
1 t:{lual to the benefits he has bestowed , ... nor could it render the high honor that
this litteruteur-manwactll rer d eserves for his long r esearch and his talents. We

f.. must be conlent merely to name him." Chenoue and H. D ., Notice lur l'eXp6!ilion
a
de, proolliu eie l'induMrie el deJ urU qui a lieu Douai en 1827 (Douai , 1827),
pp.24-25. [M ,l ]

Mter 1850: " It is durillg these years that the department stores are crealed : Au
Bon l\1urciui, Lc Louvre, La HeUe J ardiniere. Total sales ror Au Bon Marche in
1852 were only 450,000 rrancs; hy 1869 they had risen to 21 miUion ." Gisela
.' reulIIl . LeI Ph otog rapllie <III p oint de lIue !ociologique (manuscript, pp . 85-86);
citing Lavisse. l1i! toire de Fran ce. [A6,2]
A branch or La BelleJardiniere in Marseilles. From u Month illUJIri, March 28, 1863. See A6,2.
"The printers ... were able to appropriate, at the end o(tbe eighteenth century, a
vast area: ... the Passage du Cai re and its environs.... But with the extension o(
the bOllndaries o( l:>aris, Ilrinters ... were dispersed 10 aU parts o( the city....
Sieur Ceccherini. who offered to patrons his newspapers and his books." J . Lucas­
Alas! A glUI or printers! Today workers corrupted by the spirit of speculation
Dubreton , L'AJJaire Alibaud. Oil Loui!-Philippe troque (1836; rpt. Paris, 1927).
ought to remembe r thai . .. between the Rue Saint-Denill a nd the Cour des a.fir­
PI' · 114-115. [A6a,l ]
acle~ there stiU exists a long. smoke-filled gallery where their true household gods
lie (orgotten ." Edoua rd Foucaud , Pa ru inventellr (Paris, 1844). p . 154. [A6,3]
On the occasion o( disturbances associated with the hurial o( General Lamanlue
011 June 5, 1832 , the Passage du Sallllloll was the scene o( a battle waged on
Descri ptioll o( the Passage !lu Saumon , " which , by way of three stolle steps,
barricades, in which 200 worker s confronted the troops. [A6a.2]
ol)Cnml onto the Rue l\1onlorgueil. It was a lIa rrow corridor decorated with pilas­
ters supporting a ridged gla ss roof, which was littered with garbage th rown (rom
" Martin : Business, you see, sir, ... is the ruler or tile world!- DeJgena u: 1 am or
ncighhOl'iug houses. At the ent rance. the signboard-a till salmon indicating the
your opinion, Monsieur Martin , hul the ruler alone is nol enough; there mllst be
mllill (·hllructel'istic or till' place: lhe air was filled with the IIlIIell o( fish ... and also
suhjects. And that is where painting, sculptu re, mllsic come in ... .- M(lrti'l : A
the smell or ga rlic. It was here, ultove all , that those a rriving in Iluris (rom Ihe
liltle or thai i ~ necessary. surely• ... olul ... I myselr have encouraged the a rts.
south of fo'ru nce wo uld urru ngt: to meet ... , Through the doors or the shop8, one
Why, in my last establishment , the Ca fe de France, I hu{1 lIIa ny paintings on
"pie(1 (hl ~ k y alcoves where sometimes II piece or mahogany rurnitu re, the cla8sic
allegorical s ubjects .... Whal is 1II0re, I engaged mll s i ciO Il ~ for the evenings ..
furniture or the periOlI. would ma nage to catch a ray or ligll! . Further 0 11 , a Slllall
Finally, ir Imay in vile YOlilo accompany lIIe ... ,you will see under my peristyle
IJa r hazy wil h the smoke of to bllcco pipes; a shop selling prO(luCIS rrolll the colonies
Iwo ve r y la rge. scan til y attired statues. each wit.h a light fixture 011 ils head.- DeJ­
111111 emittin!, II CllriOllil frllgra llce of exotic J>lant~, s pices, lind rruits; a ballroom
gerlU U: A light fi xture?-Murtill: That is my idea ur sculpture: it mllst serve some
01H!1I ror (Iuucing on Sundays a nd workduy eveniugB; flllllU y the reudillg room or
Jlurpose .... All those statues with a ll arm or a leg ill tile air- what a re tbey good
 for, sinee they've had no pipe installed to carry gael ... What are they
good for?"
Theodo re Barrier e. Les Parisiens, produc ed at the Theatre du Vaudev
ille on De­
cember 28, 1854 (Paris. 1855). p . 26. [The play is eel in 1839.}
[A6a3]

There WaR a Pa8sage du Desir. <See Ala.2.)

[A6a,4]

Chodru c.Duclos--a aupernu merary at the Palais·Royal. He was

a royalist. an
oppone nt of the Vendee , and bad ground s for complaining of ingratit
ude under
Charlea X. He proteAted by appeari ng publicly in rags and letting hia
beard grow.
{Ma,5]

Apropoa of an engraving that picturea a ahopfro nt in the Pallage

Vero-Dodat:
"One cannot praise this arrange ment too highly -the purity of its lines;
the pictu....
esque and brillian t ef£~ t produc ed by the pelight globes . which are.
placed be­
tween the capital l of the two double column. borderi ng each shop; and
finally the
shop partitio ns. which are eet off by reflecting plate glall... Cabine t
de.tl Enamp e.t
(in the Bibliotheque Nationa le, PariS).
(A7,I]

At No. 32 Pauage Brady there WaR a dry·c1earungeetablishment , Maison

Donnier.
It waa aamouS ) for its "giant workro oms" and its " numero us pertlonn
el. " A con­
tempor a ry engraving showe the two-no ry building crowned by small
mansar d.;
female workertl in great numbe rt are visible through the window s;
from tbe ceil­
ings hangs the linen .
[A7,2]

Engraving from the Empire: TM Dance of fM Shawl among the Three

Sulla~.
Cabinet des Estampes.
[A7,3]

Sketch and floor plan of the ar cade at 36 Rue "auteville, in black, blue,
and pink,
from the year 1856. on. stampe d paper. A hotel attache d to the arcade
i. like-­
wise represe nted. In boldface: " Proper ty for lease." Cabine t des Estamp
es.
[A','[
The firSt departm ent stores appear to be modeled on oriental bazaars
. From
engravings one sees that, at least around 1880, it was the fashion to cover
with
tapestries the balustrades of the staircases leading to the atrium. For
example, in
the stOrt called City of Saint-Denis. Cabine t des Estampes.
(A7,S]

"The Pau age de I'Opera . with ita two galleries. the Galerie de I'Horlo
ge and the
Calerie du Barome tre.... The opening of the Opera on the Rue Le
Peletier. in
182 1. brough t this arcade into vogue, and in 1825 the ducheu e de Berry
came in
))enon to inaugu rate a •Europ ama' in the ealerie du Barometre.... The Passage de I'~ra , 1822-1823. Courtesy of the Music Camavalet, Pam.
The grisetle.tl Photo copyright
of the Restora tion danced in the Idalia Hall . built in the basement. t)Photothcquc des MUKes de la Ville de Pam. See A7,6.
Later. a cafe
called the Divan de POpera was establis hed in the arcade. ... Also
to be found in
the Pauage de POpera waa the anna manufa cturer Caron. the music
puiJJjsher

Strttt scene in front of me Passage des Panoramas·
Bibliotbeque Nacionale de France. See A7,7.
U t and fin aUy the perfume shop of the Opera ....
M.arguen e . the p alltry chef Ro e • .
. th e wae Lemonnler. artute en c
In ad <Ii bon.... er . .
I ' f reliquanee
fa clurer of hall dk ere nes ,
d ' An l te, La Vie et le monde du bouleva ,
"The Pauage del Panoramas, 80 named in memory of the two l)anOramas that
etood on either litle of itll entranceway and lhal disappea red in 183 1. " Pa ul
d 'Anl te, La Vie et Ie mOllde tlu boulevard (Parie), p. 14. [A7,7]
T he beautiIuJ apotheosis of the " marvel of the Indian Ihawl," in the section on
Indiall art in Michc.let's Bible de l'hwtltwite (Pa ris, 1864). [A7a,l]
And Jehuda ben tb lery,
In her view, would hal'e been honored
Quite enough by being kept in
Any pretty box of cardboard
With lOme very Bwanky Chineee
ArllbeBIIU6 to decorale ii ,
Like a bonbon box from Marq uis
In the Pa8U!;e Panorama.
Heinrich Heine , Hebrauche Melodien , " J ehuda bell Halevy," part 4, in Ro­
man::ero, book 3 (cited in a letter from Wiesengrund).' [A7a,2)
Signboa rds. Mter the rehue style came a vogue for literary and military aUwionl.
" If an erUI)tion of the hilltop of Montmartre happened to awallow up Paril , al
Ves uvius swaUowed up Pompeii, olle would be able to reconstruct from our I~"
boardl, after fifteen hundrml years, the history of our military triumph, and of
our literature." Victor Fournel, Ce qu 'on 110il datU Ie$ rue, de Po";" (Pam, 1858),
p. 286 ("Enseignes et affiches"). [A7a,3]
Chaptal, in his speech on protecting brand names in industry : "Let us not
asswne that the oonswner will be adept, when making a purchase, at distinguish­
ing the degrees of quality of a material. No, gentlemen, the consumer cannot
appreciate these degrees ; he judges only according to his senses. Do the eye or
the touch suffice to enable one to pronounce on the fastness of colors, or to
detenn.ine with precision the degree of fineness of a material, the nature and
quality of its manufacture?" ~ean-Antoine-Claude) Chaptal, Rapport au nom
d'une commission .spicitJlt! charget! dt! l 't!xamt!71 du projd dt! loj rt!latifaux a/tiration.s t!l
JUp/JOSitioIU dt! nonu .sur It!J produjt.s fabn"qui.s [Chambre des Pairs de France, ses­
sion of July 17, 1824], p. 5.-The importance of good professional standing is
magnified in proportion as consumer know-how becomes more specialized.
Lithograph by Opitz., 1814. Counesy oftbe [A7a,4]
" What shall I s uy 1I0W of that couliue which , lIot con lent with ha rboring a two­
hour illegal sessioll 0 1 the Stock Excha nge. s pawned once again nOllong ago, in the
. hevetu-which is to say. manu­ open air, two demonstrations IJCr day on Ihe Boulevard des ltalien8, acr Ol8 from
.. p ul the POsluge de l' Operu. where five or 8ix hUllflrcl1 market 8lJCculators, forming a
d f __ .1 items made of h air. a
an un." compact mass, follo",'oo dumsily in Ihe wake of lome forl Y unlicensed brokers, aU
~ J 83O- J 879(Panl~ 1930) , pp . I4-16 .
{A7,6] the while 8peaking in low voices like eOllspirator8, ...·hile Iw lice office ... prodded
them from behiml to g.:t them to move on , as one prods fat , tired sheeplH:ing letlto
the slaughterhoulie.·' 1'11. J . Ducos (de Cond rill), COmmellt on .fe rnille (i III BOline
(Paris , 1858), p . 19 . [A7a.5]
II was at 27 1 Rue Saint-Martin , in the l'assage du Cheval l{ouge, thul Lucenaire
commined his murders. [A7a,6]
[A7a,7]
From a prospectus: '1'0 the inhabitants of the Rues Beauregard , Bourbon-Ville­
neuve, du Caire, and de la Cour des Miracles .. , . A plan for two covered arcades
running from the Place du Caire to the Rue Beauregard , cnding directly in front of
the Rue Sainte-BarlH:, and linking the Rue Bourbon-Villeneuve with the Rue
lIau teville, , .. CentJemen. for some time now we ha\'e been concerned abou t the
future of this neighborhood, and it I'ainij us to see that properties so close to the
boulevard carry a value so far helow what they ought to have . This state of affairs
would change if lilies of communication were opened. Sinee it is iml)t)ssiblc to
constroclnew streets in this area, due to the great unevenness of the ground , and
since the only workable plan is tile one we h ave the honor of lIubmitting to you
here, we bope, CentJemen , that in your capacity as ownerll ... yo u will in turn
honor us with YOllr cooperation and affiliation .... Every partner will be retluired
to pay an installment of 5 frlln cs on each 2S0-fran c share in the future company.
As soon as a capital sum of 3,000 francs is reali;,;ed , this provisional subscription
will bec:ome final--uid s um being judged at p resent sumcienl. .. , I'aris, this 20th
of October. 1847." Prillted pros pectus inviting suhscriptions. (A8,I)
" In the Passage ChoiseuJ , 1'11 , Comte, ' Physician to the King,' presents his cele­
brated troupe of child actors extruorclinaire& in the interval between two magic
shows ill which he himself performs." J.-L. C roze, " Quelques s pectacles d e Paris
pendant I'ete de 1835" (Le Temp.f, Augu 8l22, 1935). (A8,2)
"'At this tu rning point in histor y, the llarisian shopkeelH!r makes two discoveries
that re\'olutionize the ....orld of lu nOlweaute: the display of goods and tile male
employee. The display, which lead s him to deck out his sllOp from Iloor to ceiling
and to sacrifice three hundred ya rds of material to garlalld his fa\,atl e (jke a flag­
shil); and the male employee. ""ho replaces the seduction of man h y WOlllall­
something conceivetl by the shopkeepers of the a ncien regilll~with the selluctioll
of womall by lIIall , which is psychologically more ustute , Together with these cOllies
the fuc ell price, the kno ....n allli nOllnegotiuble cost. " H, Clouzol a nd n.-II . Valefllli,
Le Paris de "'/AJ Comedic Iwmuine"; Hllizll c et .fCS jOllrniU(!lIrS (Ila ris, 1926) ,
PI', 31- 32 ("MagasiIl8 lie nouvl:uutcs" ). [A8,3)
" ' Ilell a flllI8 u sin de nOIlVelJllleS rent.:tlthe splice form erly oct'upicd by !! etzel. the
ctlitor of '~(j Comedill IUUlmillll , Buh:ac wrote: " TI/f~ IIwlHw Comet' )' !mil yicitlcd to
the comed y of ca.d IlJlCres. It (Clou:r,ot and ValclIsi, Le Paris de " 'AJ Comedie hit­
mCiine, ,0 p . 37.) {A8,4]
Passage dll Commerce-Saillt -Arl(lre: a reading rOUIII. [A8a.l ]
"Once the sociali ~ t go\'er'lIIl1cnt had "Ileome the !egilimute owner of 1111 the hOll8CS
or Paris, it handed them over to the arc hitectll with the ortler . . . to establish
.f freet-gllilerie.f. .. , Tbe architects accompli.shed the mission enlrusted to them as
\\'ell as could be I!llpected . On the sccond story of e\'ery hou se, they took all the
rooms that facetl the streel and demolished the intervellillg partitions; they thell
openetl up large bays in the dividing walls, tllereb y obtaining street-galleries that
Ilad the height and width of an ordinary room a nd that occupied the entire Icngth
of a block of buildings. III the newer (1IUlrtiers. where neighboring houses have
their fl oors at approxi ma tely the stille height , the galleries could be joined to­
gether on a fairl y evcn level. . . . But on older streets .. , the floors had to be
carefully raised or 10wcl'ed , and often the builders had to resign themselves to
giving the floor a r ather steel' slant . or brea king it up with stairs. When aU the
blocks of houses were thus traver sed b y galleries occup ying ... their second story.
it remained only to connect these isolated sections to olle another in order to
constitute a network ... embracing the whole city. This was easily done by erect­
ing covered walkways across every street , . , . Walkways of the same sort , but
much longer, were likewise put up over the vario us boulevards, over the squares,
and over the bridgeg that cross the Seine, so tha t in the cnd ... a person could
u roll through the enti re city without e\'er being exposed to the elements . . . . All
SOOIl as the Parisians had got a taste of the lIew galleries, they lost all desire to set
root in the streets of old- which , they often said , were fit only for dogs." TOllY
Moilill , Pam en l'an 2000 (paris , 1869), I'P. 9-11. [A8a,2]
"The second floor cont ains the street-galleries. , , . Along the lellgth of the great
a\'enucs, . , . they form stree t-salons .... The other, much less s pacious gaUeriea
are decorated more mooeslly, They have been resened for retail businesses that
here display their merchandise in sllch a way that passer sby circulate no longer in
front of the shops but in their interior," Ton)' Moilin. "(lris en l'an 2000 (Paris.
1869), pp. 15-16 ("Maisons-modeles" ), (A8a,3]
Sales clerks: " There are al lclI8t 20,000 ill Paris .... A great numbe r of sales clerks
ha \'e bcell etlucated in the classics, .. ; olle even find s alllollg them painters /.I nd
lI rehitects ullaffiliuted with ully workshop , who u ~e a great Ileal of their knowlellge
.. , of these two branches of arl in eunstructing dis plays, in Ilcterlllining the d esign
of new items, in tlire<:ting tile creation of fa shions." Pierre Laro uue , Grund Dic­
tiOn/wire uni ver.fe! du X IX' siecie, \ ' 0 1. 3 (Paris. 1867). p . 150 (a rticle on "Cali­
l'Ot" ) , [A9, 1)
'-Wh y tli,l the author of Btlllies de mocu rs u ~S hl(lies of Mallncrs) choose 10 pre­
Sellt , in a work of fiction , lifelike porlra its of the notables or hi;; da y? Doubtleu for
 his own amo,eme nt fir" o f a U.... This expla ins the d escriptio"S_ Fo r the direct
citatiOIlS, a no the r reason must be fo und- and we see none better than his unmis­
taka ble aim of providing Imblicily. Balzac is one of the fir81 10 have divined the
powe r of the IIclverti&ement and, above aU, the disgui8ed advertisement . In lho8e
days •... the newspapers were unawa re of such power . . . . At the very most,
around midnight . 8 S workers were fin ishing up the layout . advertising writers
might slip in at the bottom of a column 80m e lines on Pite de Regnault or Brazilian
Blend. The newspaper advertisement 8S such was unknown . More unknown still
wal a proceu 88 ingenioul 81 citation in a novel. ... The tradesmen Darned by
Balzac ... are clearly hi, own .... No one understood better than the author of
Ce,ar Birolleau the unlimited potential of publicity.... To confirm this, one need
onl y look a t the epithe ts ... he attaches to his manufacturers a nd their products.
Sha melessly he dubs the m : the renowned Vict orine; Plaisir, an iUwtriow hair­
j
d resse r ; Sta ub, the mOlt celebrated tailor of his age; Gay, a/amow ha berdasher
... on the Rue de la Michodie.re (even giving the a ddress!); ... ' the cuisine o f the
Roche r d e Cancale, ... the premie r restaurant in Paris ... , which is to 8ay. in the
" entire world .... H. Clouzot and R.-H . Valenti, Le Paris de "w Comedie hu­
maine": Ba~ac et JeJ!oltrnuJeur, (Pa ris, 1926), pp . 7-9 and 177-179. IA9,2)
The Passage vero-Dodat connects the Rue C r oix-d es-Pe til8-C ha mps with the Rue
J e an-lacquel- Rounea u . In the latter, a r ound 1840, Cabet held his meetings in his
r ooms . We ge t a n idea o f the t one of these gatherings from Martin Nadaud's
Memoires de Leonard, ancien gar-;on mo-;on: " He was still holding in his hand the
towel and razo r he had jUl t been using. He seemed filled with joy at seeing us
l'eslJec ta bly a ttired , with a seriOUI air: 'Ah , Messieu rs,' he said (he did no t say
'Citizens'), ' uyour adversaries could only see you now! You would dilarm the ir
criticisms. Your dress and your bearing are those of well-bred men ...' C ited in
C harles Be nois t, " L ' H o mme de 1848," part 2, Revue deJ deux mondeJ (February
I , 1914), PI)' 64I--642.-h was c haracte ristic of Cabet to believe that workers
need not busy the mselves with writing. IA9,3)
S tred-salo ns: "The largest and most favora bly aituated amon g these ( street­
galle rie8] were tastefully d ecorated and l umptuous ly furni shed. The waUl a nd
ceilings wer e covered with .. . rare marble, gildin g, ... mirror s, and paintinga.
The windows were adorned with splendid hangings and with c urtain8 e mbroid e red
in marvelo us pattem8. C ha irs, fa uteuils, 1I0fa s ... o ffe red comfortable seating to
tired strollers. Finally, there were a rtis tically designed o bjects, a ntique cabi­
nets, .. . gla n cases full of c uriosities, ... porcelain vases containing fresh flow ­
ers, a (IUariumll full of live fish , a nd aviaries inhabited b y r a re birds. These
completed the d ecor a tio n of the st reet-galleries, which lit up the evening with ...
gilt candelabra8 a nd crySlaJ lamps. The governme nt had wanted the st reets be­
longing 10 I.he pe ople of Paris to surpasll in magnificence the drawin g rooml of the
most powerful sovereigns . . . . Firs t thing in the morning, the s treet-ga llc ries are
lurned over to a tte nda nts who air the m out, sweep them carefully, bru8h , dust ,
a nd polis h the furniture , a nd everywhe re impose the mosl scrupulous c1eanlinen.
The n , d epending on the seallon , the windowil are e ither opened or closed , 8.nd
either a fire i8 1il or the blinds urc lowered .... Be lwL'C1i nine and le n o'clock Ihi8
cleaning is nil cOlUple le(l. alld ,," s~e rs b y, unlilthe n (e w li nd far be lwL"eIl .l.oegili to
n ppe nr ill grea le r numbe rs . I<: utl'llllce to th l.\ galll.\ ri l.\~ i ~ strictl y fo l'i)idde ll 10 IIny­
o lle who is dirty o r 10 carrie rs of hellv y 10u{ls; s moking ami s pitting lire likewise
p rohihited he re." To n y Moilin. H./riJ en I'an 2000 ( PliriS, 1869). pp. 26-29 ("As­
pect d es rues-ga lcricH"). [A9a, I)
Tlltl magcuills de nOlwealites o we their ex iste nce 10 the frct,.'<lom o f trad e esta b­
lislu!tl b y Na po leon I . "Of those establis hme nls, famou s in 18 17. whic h gave them­
sdn:s n ll ,nes like La Fille Mal Ca rd t':e. Le Iliahle Boitem.:: , Le l\1us«ue d e Fer, or
Les De u x l\I ago ts, 110t Olle re mains. Man y of those whic h rcplaced the m under
Louis Philippe also fo unde red la te r o n-Jik~l La Be lle Fe rmic re II l1d La Cha u8&ee
d·Anlin . Or else they we re 80ld a t lillIe profit- like I..e Coill de Ru e a nd Le Pauvre
Oiahle." G. d ' Avenel , "Le Me.:aniSlau: d e la vie mode rnc." part I : " Les Gra nds
]\l ag1l8ills," ReVile dell deux "Wildes (luly 15, 1894 ), p . 334. [A9a,2)
Tile office of Phili pon '& weekl y La Caricatllre was in the Passage Vero-Dodat.
[A9a,3]
Passage liu Caire. E rected a ft e r 'apo leon's return fro m Egypt . Contai n8 l ome
e \'ocatio ns of Egypt in Ihe reli ef~ phinx - Iik e heads over the e lltra llce, amo n g
ot he r thin gs. "The II r ca(les a re sad , gloom y, lind always intersectin g in a mallncr
disagreeable to the eye.. . They seem ... d estined to ho use lithographers' stu­
(lios and binders' 8hops, as the adjoi ning s treet iii d estined for the manufacture of
st raw ha lS; pe d estria ns gene ra ll y avoid the m ." Elie Berthet, " Rue e l Passage dll
Caire," PlIriJ chez loi ( Paris ~ 1854~) , p . 362. (A 10,1]
" In 1798 and 1799 , the Egyptia n cam paign lent frigiltful iml)Ort a nce to the fashio n
for sllaw ll . Some generals in the ex pe ditio na r y army, taking advantage of the
proximit y of India, sent hOllle s haw ls . . . o( ca shmerc to their wives a nd la d y
fri ends.... Fro m the ll o n , t he disealie t hat might be called calihme re fever took o n
.sign ifica nt prol)Ortiolls. It began to spread durin g the Cons ulate, grew greate r
Ulu le r the Empi r e. beca me giga lltic (III r ing tiw HestOl'lltion , reached colossai llize
unde r the Jul y Mon urc h y, alul hali finally ass umed Sphillx-like dimensions since
Ihe Fe bruary Revolution of 18<18.'- Po riJ eire; soi ( I'uris). p . 139 (A. Durand,
"Cllii les-Caclicmircs illd i clI ~ e l fra n ~ais "). Conlains a n intc r\'iew with M. Mar­
ti ll , 39 Ru l.\ Ri c hclic u , pro prich.r of a stOI'C culled Thc 111(lia Il5; re p urts thul 51111wl8
which cu r lier we re pri l'~'11 be twt'e ll 1,500 II lul 2,000 (rulU's ('a n 11 0 "" he hought (o r
800 10 1.000 fr un ts. [A IO.2)
From UrIlZiCI', GlI h ricl , a nd l)umcl'sa ll , l..ell l~fl u (/geiJ ct It'll rues. vH ude ville ill Olle
acl, p rcsclltc{1 (or t ile firs t timc. ill Pa r is. li t the Thciitl'c lies Varic tcs 011 MIII'(:h 7,
1827 ( Paris, I827).- Beginlling of a sung b y t he s harehulder Dulingol:
For the llrelld efl. I form
Con tinual refrains of thHnk.:
 In the r.UlIllfl Delorme Lutece arbi trates the differen ce8: "'The affair is settled . Genies
I've Jlut .. hundred Iho" ,"nll f rllllc•. ( 1'". 5-6) of light , hea rken
10 my voice. ' (At this 1lI0mcn t the wllOle ga ller y is l!IItJden ly illumin
ated b y gas­
" I heRr they WD III 10 roof a U the Sireel! of Puns wilh glass . Thai will make for ligll!. )" (I" 3 1). A ballet of streeu ami arcades conclm les the va udeville
. [Al Oa, I]
lovely hothou ses; we wiU live in the m like melolls " (p. 19 ). [AlO.3}
" I 110 not at all hcsitate to wrilll-a s monstro us liS this llIay seem to serious
writers
on a rl- that it was the salc$ clerk who laul1che tl lithogra ph y....
From Gira rd . De! Tombea ux, ou De "' nfluence de! irutitut ioru Condem ned to
fun ebres .mT Ie, imita tions of Ruphad , to Briseises by RegnlluJt . it wouM IHlrliap
moeurs (Parill. 1801 ): " The new Punge du Caire, lIear the Rue s have died; the
Saint.Denis, ... sales d erk saved il ." Hcnri Bouchot , La LitllOgr ffp hie (Paris ( 1895»,
is paved in pa rt wilh (uner a r y slo nes, o n which the Gothic inscript pp . 50--5 1.
ions and the [All ,l ]
emblenlS have nol yet been effaced ." The author ",;,heli 10 draw a
ltelltio n here to
the decline of piety. Cited in Edouar d Four nier, Chroniques et lkgende In the 1'a88~ge Vivienne
s des rues
de Pari.1 (Paris. 18(4). p. 154. She told me: ""I'm from Vienna: ·
lA10,4]
Alltl , he added :
~ llil·e with my uncle,
Brazier, Gabr iel, and Dumen an , Le, Prusoge s e' Ie, rues. OIL La Gue
va udeville in one acl , per(ornu!tl (or the fi rs t time. in Paris, at
rredecwree, The hrother of l~a lJal

.. Variele8 on March 7, 1827 (Paris, 1827). -The party of a rcade8-

compos ed of M. Duperron , umb rella merch ant; !'tIme. Duheld er,
the Theatr e del
adver saries is
wife of a carriage
I take care of hie furuncl e­
It h88 ils charms. thi. fale:·
I promised to meet the Ilamselagain
provide r ; M. Mouffe tard . hailer ; M. Bla ncmant eau . mer ch ant a In the Panage Honne- Nouvelle:
nd manufa cturer
o( clogs; and Mme. Dubac. rentier- -each one coming (rom a !Jul in the l'anage Brady
differen t part of
town . M. Dulingo t . who has bought stock in the arcade8. has champi I waited in vain. '\
oned their
cause. His lawye r is M. Pour; that of his oppone nts, M. Contre.
In the second to
las t (fourtee nth) 8cene, M. Contre ap pears at the head of a column And there )·ou have it : arcade amouN!
o( streets,
which are decked with banner s proclai ming their names. Among
them are the Rue Na rcisse Lebeau . cited by l..eon-P aul Fargue . "Cafes de Paris,"
aux Ours. Rue Ber gere. Rue du Croin ant , Rue du Puits-Q part 2 (in Vu , 9,
ui-Parle , Rue du no. 4 16 (Ma rch 4, 1936)].
Grand- Hurleu r. Likewis e in the next scene-- a process ion of arcades [AII ,2]
with their
banner s: Passage du Saumon , Passage de I'Ancre . Passage du
Gr and-Ce n , Pas­
sage du Pont-New . Passage de l' OI.era. Pauage du Panora ma <lie>. "'There seems no reaSOll , in particu lar, at the first and IlIOSt literal
In the follow­ glance, why the
illg scene, the last (sixteen th), Lutece l ! emerges from the bowels story should be called aft er the Old Curiosity Shop . Only two
of the earth, at of the charact ers
fi rs t in the guise of an old woman . I.n her presenc e, M. Contre takes have a nything to do with such a shop, and they leave it for ever
up the d efen~ in the fi rs t few
of the streets against the a rcades. " One hund red forty -four arcade8 pages.. .. But when we feel the situatio n wilh llIore fid elity we realize
open thell" that this title
mouths wide to devour our custom ers, to siphon off the eve.... rising is someth ing in the lIature of a key to the whole Dicken s romance.
Aow of our His tales always
crowds . both active and idle. And yo u want us stret!ts of Paris to started from some s plendid h.int in the streets. Ami shops, per haps
ignore this clear the most poeti­
infringe ment of our ancient rights! No . we demand ... the interdic cal of all things. often set his fa ncy gallopin g. Ever)' shop , ill fa cl
tion of our one , was 10 him the
hUlldre d fort y-four oppone nts and. in additio n , fifteen million . fi door of romanc e. Among all the huge serial schemes ... it is a
ve hund red thou­ matter or wonder
sand francs in damages and interest " (p . 29). The argume nt by!'tt. that he never started an endless periodi ca l called tile Th e Street.
Pour in favor of and divided it
into shops. lie could have written an exquisite r omance called The
the arcades takes lhe form of ver se. An extract : Buker 's S hop ;
another called TIl e CI, emis t $ Shop ; ano ther called Til e Oil 51101),
to keel' compan y
We whom they would bani! h--we are nlore than u&tful . with Th e Old Curiosi t), Shop ." G. K. Chcster lon . DickenJ . tra
ns. Lauren t and
Have we not, by virtue of our cheerful upect. Martin- Dupont (paris, 1927), I'p . 82--83 .'3
Encouraged all of Pam in the fashion [A II ,3]
Of hnaan , thollf! maru 110 famou! in the Eut?
·'One may womlcl· to what extent Four ier himself helievCl I ill his
fanta sies. In his
And what are the1lf! wall. the crowd admi ree? ma nuscr ipli he 50meti111 e~ comp lai ns of critic" wllO ta ke literally
what is mea nt as
Theile ornamcnU. the&t column. above all? fi gurativ e, and who insisllll oreover 0 11 sl)t:akin g of his '"Iudici l whims.
' There may
YOII'd think YOll were in Athene; and thi' temple have lHlt!n at Icast II modicu m of deliher ale charl nta llism al work
in 11 11 this-a ll
I. erecled to commerce by good lu te. (I'p. 29--(0) attempt to launcll hi. system by mea nS of the tactic. of comme
rcial advertising,
 wnu:h had begun to develop ." F. Arman d and R. Ma ublanc. Fourier
(Paris, 1937),
vol. l . p . 158. 0 Exhibit ions 0
(Alla,l)

P roudho u 's confe88ion near the end of his life (in his book De ill
j utllice" --com­
pare with Fourier 's vieion of the p hala llstery): " It has been nece88a
ry for me to
beconle civili1.oo. But need I approve? T he little bit of civilizin
g I've rt!(!eived
d isgusts me.... I hate houses of more than one stor y, houses in which,
by contras t
with the social hierarc hy, the meek are raised on h i~h while tile ~reat
are &euled
ncar the groun d." Cited in Armand Cuvillie r, /ltar:e el ProuclllO n :
Ala lumiere (/u
/lta rxU me. vol. 2, part I (P ari8, 1937), p. 211 .
[Al l a,2]

B1an« ui: "' I wore,' he says, ' the first tricolor ed cock ade of 1830,
made by Ma­
d ame Bodin in the Passage du COmme r ce. ", Gustav e Geffroy, L'Etifer
me (Parie,
1897), p . 2,10.
[Alla,3]

Baudelaire can 8till write of " a book as daulin g as an Indian handke

rchief or
shawl." Baudelaire, L 'Art r omantiq llC (Parie), p . 192 ("Pierr e Dupont
") . 1 ~
[A lla,4]

The Crauu t Collecti on poueue s a beautif ul rep roducti on of the

Passage des
Panor amas from 1808 . Al80 found ther e: a p ro8pe<:l ue for a bootbla
cking shop , in
which it ie a que8tio n mainly of P uss in Boots.
[Al i a,S)

Baudelair e to his mothcr on December 25 , 1861, concern ing all altemp

t to pawn a
shawl: " I wae told that , with the app roach of New Year'e Day, there
was a glut of
cashme res in the atoree, and that they were tryi ng to d.ist:our age the
p ublic from
br inging any mor e in. " Charles Baudelaire, i..eUreJ ti , a mere
(Paris, 1932),
~m ,
~ II ~

" Our epoch will be the link between the age of isolated fo rces
ric h in oripnal
creative ne88 and that of the uniform but leveling for ce which gives
monoto ny to its
produc ts, casting them in ma88Ci, and followin g out one unifyin g
idea-t he ulti­
mate exp ression of social communities." U . de Balzac, L '/Uwtre Gaudu$
art. cd.
Calma nn-Levy (Pa ris, 1837), p. l. 1~
[Al la,7)

Sales at Au Bon Marc.he, in the years 1852 to 1863, rose from

450,000 to
7 million francs. The rise in profits could have been considerably
less. "High
turnove r and small profits" was at that time a new principle, one that
accorded
with the two domina nt forces in operati on: the m ultitude of purcha
sers and the
mass of goods. In 1852, Boucicaut allied himself with Vidau, the proprie
tor of Au
Bon Marche, the magaJill tk lI(JuueauliJ. "The originality consiste
d in selling Au Bon Marche department store in Paris. \r\bodcut, ca. 1880. See A12,1.
guarant eed merchandise at discount prices. Items, first of all, were marked
with
fixed prices, another bold innovacion which did away with bargain
ing and with
'process sales'- that is to say, with gaugin g the price of an article to
the physiog­
nomy of the buyer; then the 'return' was instituted, allowing the
custom er .to
 cancel his pu rchase at will; and , finally, employees were paid almost entirely by
- conunission on sales. These were the constitutive elements of the new organiza­
tion." George d~vend, "Le Mecanisme de la vie modeme : Les Grands Maga­
sins," Revue de; tkux mow;, 124 (Paris, 1894), pp. 335-336. [AI2 ,t]
The gain in time realittd for the retail business by the abolition of bargaining
may have played a role initially in the calrulations of department Stores. [A 12,2)
A chapter, "Shawls, Cashmeres," in BOTne', lndwtrie-Au"teUung im Louvre
<Ex.hihition of Industry in the Louvre), Ludwig Borne, Ge.ommelte Schriften
(Hamburg a nd Frankfurt am Main , 1862), vol. 3, p. 260. [A12,3!
debunked , I Had he worn a peruke. he'd not be defuDct.' Another ... pictu re.
representing a village maiden a. she kneels to receive a garland of rosell-token of
her virtue--from the hands of a chevalier, ornamcnt8 the door of II milliner'.
sho p." Ludwig Burne. Schiidenlflsen «u.s Pr.lri.s ( 1822 "lid 1823), ch . 6 ("Die
Laden" (Shops»), in Ge.s(lm melte Schriften (Hamburg and Frankfurt am Main ,
1862), vol. 3. pp . 46-49. IAI2a)
On Baudelaire's "religious intoxication of great cities":" the department stores
arc: temples consecrated to this intoxication. (AI3]

The physiognomy of the arcade emerges with Baudelaire in II lentence al the

beginning of "Le J oueur genereux": " It seemed to me odd that I could bave passed
this enchan ting haunt so often without suspecting that here was the entrance."
<Baudelaire. Oeuvres, ed. Y.-G. Le Dantec (Paris. 1931).) vol. I, p . 456. 11 (A12,4]

Specifics of the department store: the OlSlOmers perceive themselves as a mass ;

they are confronted with an assortment of goods; they take in an the floors at a
glance; they pay fixed prices ; they can make exchanges. (A12 ,5]

" In those parts of the city where the theaters and public walks ... are located,
where therefore the majo rity of foreigner s live and wander, there ie h ardly a
building without a shop. It takes onl y a minute, only a step, for the forces of
a tt ractio n to gather ; a minute later, a . tep further on , and the passerb y i.e . tanding
bef ore a different shop .... One's attention i.e spirited away .. though by violence.
alld one has no choice but to stand there and remain looking up until it returns.
The name of the shopkeeper, the name of his merchandise. inecribed a dozen times
011 placards that hang on the d oors and above the windows. beckon from all , ides;
the exterior of the archway rese mbles the eJ.:ercise book of a schoolboy who writes
the few words of a paradigm over and over. FabriCi are not laid out in samples but
are hung before door and window in completely unroUed bolts. Often they are
attached high up on the third story and reach down in sundry folds all the way to
the pa\'emenl. The shoemaker has painted different-colored shoes, ranged in rows
like battalions, across the entire fa~ade of his building. The sign for the locksmiths
is a six-foot-high gold-plated key; the giant gates of heaven could require no larger.
On the hosiers' shops are painted white stockings four yards high, and they will
startle yo u in the da rk when they loom like ghosts . . . . But foot and eye are
arrested in a 1I0bier and more channing fashion b y the paintings displayed before
many sto refr onts. . . . T hese paintings are, not infrequently, true worka of art.
a llli if they were to ha ng in the Louvre, they would inspire in connoi88eur. at least
pleasure if not a,lmiration.... The shop of a wigmaker i. adorned with It picture
Ihili. 10 be sure, is poorly exec:uted but distinguished by an amusing conception .
Crown Prince Absalom hangs by his hair from a tree and i. pierced by the lance of
all enemy. Underneath runs the "erse: ' Her e you ace Absalom in. his hopes quite

B costs, and manages single-handedly the liquidation that in French is called rivolu­
[Fashion}
Fashion: Madam Death! Madam Death!
-Giacomo Leopardi, "Dialogue: bctwccn Fashion and Death ~I
Nothing dies; all is transfonncd.
-Honor.! de Balz.ac., /tnsitJ, JujelJ,.JTar;r-ts (Paris. 1910). p. 46
And boredom IS the grating before which the courtesan teases death.
DEnnui D
Similarity of the arcades to the indoor arenas in which one learned to ride a
bicycle. In these halls the figure of the woman assumed its most seductive as~:
as cyclist. 'TItat is how she appears on contemporary posters. Cheret the pamttt
of this feminine pulchritude. The costume of the cyclist, as an early and uncon­
sciow prefiguration of sportswear, corresponds to the dream proto~ that, a
little before or a lilde later, are at work in the factory or the automobile. Just as
the first factory buildings cling to the uaditional form of the residential dwelling,
and just as the first automobile chassis imitate carriages. so in the clothing of the
cyclist the sporting expression still wresdes with the inherited pattern of degance.
and the fruit of this souggle is the grim sadistic touch which made this ideal
image of elegance so incomparably provocative to the male world in those days.
oDream H ouses 0 [Bl,2}
" In these year . [around 1880). not only does the RenainaDee fa shion begin to do
mischief, but on the other side a new intel"e8t in sport.-above all , in equelitrian
sport8-arises among women , and together thelie two tendencieli exert an influenee
on fashion from quite differeDt directions. The attempt to ~oncile these senti­
ments dividing the female sou) yieldli results that . in the years 1882-1885, an:
original if not always beautiful. To improve matters, dreu deliigners simp)jfy and
take in the waill ali much as pon ihie, while allowing the likirt an amp)jtude all the
more rococo." 70 Jahre deutJche Mode (1925), pp. 84-87 . [BI ,3)
Here fashion has opened the bwiness of dialectical exchan between wom~
and ware between ure and the corpse. The clerk, death, tall and
loutish, measures the century by the yard, ~rves a& mannequin himself to save
lion. For fashion was never an . other than the of the mot! cadaver,
rovocation of death throu the woman and bitter colloquy with deca w
pertd between shrill bursts of mechanical laughter. t IS as on. And that is
w y S e changes so quickly; she titillates death and is already something differ­
em, something new, as he casts about to crush her. For a hundred years she holds
her own against him. Now, 6nalJy, she is on the point of quitting the fidd . But he
erectS on the banks of a new Lethe, which rolls its asphalt Stream through
arcades, the annature of the whores as a battle memorial. 0 Revolution 0 Love 0
[Bl ._]
SquareR, 0 squa re in Pari., infinite 8howplace,
where the modi8le Madame Lamort
windt a nd bind. lhe mile.. way. of the world,
IhOle endJeq ribbon" to ever- new
creationa of how, (rill , flower, cockade. a nd (ruit-
R. M. Rilke. Duineser Elegien (Leipzig, 1923). p. 23.2 [B1.5]
[Bl .l ] " Nothing has a place of itli own , save fa shion appoints that place." L 'Esprit d 'Al­
phon&e Karr; <Pen&ees extraites de ses oeuvres completes) (Paris, 1877), p. 129.
" If a woman of taste, while undre'8ing a t night , ahould find hef'llclf con. tituted in
reality ali 8he h a. pretended to be during the d ay, I like to think she'd be discov­
ered next morning drowned in her own teaf'll." A1phon.e Kan, cited in F. Th .
Vischer, Mode urld Zynismw (Stuttgart, 1879), pp. 106-107. [Bl ,6)
With Karr, there appears a rationalist theory of fashion that is closely related to
th~ rationalist theory of the origin of religions. The motive for instituting long
skirts, for example, he conceives to be the interest certain women would have
had in concealing an un.J.oveI.y <fOOb. Or he denounces, as the origin of certain
types of hats and certain hairstyles, the wish to compensate for thin hair. (Bl ,7)
Who still knows, nowadays, where it was that in the last decade of the previow
century women would offer to men their most seductive aspect, the most inti­
mate promise of their figure ? 10 the asphalted indoor arenas where people
learned to ride bicycles. The woman as cyclist competes with the cabaret singer
for the place of honor on posters, and gives to fashion its most daring line.
[B1.S]
For. ~e ~hilosopher, the most interesting thing about fashion is its extraordinary
anlJopalJons. It is wdl known that art will often- for example, in picrures-pre­
cede the perceptible rnlity by years. It was possible to see streets or rooms that
s~one in all sorts of fiery colors long before technology, by means of illuminated
Signs and other arrangements, actually set them under such a light. Moreover,
the sensitivity of the individual artist to what is coming certainly far exceeds that
of the grande dame. Yet fashion is in much steadier, much more precise contact
with the coming thing, thanks to the incomparable nose which the feminine
collective has for what lies waiting in the future. Each season brings, in its newest
creations, various secret signals of things to come. Whoever understands how to
read these semaphores would know in advance not only about new cum:nts in
the arts but also about new legal codes, wars, and revolutions.s-Here, surely,
lies the greatest chann of fashion, but also the difficulty of making the charming
fruitful. [B1a,1)

"Whether you translate Russian fairy tales, Swedish family sagas, or English
picaresque novels-you will always come back in the end, when it is a question of
setting the tone for the masses, to France, not because it is always the truth but
because it will always be the fashion." <Karl> Gutzkow, Briefi aus Paris, vol. 2
<Leipzig, 1842~ , pp. 227-228. Each time, what sets the tone is without doubt the
newest, but only where it emerges in the medium of the oldest, the longest past,
the most ingrained. nus spectacle, the unique sdf-construction of the newest in
the medium of what has been, makes for the true dialectical theater of fashion.
Only as such, as the grandiose representation of this dialectic, can one appreciate
the singular books of Grandville, which created a sensation toward the middle of
the cenrury. When Grandville presents a new fan as the "fan of Iris" and his
drawing suggests a rainbow, or when the Milky Way appears as an avenue
illuminated at night by gaslamps, or when "the moon (a self-portrait)" reposes on
fashionable velvet cushions instead of on clouds'-at such moments we first
come to see that it is precise.1y in this century, the most parched and imagination­
starved, that the collective dream energy of a society has taken refuge with
redoubled vehemence in the mute impenetrable nebula of fashion, where the
undentanding cannot follow. Fashion is the predecessor-no, the eternal dep­
uty-ofSUITealism. [Bla,2]
A pair of lasciviou8 engravings by Charles Vernier entitled A Weddins on Wheels­
showing the departure and the return. The bicycle offer ed UD8U8pe<:ted ponibili­
tie8 for the depiction of the raised skirt. [Bla,3)
A definitive perspective on fashion follows solely from the consideration that to
each generation the one inunediately preceding it seems the most radical anti­
aphrodisiac imaginable. In this judgment it is not so far wrong as might be
supposed. Every fashion is to some extent a bitter satire on love; all sexual
perversities are suggested in every fashion by the most ruthless means ; every
fashion is filled with secret resistances to love. It is worthwhile reflecting on the
following observation by Grand-Carteret, superficial though it is: "It is in scenes
from the amorous life that one may in fact perceive the full ridiculousness of
certain fashions. Aren't men and women grotesque in these gesrures and atti­
rudes- in the rufted forelock (already extravagant in itself), in the top hat and the
nipped-waisted frockcoat, in the shawl, in the grande; pamela;, in the dainty fabric
boots?" Thus, the confrontation with the fashions of previow: generations is a
I.e Pont des planetes (Interplanetary Bridge). Engraving by Grandville, 1844. See Bla,2.
matter of far greater importance than we ordinarily suppose. And one of the
most significant aspects of historical cosruming is that-above all, in the thea­
ter-it undertakes such a confrontation. Beyond the theater, the question of
cosrume reaches deep into the life of art and poetry, where fashion is at once
preserved and overcome. [Bla,4]
A kindred problem arose with the advent of new velocities, which gave life an
altered rhythm. 1bis lauer, too, was first ttied out, as it were, in a spirit of play.
The loop-the-loop carne on the scene, and Parisians seized on this entertainment
with a frenzy. A chronicler notes around 1810 that a lady squandered 75 francs in
one evening at the Pare de Montsouris, where at that time you could ride those
looping cars. The new tempo of life is often announced in the most unforeseen
ways. For example, in posters. "These images of a day or an hour, bleached by
the elements, charcoa1ed by urchins, scorched by the sun-although others are
sometimes collected even before they have dried-symbolize to a higher degree
even than the newspapers the sudden, shock-filled, mulrifonn life that carries us
away." Maurice Talmeyr, La GIlt du sang (Paris, 1901 ), p. 269.ln the early days
of the poster, there was as yet no law to regulate the posting of bills or to provide
protection for posters and indeed from posters; so one could wake up somc
mOrning to find one's window placarded. From time inunemorial this enigmatic
need for sensation has found satisfaction in fashion. But in its grolUld it will be
reached at last only by theological inquiry, for such inquiry bespeaks a dcep
affective attitude toward historica1 process o n the part of the human being. It is
tempting to connect this need for sensation to one of the seven deadly sins, and it
is not surprising that a chronicler adds apocalyptic prophecies to this connection
 effects of too
and foretdls a time when people will have been blinded by the
much dectric light and madden ed by the tempo of news reporting. FromJa cques
[B2, I)
Fabien, Paris ~ J()1Igt: (Paris, 1863).

Lu Toi­
"On Octobe r 4, 1856, the Gymnasium Theate r preM:nted a play entitled
the heyday of the crinolin e, and
lette, Tapagc wes <The Flashy Dresser s>. It waa
role, bavin&
puffed-out women were in fashion . The actres. playing the leading
exagger ·
gra. ped the satirica l intentions of the a uthor, wore a drell whOM: skirt,
Ui. The day
ated by design , bad a fullnell that wa. comical and almolt rimculo
by more than twenty fine lamea to lend her
after opening night, . he wa. a.ked
crinolin e had doubled in . ize." Maxime
drell8 as a model, and eight day. later the
[B2,2)
Du Camp, PoriA , vol. 6 <Paris, 1875 ~ , p. 192.

ea danger­
" Fashion is the recherc he-the always vain, often ridiculous, sometim
p. 294. [B2,3)
ous que.t- for a superio r ideal beauty." Du Camp, PoriA, vol. 6,

of hell : to
The epigrap h from Balzac is well suited to unfoldi ng the tempor ality
fashion mocks death;
shol'ling how this time does not recognize death, and how
g (which conditi ons
how the acccleration of traffic and the tempo of news reportin
inuities
the quick succession of newspa per editions ) aim at elimina ting all discont
Du h., d'u de~m.iI"ll.t~u. 'tllli.j.,u .
and sudden ends; and how death as caesura belongs togethe r with all
the straight
\\Ue there fashion s m antiqui ty? Or did the Fashionable courtesa ns wearing . lin Lith~ph by Honoli Daumier, 1855. 'The
lines of divine tempo rality.-
"author ity of the frame '" preclud e them?
[B2,4) caption reads' "LaW
. es 0
f the .J_cr:no
cs.
ucm·monde, but havmg no demi·skiru." See 82,2.

"She was everyb ody's contemporary." <MarccJ.) Jouhan deau, Prudenc

e Haute·
men.
is the A knit 'ca rf-a brightly striped mufBer - worn also, in muted colors, by
dtaume (Paris, 1927), p. 129. To be con/emporaiM de tout k monJe -that
that fashion can offer a woman . [B2,5) [B2a,4)
keenest and most secret satisfaction

purcha sed a ~ Th. Vischer on the men'. fa shion of wide sleeves that faUbelow the wrist: " What
An emblem of the power of fashion over the city of Paris : "I have
Pam, vol. 1 "" ~ have here are no longer arms but the rudime nts of winp Slumps of penguin
map of Paris printed on a pocket handke rchief." Guttko w, Briefi aus les the ~s.
:n , s, .6. h fins. The movement of these shapele n .ppendage~ resemb
g
[B2a,l ) r
d.eipzi g, 1842), p. 82. cu abon& -the sliding jerkin pa
ddli ng--o a fool or simpleton ." Vischer ,
" V; .. . ,g,
[B2a,5J
erniinftlge Gedank en fiber die jet%ige Mode," p. 111 .
thought
AprOI)Ol of the medica l discull8 ion concern ing the crinoline: Some people
~rtant
t, by noting " the agreeab le and
to justify its use , together with that of the petticoa political critique of fashion from the standpo int of the bourge ois:
doctors , [how. .
••Iutary coolnel l which the limb. enjoyed undern eath .... Among en the author of these reasona ble opinion s first saw• bo--l: cu Ulng a traIn, a
led to chi1.ls , and young . th
ever, ] it is acknowledged that this celebra ted coolneas hal already was I ~ weann~ e new~t st>:le of shin collar, he honestJ y though t that he
which it was
these have occa. ioned the unfortu nately premat ure end of a . ituation ooking at a pnest; for this white band encircle s the neck at the same height
"', th",e we1J.kno~ ~llar of the Catholi c cleric, and moreov er the long smock
e Gange.
the origina l purpose of the crinolin e to concea l" F. Th . Vucher, Krituch was
new series, no. 3 (Stuttga rt , 1861), p. 100: " Vernilnftige Gedank en tiber
die jetzi~ b a . On recogruzmg a 'ayman in the '
'hio n, he urunedi
,atest,a5 ately under·
stood all tha " " very
Mode" <Reaso nable Opinion s on Curren t Fashion S). [B2a,2) t this shirt collar Signifies: '0 , for us eve"'''h ;~g, ~_
_·-., _ .,,_
.......
.
'glSon e­
co rd . cI ., .....,
~co au m uded ! ~d why not? Should we clamor for enlight enment like
It waf " madne. . for the French fashions of the Revolut ion and
the First Empire to
mimic Greek proport ions with clothing cut and . eWD in the modern
manner ."
;0 Ie you~? Is ~ot hi~y more distinguished than the leveling
hallow sptntua lliberal Jon, which in the end always aims at disturb
effected
ing the
by
pleas.
a

" tracmg a neat little .

Vischer, " Vernllnftige Gedanken tiber diejeta~ Mode," p. 99.
[B2a,3) ure of refined people ?'-It may be added that .uu:. l.:_
coUar, m
line around the neck, gives its wearer the agreeable air of someone freshly be­
headed, which accords so well with the character of the blaX." To this is joined
the violent reaction against purple. Vucher, "Vemiinfcige Gedanken fiber die
jetzige Mode," p. 112. [B2a,6)
On the reaction of 1850-1860: ''1'0 8how one'8 color! ia considered ridiculous; to
be strict is looked on as childish. In . uch a aituation, how could dress not beeome
equally colorless, flabby, and, at the aame time, narrow?" Vi.cher, p. 11 7. He thUI
bringw the crinoline into relation with that fortified "'imperialism whicb . preads
out and puff. up exactly like its image here, and which, al the last and s tron~t
expression of the reflux of all the tendencies of the year 1848, &ettlel its dominion
like a hoop skirt over all 88pet!ts, good and bad, justified and unjustified. of the
revolution" (p. 119). [B2a,7)
" At bottom, the.e thinp are l imultaneou. ly free and unfree. It i. a twilight zone
where necessity and humor interpenetrate . . . . The more fantastic a form , the
more intensely the clear and ironic consciousness worka by the side of tbe servile
will. And this consciousnen guarantees that the foUy will not la8l; the more con­
sciousness grow., the nearer comes the time when it acts, when it turns to deed ,
when it throws off the fetters." Viacher. pp . 122-123. [B2a,8)
One of the most important texts for elucidating the eccentric., revolutionary, and
surrealist possibilities of fashion-a text, above all, which establishes thereby the
connection of Surrealism to Grandville and others-is the section on fashion in
Apollinaire's PoUe assassini (Paris, 1927), pp. 74ff.6 [B2a,9)
H ow fashion takes its cue from everything: Programs for evening clothes ap- ......
peared, as if for the newest symphonic mwic. In 1901, in Paris, Victor Prouvt:
exhibited a formal gown with the title, "Riverbank in Spring." [823,10]
Hallmark of the period's fashions : to intimate a body that never knows full
nakedness. [83 ,1 )
"'Around 1890 peol)le discover that . ilk i. no longer the most elegant matefal for
street clothes; henceforth it is aUotted the previously unknown function of linin,.
rrom 1870 to 1890, clothing is extraordinarily expensive. and changes in fa shion
are accordingly limited in many C88es to prudent alterations by which new appa rel
can be derived from remodeling the old ." 70 Jahre deuts che Mode ( 1925), p. 71.
[83 ,2)
" 1873 . . . • when the giant skirt. that Itretched over cushions attached to the
derriere, with their gathered draperies. theiTI)leated frilil. their embroidery, and
their ribbons. seem to have iS8ued lesl from the workshop of a tailor than from
that of an upholsterer." J . W. Samlon, Die Fraue,.mode tier Cegenwar, (Berlin
and Cologne, 1921), ,)p . 8-9. [B3,3J
No inlfllonalizing so unsettling as that of the ephemera and the fashionable
(onus preserved for w in the wax museum. And whoever has once seen her
must, like Andre Bremn, lose his heart to the female 6gun= in the Musee Grevin
who adjwts her garter in the comer of a loge. <Breton,> Na4Ja <Paris, 1928),
p. 199. 1 [83,4]
"The flower trimmings of large white lilies or water liliel with stems of ru.h, which
look so charming in any coiffu re . unintentionaUy remind one of delicate, gently
fl oating sylphids and n aiades. Just so, tbe fiery brunette cannot adorn her&elf
more delightfully than with fruit braided in graceful little branche~bernes . red
currants, even bunches of grapes mingled with ivy and flowering graS8e8-<lr than
with long vivid red velvet fucbsias, whose leave., red-veined and a. thouch tinged
IoVith dew, form a crown; also at her dispo. al is the very lovely coctw 'pecio&w,
\'li th its long white filam ents. In general, the flowers cho.en for decorating the hai.r
are quite large; we saw one such headdreu of very picturel que a nd beautiful white
roses entwined with large pansies and ivy branches, or rather bouchs. Tbe ar.
rangement of the gnarled and tendriled branches wal so felicitous that it seemed
nature itself h ad lent a hand-long brancheti bearing budl and long stems . wayed
at the sides IoVith the . lightest motion." Der Bazar, third year (Berlin, 1857), p . 11
(Veronika von C., " Die Mode"). [83 ,5)
The impression of the old·fashioned can arise only where, in a certain way,
reference is made to the most topical. If the beginnings of modem architecture to
'some extent lie in the arcades, their antiquated effect on the present generation
has exact1y the same significance as the anciquated effect of a father on his son.
[83,6)
In my fonnulation : '"'The eternal is in any case far more the ruffie on a dress than
some idea."· 0 Dialectical Image 0 [83,7)
In fetishism, sex. does away with the boundaries separating the organic world
from the inorganic. C lothing and jewelry are its allies. It is as much at home with
what is dead as it is with living Hesh. The lauer, moreover, shows it the way to
establish itself in the fanner. Hair is a frontier region lying between the tv.ro
kingdoms of sexus. Something different is disclosed in the drunkenness of pas­
sion: the landscapes of the body. These are already no longer animated, yet are
still accessible to the eye, which, of course, depends increasingly on touch and
smell to be its guides through these realms of death. Not seldom in the dream,
however, the re are swelling breasts that, like the earth, are all apparded in woods
and rocks, and gazes have sent their life to the bottom of glassy lakes that
slumber in the valleys. These landscapes are traversed by paths which lead
 ~:w~ inl,O the world of the inorganic. Fashion itself is only anomer medium
- entlcmg It still more deeply into the universe of matter. [83,8]
'''Thi, yea r,' laid ~ri'tOU8e, ' (u lJions are biza r re a nd common, simple Bnd fu ll of
fantasy. Any ma te rial from natu re', do main can 110100' be introduced into the com­
. . ', clothes. J 8a w a channing dress made of "~o,k8.... A
position of
. . women · r
lllaJo
designer 18 thinking about launching tailor-made outfiu made of old bookhindings
done in calf.... Fish hones are being worn a 101 on hals. One often sees delicious
yo~ng girls dreued like pilgrims of Saint Jametl of Coml)olIlella; their outfits. as is
fitun g, are studded with coquille! Saint-Jacques. Steel, wool, sandstone, and files
have suddenly entered the vestmentary arts.... Feathen now decorate not only
hata b,ut shoes, and gloves; and next year they'll be 0 11 umbrellas. They're doing
shoos 10 Venetian glass and hats in Baccarat crystal. ... I forgot to tell you that
last Wednesday I saw on the bouleva rds on old dowager dressed in mirrors stuck
to fabri c. The effec:t was sumptuous in the sunlight . You 'd have thought it was a
gold mine out for a walk. Later it starled raining and the lady looked like a silver
mine.... Fashion is becoming practical aDd no longer looks down on anything. It
ennobles everything. It does for materials what the Romantics did for words. 'tt
Guillaume Apollinaire, Le Poete anau ine, new editiOn (Paris, 1927), pp . 75-77.~
(B3a,l ]
A caricaturisl--eirca 1867-representll the frame of a hoop slUrt as a cage in
which a girl imprisons hens and a parrot . See Louis Sonolet , La Vie parnumne
sow I.e Second Empire (Paris, 1929), p. 245. (B3a,2]
" It was bathing in the sea ... that struck the first blow agaillst the 80lemll and
cumbersome crinoline. " Louis Sonolet , La Vie pariJienne JOW Ie Second Empire
(Paris, 1929), p . 247. (B3a,3]
"Fashion ~nsists ~nly ~ atremes. Inasmuch as it seeks the atremes by narure,
there re~ for It nothing more, when it has abandoned some particular form,
than to glVe Itself to the opposite form." 70 Jahre deutJche Mode (1925), p. 5 1. Its
uttermost atremes: frivolity and death. (B3a,4]
" We took the crinoline to be the , ymbol of the Second Empire in Fra nce-of itll
~verblown lie• • i18 hollow and purse-proud impudence. It toppled ... , but ...
J~ st be~ore the fall of the Empire, the Pari8ian world had time to indu lge a nother
' Ide of Its temperament in women's fashions , and the Republic did not disd ain to
follow ils lead ." F. Th. Vischer, Mode lind Cynumw (SIuttgart, 1879), p. 6. Tile
new fashion to which Vischer alludes is explained : " The dress is cut tliagonally
across the body and stretched over ... the belly" hI. 6). A little later he sl)Ca ks of
the women thus a ttired as " naked in their clothes" (p. 8). [B3a.5J
Friedell explains, with regard to women , " that the history of their drcu sllOws
surprisingly few variations. It is not milch more thall a regu lar r.otation of 11 few
quickly altering, but also quickly n::insta ted, nuance!: the length of the train , the
height of the coiffure , the shonness of the sleeves , the fuLLl en of the skin , the
placement of the nediline and of the waist. Even radical revolutions Like the boy­
i.s h haireul8 fa shionable today are only the 'eternal return of the same.'" Egon
Friedell , Kuilrlrgelchichle l/er Neu:.eil. vol. 3 (Munich , 1931), p. 88. Women 's
fa shions are thus distinguished , according to the author, from the more diverse
a nd more categorical fashions for mCII . (B4,I]
" Of all the promises made b y <Etienne> Cabet'e novel Voyage en l earie <Voyage to
learia>, at least one has been realized . Cabet had in fact tried to prove in the novel,
'>'hich contains his system, that the communist state of the future could admit no
product of the imagination and could suffer no change in its institutions. He had
therefore balllled from l caria all fashion- particularly the capricious prienes8ea
of fa shiOll , the modistes---as well as goldsmiths and all other professioll' that
serve luxury, and had demanded that dress, uteruils, alld the like should never
be altered ." S i~lIlUnd Engliinder, Gelchichte der jr-an:ol u chen A.rbeiter­
Auociationen (Hamb urg, 1864), vol. 2, pp. 165--166. [B4,2]
In 1828 the first perfonnance of La Muette fit Portia' took place.IO lt is an undulat­
ing musical atravaganza, an opera made of draperies, which rise and subside
over the words. It must have had its success at a time when drapery was begin·
ning its triumphal procession (at first, in fashion, as Turkish shawls). 'Ibis revolt,
whose premier task is to protect the king from its own effect, appears as a prdude
to that of 1830-10 a revolution that was indeed no more than drapery covering
a slight reshuffie in the ruling circles. [B4,3]
Does fashion die (as in Russia, for example) because it can no longer keep up the
tenlpo-at least in certain fields ? [B4,41
Grandville's works are nue cosmogonies of fashion . Pan of his oeuvre could be
entitled "The Snuggle of Fashion with Narurc:." Comparison between Hogarth
and Grandville. Grandville and Lautr6unont.-What is the significance of the
hypertrophy of captions in Grandville? [B4.5]
" Fashion ... is a witness, hut a witness to the histor y of the great world only, for in
C\'ery country ... the poor people have fa shionl al little as they have a history,
Il llt! their ideas , their tastes, even their lives barely change. Without doubt ....
IJuhlic lire is hcginning to penetrate the poorer households. but it will take time."
Eugene Montrue, Le XIX' Jiecle veell par deux jra"{lliJ (Paris). p. 241 . [84 ,6]
The foUowi.ng remark makes it possible to recognize how fashion functions as
camou8age for quite specific interests of the ruling class. "Rulers have a great
aversion to violent changes. They want everything to Stay the same- if possible,
for a thousand years. If possible, the moon should stand still and the sun move
no farther in itS course. Then no one would get hungry any more and want
 dinner. And when the rulers have fired their sho t, the adversary sho uld no lo nger
be pennitted to fire ; their own shot should be the last." Ben oit Brttht, "FUnf
Schwierigkeiten beim Schreiben d er W ahrheit," Urum: Zeit, 8, nos. 2-3 (paris,
] Basel, Prague, April 1935), p. 32. (B4a,I)
J!
• MacOrlan , who emphslu es the analogies to Su r realism in Grand ville', work,
dra ws attention in lhi, connet:tion to the work of Walt Dislley. OD which he com­
menta: " It ie Dot in lhe leallt morbid . In \hi, it di ver~1 from the hUDIor of Grand­
ville. which alwaYI bore within itself the leed, of death ." <Pierre> MacOrlan ,
"Gr andville Ie precurHeur," Aru et metier. graphique., 44 (December 15, 1934),
<po24 >, (B4a,2)
"The presentation of a large couture collection lasts two to three hours. Each
time in accord with the tempo to which the models are accustomed. At the close.
a veiled bride traditionally appears." Helen G rund, Vom ~jen der Mode (Mu­
nich : Privately printed, 1935), p. 19. In this practice, fashion makes reference to
propriety while serving notice that it does not stand still before it. [B4a,3}
A contemporary fashion and its significance. In the spring of 1935, something
new appeared in women's fashions : medium-sized embossed m etal plaquettes,
which were worn on jumpers o r overcoats and which displayed the initial 1etters
of the bearer's firs t name. Fashio n thus profited from the vogue for badges which
had arisen amo ng m en in the wake of the patrio tic leagues. O n the other hand,
the progressive restrictions on the private sphere: are here given expressio n. The
name-and, to be sure, the first name-of persons unknown is published on a
lapel. That it becomes easier thereby to make the acquaintance of a stranger is of
secondary imponance. [B4a,41
" The creaton of fas hions ... like to frequent society and ext ract from its grand
d o in~ an imprel8ion of the whole; they take part in its a rtistic life, are present at
premieres and exhibitions, and read the books that make a sensation . In other
words, they are inspired by the ... ferment ... which the b usy presc nt day can
offer. But since no prelCnt moment is ever full y cut off from the pas t , the lalter also
will offer a ttrac tions to the creator, ... though onl y that which h armonizes with
the r eigning tone can be u sed . The toque tipped forward over the forehead , a style
we owe to the Ma net exhibition , demonstrates q uite simply our new readiness to
confront the end of the previous century." Helen Grund . Vom WeJen de r Mode.
~ U ~~
On the publicity wa r between the f&8h ion house a nd the fas hion columnists: "The
fashion writer 's task is made easier b y the fact that our wishe8 coincide. Yet it ill
made more difficult b y the fact that no newsp alH!r or magalline may rega rd as new
what another h as alread y published . From this dil emm ~, we a nd t.he fashion
writer a re saved onl y by the photogr ap her! and de8igneril. who manage through
the pose and lighting to bring out different aspecU of a single p iece?f clothing. The
most important magazine. ... have their own photo , tudios, which ar e equipped
with all the latesl technical and artilltic r efinementi! , and which employ highly
talented 81)CCialized photogr apllers .... But the publication of these documelltt it
not pennilted until the customer ha, made her choice, and tllat mean. us uaUy (our
to six weeks after the initial . howing. T he reaso n for thi. measu re?_The woman
who appear s in society wearing these new clothes will her.elf oot be denied the
effect of surpri.e." Helen Grund . Vom WeJen der Mode , pp. 21-22. [85,11
According to the summa ry of the firt t six issue., the magnine publi. hed by
Stephane MaUarme. La Dernikre MO<k (Paris, 1874), contains "a delightful .por.
til'e sketch , the result of a conversation with the ma rvelou. naturalist Towsenel."
Reproduction of thi8 . umma r y in Mino,aure, 2. no. 6 (Winter 1935) <p . 27).
[115,21
A biological theory of fa. hion that taket iti! cue from the evolution of the zebra to
the hor se, as described in the abridged Brehm (p. 771): 11 " This evolution spanned
millions of yean.... The tendency in horses it toward the cr eation of a first-<:Iau
ru nner and courier.... The mru t ancient of the existing animal types h ave con ­
spicuously llriped coati!. Now, it is very remarkahle that the external stri pes of the
Ilebra display a certain cor respondence to the arrangement of the ribs and the
vertebra inside. One can auo determine very clearly the arrangement of these
parte from the uniq ue striping on the upper foreleg and up per hind leg. What do
these stripet signify? A protective function can he ruled out .... The stri pes have
been ... p reser ved detpite their 'purpose:leuneu and even unsuitablene88,' and
therefor e they must ... have a particula r significance. bn' t it likely that we are
dealing here with outward stimuli for internal responses, such as would be espe­
cially active during the mating season ? What can th.it theory contribute to our
theme? Something of fund amental importance, I believe.-Ever since humanity
passed frOm nakedneu to clothing, 'senseless and nonsent ical' fa shion has played
the role of wise nature.... And insofar as fashion in iu mutatiOOt ... p re.cribes
a constant revision of all elemenu of the figure, ... it ordains for the woman a
continual p reoccupa tion with her beaut y." Helen Grund , Vom WeJen der Mode.
PI'· 7-8. [115,31
At the Parit world exhibition of 1900 there was a Palais du Costume, in which wax
dolls arr anged before a painted backdrop displayed the costumes of various peo­
ples a nd the fas hions of variout ages. (B5a,l)
" Out 88 for U8, we see ... around us ... the effects of confusion and waste inflicted
I, y the disordered movement of the world today. Art know. no comp romise with
hur r y. Our idealt a re good for ten years! The ancient and excelleut relia nce on the
judgment of IJOsterity h as been stupidl y re placed b y the ridiculous superstition of
1/ovel,y. which assignt the most illusor y ends to our enterpr ises. condemning them
to the creation of what is most perit haLle. of wha t must be perit hable by its
natu re: I.he sensation of newness .... Now, ever yt hing to be seen here has Lt!ell
enjoyed, hal char"led a nd delighted through the centuriel, and the whole glory of
it ca lmly telll u ~: ' I AM NOTIIING NEW. Time may weU spoil the material in which I
exist ; hili for "0 10llg as il lloes nol de!!troy me, I cannot be deltroyed by the
indifference or COli tempt of ally mall worthy of the name." Paul Valery, " Pream­
hule" (preface 10 the catalogue of t.he exhibition " Italian Art from Cimabue to
Tiepolo," at the Petit Palais, 1935), pp . iv, vii.': [B5a,2)
"The ascendancy of the bourgeoi!!ie work!! a change in women's wear. Clothing and
hair8lyles ta ke on added dimension!! ... ; , houlders are enlarged by leg-of-mutton
deeves, a nd ... it wal not long before the old hoop-petticoats came b ack intO favor
and fuU skirts were the thing. Women , thus accoutered , appeared destined for a
!iedent ary Iife---famil y Iife-since their manner of dress had about it nothing that
cowd ever IlUggest or &eem to further the idea of movement . It was just the opposite
with the advent of the Second Empire: family ties grew slack , and an ever-incr eas­
ing luxnry corrupted morall to such an extent that it became difficult to distin­
guish an honest woman from a courtesan on the basil of clothing alone. "~eminine
attire had thus been transformed from head to toe.... Hoop skirts went the way
of the accentuated rear. Everything that could keep women from remaining seated
was encouraged ; anything that could have impeded their walking wal avoided.
They wore their hair and their clothes as though they wer e to be viewed in proftle.
For the profile is the silhouette of !!omeone ... who passes, who is about to vanish
from our sight . Orcss became an image of the rapid movement that carries away
the world ." Charles Blanc, "Considerations sur Ie vetement del femmes" (Institut
de Fra nce. October 25, 1872), pp . 12- 13. [B5a,3]
" In order to grasp the essence of contemporary fashion , one need not recur to
motives of an individual nature, such as ... the desire for change, the sen se of
beauty, tile panion for dressing up , the drive to confono. Oouht1eu such motive.
have, at various times, ... played a part ... in the creation of clothet .... Never­
theless, fal hion , as we understand it today, has 110 individual motives but only a
social motive, a nd it is an accurate perception of this social motive that detenoinea
the fun a ppreciation of fa shion 's essence. This motive is the effort to distingui.!!h
the higher classes of society fronl the lower, or more eSIJeciaUy from the middle
classel.... Fashion is the ha rrier--continuaUy raised anew because continually
torn down-by which the fa shionahle world seeks to segregate itself from the
middle region of society; it is the mad pursuit of that clan vanity through which a
single phenomcnon endlcssly repe ats itself: the endeavor of one group to establish
a lead , ho",·ever minimal . over its pursuers, and the ellIleavor of the other group to
make III' the llistallce b y immcdiately adopting the newest fa shions of the leaders.
Tbe characteristic features of contemporary fa shion a rc thus explained : ahove all ,
itl origins ill tilt: upper circles and its imitation in the middle strata of society.
Fa ~ hio n moves from top to 1,0110111 , not vice versa .... All attcmpt b y the middle
c1a 8se~ to introduce a new fa shion ","oultl ... never succeed , though Ilothing would
suit the "Pller cla sscs l.letter than to see the form er ",;tli t.heir own set of fa shiolll.
([Note:] Whi.:h does nut detcr them fro m looking for new d esign.!! in the sewer of
the Parisian deoti-monde and bringing out fashionB that clearly bear the mark of
their unseemly origins, III Fr. Vi.cher ... has pointed out ill his ... widely cen­
sured but , to my mind , ... highly meritoriou. essay on fas hion.) 1:lence the UII­
ceasing variation of fll8bioll . No sooner have the middle classes adopted a newly
introduced fll8hion than it ... 10lCa its value for the upper classes . . . . Thus.
novelty is the indispensable condition for aU fa shion .... The duration of a fa sh­
ion is inversely proportional to the swiftnen of its diffusion; the ephemer ality of
fashion. has increased in our da y all the means for their diffusion have expanded
via our perfected cODllDuniu tiona techniques.... The social motive refer red to
above explains, fi.naUy, the third cha racteril tic feature of contemporary fa shion :
its . .. tyranny. Fal hion comprisel the outward criterion for judging whether or
not one ' belongs in polite aociety. ' Whoever does not r epudiate it ahogether must
go along, even where he ... firmly refu.!!eJ Jome new d evelopment.... With this , a
judgment is passed on fashion .... H the clane. that are weak and foolith enough
to imitate it were to gain a sense of tbeir own proper worth •.. . it would be aU up
with fa shion, and beauty could once again aSBume the position it has had with aU
those peoples who . . . did not feel the need to accentuate class differences through
clothing or, where this occurred, were lenswle enough to respect them." Rudolph
von Jhering, Der Zweck im Recht. vol. 2 (Leipzig, 1883), pp. 234--238 . IJ
(B6; 86a,I)
On the epoch of Napoleon III : " Making money becomes the object of an almost
sensual fervor, and love becomes a financial concern . In the age of French Roman ­
ticism, the erotic ideal was the working girl who gives herself; now it is the tart who
sells herself.... A hoydenish nuance came into fa shion : ladies wore coUars and
a
cravats, over-coala , dresses cut like tailcoatl, ... jackets 1.11 Zouave. dolmans,
walking sticks, monocles. Loud, harshly contrasting colors are preferred-for the
coiffure as weU: fiery red hair i. very popular.... The paragon of fa shion is the
grande dame who playa the cocotte." Egon FriedeU. Kulturgeschichte der
Nerueit, vol. 3 (Munich , 1931 ), p . 203 . The " plebeian character" of thill fal hion
represents , for the author, an "invasion ... from below" by the nouveaux riches.
(B6a.2)
"Cotton fabri ca replace brocades and satim , ... and before long, thanks to ...
the r evolutionary spirit, the dreu of the lower classes becomes more seemly and
agreeable to the eye." Edouard Foucaud, PU,.U inventeu,.; Physiologie de l'i,ld"s­
trk/ram.aue (Paris, 1844), p . 64 (referring to the Revolution of 1789). (B6a,3)
An assemhlage which, on closer inspection , proves to he composed entirely of
pieces of clothing together with anorted dolls' head •. Caption: " OoUs on chain ,
mannequins with fal se neckl, fal se hair, fal se attractions-voila Longchamp! "
Cabinet des Euaml)es. [86a,4)
" If, in 1829. we were to enter the shops of Odisle. we would find a multitude
of diverse fabrics; Japanese, Alhambresque, coarse oriental , 8tocoline, meotide,
s ilc nian , zin'loliue , Chinese Dagazinkoff, , .. With the Revolution of 1830, .. , the
<"<1111' 1 offas hiOIl had cl'o~8ed Ihe Seine and the ChaUlIlIce d 'A.Jllin hall replaced the
IlI'iSlocrlltie fllubo ll rg." Paul,J"Arisle, La Vie e l k mOflt/e <lit boulevard , 1830­
J87Q< Pa ris. 1930). p , 227 , (B6a,5]
"T he well-to-do bourgeois. as u fri end of o rder, pays his suppliers ut least once a
y,'u r ; hul tile man or rashion , Ihe so-called lion , pay&his tailor e \'e ry ten years, if
he pays him at all ," Adu Tage in Pa riJ (Paris, July 1855), p . 125. [B7,1]
" It i ~ I who iu\'c nted licl. At present , the lorgnoll has replace<1 the m, , .. TIle tic
illvlJlvcs dosing the eye with a (:e rt ui n move me nt of the lIIo uth uud a certain Inove­
IIIt'nl of tilt' coal . , .. Tile ruet' of a n elegant man s ho uld a lways have. , . something
irrit uted and convuls ive a bollt it . One can attrib ute these fa cial agi tations eithe r to
a na tllral sata nis m , to the fever of the p assions, or filially to a nything o ne likes!'
l'uriJ-Vi ue ur. by the a uthorl! of the memoirs of BilbO<IIU!t [Taxile Delord] (Paris.
18!J4). "" . 25-26. [B7,2]
"The vogue for buying one's .....a rdrobe in London took hold o nl y amo ng men ; the
fll ~ h io ll II1110ng wOllle n . e ve n foreigne rs, has always been to be outfitted in Paris."
Chudes SeignoLos . l1istoire sillcer e de ia natiolljra1l(iaiJe ( Puris. 1932), p. 402.
IB7,' 1
Ma r celin , the founder of UI Vie PariJJienne, has set fo rth " the four ages of the
c rinoline." [B7,4}
The crinoline i5 " tile ulIlIlistakalJle s ym.hol of reaction o n the part of an imperial­
is m tlmt s preads out and pUff8 "I) ... , and that ... sellles its dominion like a hoop
skirt o\'\' r ull aspt.'CU, good ali(I Lud , justified and unjustified , of the revolu­
tion , . , , It st:erned II caprice of the mome nt , and it hus established itself as the
\'lIIhlelil of u pel·iod . like the Second of December. "1-' F. Th . Vische r, cited in
£ 111131'11 Fuc hs, Die Kurikutllr der europaischell Vijlker (Mullic h <1921» , vol. 2,
1" 156. (B7,5J
In the t'a d y 18<lOs . the re is a nucleus of modistes on the nue Vivie nne . (B7,6)
Sirnmcl calls attention to the fact that "the inventions of fashion at the present
time are increasingly incorporated into the objective situation of labor in the
economy. . , . Nowhere docs an article first appear and then becomc a fashion;
rathcr, articles are imroduced for the express purpose of becoming fashions."
'111C contrast put forward in the last sentence may be conelated, to a certain
extent, with that bctween the feudal and bourgeois eras. Georg Sinmlel, PhilruQ­
phiJdu: Kullur (Leipzig, 191 1), p. 34 ("Die Mode'V ) (B7,7J
Sillln".1 I''' pluin!! " wh y WulIIl' lI ill ,;em·ral a r e Ihe s t a u,l\chc~ t adherents or fa sh­
io n . , , , S pecifi ca ll y: rrom tlw wt' ukllr"ss of the SOCilllllO!Oitioll to w.hich wome n ha ve
been condenllled for the greater pari or history derive8 their intimate relatio n with
all thai i5 'elitluctle. '" GeorgSimmel, PhiloJophische Kli/tur(Leipzig, 1911 ). p. 47
(" Die Mode") .'" (B7,8]
The following analysis of fashion incidentally throws a light on the significance of
the trips that "''Crt fashionable among the bourgeoisie during the second half of
the century. "The accent of attractions builds from their substantial center- to
their inception and their end. 'Ibis begins with the most trifling symptoms, such
as the ... switch from a cigar to a cigarette; it is fully manifest in the passion for
traveling, which, with its strong accentuations of departure and arrival, sets the
life of the year vibrating as fully as possible in several short periods. The ...
tempo of modem life bespeaks not only the yearning for quick changes in the
qualitative content of life, but also the force of the formal attraction of the bound­
ary-of inception and end." Georg Simmel, Philruophisdu Xulfur (Leipzig, 1911),
p.4-1 ("Die Mode")." [B7a,1]
Simmel asseru tha t "'fashions differ for different claS&e&--the fas hions of the up­
per st rat um of socie ty are never identical with those of the lower; in fact , they are
aballlloned by the forme r as soon as the latter prepares to appropriate them ."
Georg Simmel, PIu'1050phiJche Kuhur (Leipzig, 1911). p . 32 ("Die Mode")."
[87.,2]
The qwck c hangi ng of fas hio n means " that fuhion l can no longer be so ex.pensive
... a. the y we re in earuer times.... A peculia r circle ... arises here: the more an
article becomes subject to rapid c hange!l of fa shion , the greate r the demand for
cheap products of its ki.nd ; and the c heaper they become. the more they invite
cons umers and constrain producers to a quick change of fa shion." Georg Simmel,
PhilosophiJche Kultur ( Leipzig, 1911 ). pp. 58-59 ("Die Mode").'~ {B7a,3]
Fuchs 0 11 Jhering's a nalys is of fashion: " It mus t, .. be reiterated that the concern
ror segrega ting the classes is only one cause of the frequent variation in fu hione,
and lhat a second ca use--the private-capitalis t mode of production, whic h in the
inte resu of its profit margin mUSI continually multiply the possibilitie8 of lum­
o\'e r- is of equal importa nce. This cause has escaped Jhering entirel y, as hu •
third : the fun ction of e rotic stimulation in fa shion , which operatetl most effectively
whe n the erotic a ttrac tions of the man or the woman . ppea r in ever new set­
tillgs. ., Friedrich Vische r, who wrote a bout fashion, .. twenty years befo re
Jhc ring, did not yet recognize. in the genesis of fas hion , the tendencies at work to
keel' the clan cs di vitled ; . .. on the other hand, he was fully aware of the erotic
problellls o r tlre u. ,. Eliuanl .' uc hs, lllUJ lrierfe S iftengeJchichte 110m !tfiuelailer
bis zlI r Ce,genlUurt : Da J biirgerliche Zeilailer. enlarged edition (Munic h <l926?».
PI'· 53-54. [B7a,4]
Eduard Fuc hs ( Illll.slrie rfe Sitlen,geJchichle lI()m Mitlelaller bis ::ur Gegenwart:
Da J biirge rliche Zeila iler, e nla rged ed ., "" . 56-57) cite&--without reference&--a
remark by F. T h . Vifu::her, according to which the gray of men ', clothing ,ymbol.
ize, the " utterly blase" character of the masculine world , its d ullneu IIIItI inertia.
[BS.I[
" One of the l urest and moU deplorable symptollll of that weakne88 and frivo lity of
character which marked the Romantic age was the childu h and fa tal notion of
rejecting the deepest undentandin~ of technical procedures, ... the cOQlcioul ly
8Ul tained and orderly ca rryin~ through of a work . . . -aU for the l a ke of the
l pontaneous impulses of the individual sensibility. The idea of creatin~ works of
laltin~ value lost foree and ~ave way, in most minds, to the del ire to astonish ; art
was condemned to a whole series of b reaka witb the past . There arose a n automatic
audacity, which became as obligatory as tradition had been . Finally, that switch­
in~-at high frequency--of the tastes of a given public, which il called Fashion,
replaced with iu e8&ential changeableness the old habit of slowly formin~ uyles,
schools, and reputations . To say that Fashion took over the destinies of the fine
arn is as much a8 to say that commercial interests were creeping in." Paul Valery,
P ieces sur l'art (Paria), pp. 187-188 (..Autour de Corot"). to (88,2]
''The great and fundamental revolution has been in cotton prints. It has rt!quired
the combined efforts of science and art to force r ebellioul and ungrateful cotton
fabrics to undergo every d ay so many brilliant transformation l and to I pread
them everywhere within tbe reach oftbe poor. Every woman used to wea r a hlue or
black dreu that she kept for ten yean without walhing. for fear it might tear to
pieces. But now her husband , a poor worker, coven her with a robe of Hower a for
the price of a day ', labor , AU the women of the people who display an iris of a
thousand colon on our promenadel were formerly in mourning." J . Michelet, Le
Peuple (Paris, 1846), pp. 80--8 1.21 (B8,3]
" It il no lon~e r art , al in earlier times , hut the clothing husw eaa that furnishes the
prototype of the modem man and woman. . .. Mannequinl become the model for
imitation , and the soul becomes the image of the body. " Henri Pollea, " L'Art du
commerce," Vendredi. ( 1 2~ (February 1937). Compare tics and English fa ahions
for men . [88,4J
"One can estimate that, in Harmony. the ch anges in fu hion . .. and the impe rfec::­
tions in manufacturing would occasion an aoouaiiosl of 500 fran cs per pe rson ,
since even the poor eU of H armonian s haa a wardrobe of c10thea for every sea·
SOil . • . • As fa r as clothing and furniture ar e concerned , ... Harmony . . . aims
for infinite variety with the least poslihle consumption .. . . The excellence of the
products of societa ry industry .. . entail perfection (or euch and every manufac'
tured obj ect . so that furniture and clothing ... become eternal. " (Four ic r. ~ cited
ill Arnllmd and Maubhm c, Fourier (Paris , 1937), vol. 2 , pp . 196 , 198. [B8a. 1J
"This tal te for modernity is devel0IJed to such an extent that Baudelaire. like
Balzac, extends it to the most lrifting details of fa shioll and dre88. Both writers
stud y theae thinp in themselves and turn them into moral and philosophical ques­
tion s, for thele thinp repres.ent immediate r eality in iu keenest, most aggreuive,
and perhapa most irritating gW8C. but alao al it is mOlt generally experienced."
[Note: } " Besides, for Ba udelaire . these matters link up with hil important theory
of dandyism, wher e it is a question , precis.ely, of mor ality and modernity." Roger
CaiDoil , " Paris, mythe moderne," Nouveik Revuefra rn;aue, 25, no. 284 (May 1,
1937), p. 692. [B8a,2]
" Sensation al event! The belle, damu , one fine d ay, decide to puff up the derriere.
Quick , by the thousands, hoop factoriea! ... But what is a aim ple refilU!menl on
illustrioul coccyxes? A trumpery, no more. . . . 'Away with the rump! Long live
crinolines! ' And suddenly the civilized world turns to the production of ambula.
tory bells. Why haa the fair sex forgotten the delighu of hand bells? ... It u not
enough to keep one's place; you must make some noise down there. ... The quar.
tier Breda and the Faubour~ Saint-Gennain are rivals in piety, n o leu than in
plasters a nd chignons. They might as well take the church aa their model! At
vespers, the organ and the clergy ta ke tUrDa intoning a verse from the P salms. Tbe
fine ladies wilh their little bells could follow this example, words and tintinnabula_
tion by turna spurring on the conver sation ." A. Blanqui, CrilUJue 'ociale (Paris,
1885), vol. I , pp. 83--84 ("Le Luxe,,).- uLe Luxe" is a polemic against the luxury­
goods industry. (B8a,3]
Each generation experiences the fashions of the one i.mmediatdy preceding it as
the most radical antiaphrodisiac imaginable. In this judgment it is not 50 far off
the mark as might be: supposed. Every fashion is to some extent a bitter satire on
love; in every fashion, perversities are suggested by the most ruthless means.
~v~ry fashion stands in opposition to the organic. Every fashion couples the
livmg body to the inorganic world. To the living, fashion defends the rights of the
corpse. The fetishism that succumbs to the sex appeal of the inorganic is its vital
nervt. (B9,l ]
Where they impinge on the present moment, birth and death-the former
tJu:ough natural circumstances, the latter through social ones-considerably reo
SlOct the field of play for fashion. This State of affairs is properly elucidated
through two parallel circumstances. The first concerns birth, and shows the
nanual engendering of life "overcome" <a'!/gehobem by novelty in the realm of
fashion. The second circumstance concerns death: it appears in fashion as no less
"overcome," and precisely through the sex appeal of the inorganic, which is
something generated by fashion . [B9,2]
~e detailing of feminine beauties so dear to the poetry of the Baroque, a process
~ which each single part is exalted through a trope, secretly Ii.nks up with the
unage of the corpse. This parceling out of feminine beauty into its noteworthy
COnstituents resembles a dissection, and the popular comparisons of bodily pans
to alabaster, snow, prtciow stones, or other (mostly inorganic) foonations makes
the same point. (Such d ismemberment occurs also m Baudelaire : "Lc: Beau
Navirc:.") [B9.3)
Lipps on the somber c~s t of men's clothing: He thinks th at " our general aversion to
bright colors, especiall y in dothillg for men, evinces very clearly a n oft -Doted
peculiarity of our character. Gray is all theor y; green-and not only green but abo
red , yellow, blue--is the golden tree of life.:: In our predilection for the varioul
8 1H~d e8 of gray ... running to black, we find an unmistakable social reAtttion of
our tendency to privilege the theory of the formation of intellect above aU else.
Even the beautiful we ca n no longer just enjoy; rather, ... we must fi rst subject it
to criticism, with the consequence that ... our spiritual life bttomcs ever more
cool and colorless.'" Theodor Lipps, "Ober die Symbolik unserer KJeidung," Nord
und Sud, 33 (Breslau and Berlin, 1885), p . 352 . [B9,4]
Fashions are a collective medicament for the ravages of oblivion. The more short­
lived a period, the more: susceptible it is to fashion. Compare: K2a,3. (B9a,I]
Foeillon on the phantasmagoria of fa shion: " Most often ... it creates hybrid!; it
imposes on the human being the profile of an animal. ... •"ashion thus invents an
artificial humanity which is lIot the passive decoration of a formal environment ,
but that very environment itself. Such a humanity- b y turns her aldic, theatrical,
fantastical , a rchitectural- ta kes, as its ruling pri.nciple , the poetics of ornament,
and what it caUs 'line' ... i8 l)Crhal)s but a subtle compromise between a certain
physiological canon . .. aud imaginative design .'" Henri Focillon , Vre des forme,
(Puris, (934), p. 4 1.:3 [89a,2)
case, the woman would have been the four-footed companion of the man, as the
dog or cat is today. And it seems only a step from this conception to the idea that
the frontal encounter o f the two partners in coitus would have been originally a
kind of perversion; and perhaps it was by way o f this deviance that the " 'oman
would have begun to walk upright. (See note in the essay "Eduard Fuchs: Der
Sammler und d er Historiker.,,)21 [BIO,2]
" It would . . . be interesting to trace the effects exerted by this disllOsition 10
upright posture on the structure and function of the rest of the body. There is no
doubt that aU the particulars of an organic entity are held together in intimate
cohesion, but with the present sta te of our scientifiC knowledge we must maintain
that the extraordinary influences ascribed herewith to sta nding upright canllot in
fact be proved .... No significant repercu88ion can be demonstrated for the "rue·
lure and fun ction of the inner organa, and Herder's hypotheses-according to
which aU force. would react differently in the upright posture, a nd the blood
ltimulate the nerves differently-forfeit aU credibility as 800n as they are r eferred
10 differences manifestly important for behavior." Hermann Lotze, Mikroko,trIo.
(Leipzig, 1858), vol. 2, p . 9O. !S (BIOa,I]
A passage from a cosmetics prospectus, characteristic of the fa shions of the Second
Empire. The manufacturer r ecommends " a cosmetic ... by means of which ladies,
if they 80 desire, can pve their complexion the gloss of rose taffeta ." Cited in
Ludwig Borne, Cesommelte Schnften (Hamburg and Frankfurt am Alain , 1862),
vol. 3, p. 282 (" Die Industrie·AussteUung im Louvre"). (510a,2)

There is hardly another article of dress that can give expressio n to such divergent
erotic tendencies, and that has so much latitude to disguise them, as a woman's
hat. Whereas the meaning of male headgear in its sphere (the political) is strictly
tied to a few rigid pattcrns, the shades of erotic meaning in a wo man's hat are
virtually incalculable. It is not so much the various possibilities of symbolic
reference to the sexual organs that is chieBy of interest here. More surprising is
what a hat can say about the rest of the o utfit. H <elen) Grund has made the
ingenious suggestion that the bOtulet, which is contemporaneous with the crino­
line, actually p rovides men with directions for managing the latter. The wide
brim of the botulet is turned up-thereby demonstrating how the crinoline must
be turned up in order to make sexual access to the woman easier for the man.
[B1O,1)

For the females of the species homo Japims-at the earliest conceivable period o f
its existence-the horizontal positioning of the body must have had the greatest
advantages. It made pregnancy easier for them , as can be deduced from the
back-bracing girdles and trusses to which pregnant women today have recourse.
Proceeding from this consideration, one may perhaps venture to ask : Mightn't
walking erect, in general, have appeared earlier in men than in. women? In that

[Ancient Paris, Catacombs, Demolitions,
Decline of Paris]
Easy die way that leads into Avt:mw.
_Vrrgil'
Even the automobiles have an air of antiquity here.
-Guillaume ApoLIinaire2
How gratings- as allegories-have their place in hell. In the Passage VivielUlC,
sculptures over the main entrance representing allegories of commerce. [CI ,I]
Surrealism was born in an arcade. And under the protection of what muses!
The father of Surrealism was Dada; its mother was an arcade. Dada, when the
twO first mel, was already old. At the cnd of 1919, Aragon and Breton, out of
antipathy to Montpamasse and Mon~, transferred the site of their meet­
ings with friends to a cafe in the Passage de 1'0pera. Construction of the Boule­
vard H aussmaml brought about the demise of the Passage de 1'000ra. Louis
Aragon devoted 135 pages to this arcade; in the sum of these three digits hides
lhe number nine-the number of muses who bestowed their gifts on the new­
born Surrealism. They are named Luna, CoUlltesS Geschwitz, Kate Greenaway,
Mors, Cleo de Merode, Dulcinea, Libido, Baby CaduOl, and Friederike Kemp­
ner. (Instead of Countess Geschwiu: 1ipsc?)3 IC I ,3]
Cashici' as Danuc.
Pallsa nia,. ,1I·o.ilu;C(i his topogra phy of Grt.'ct:tl around ,\ .0. 200. al a lillltl whcll the
"1I1t silo', aluilllllll Y oll,cr JI1OI1I1IlU'nU had bcgullto full into ruin .
rew things in the history of humanity arc as well knO\Vll to us as the history of
Paris. lens of thousands of volumes are dedicated solely to the investigation of
this tiny spot on the earth's surface. Authentic guides to the antiquities of the old
Roman city-Lutetia Parisorum- appear as early as the sixteenth cenrury. The
catalogue of the imperial library, printed during the reign of Napoleon III, con·
tains nearly a hundttd pages under the rubrie "Paris," and this collection is far
from complete. Many of the main thoroughfares have their own special litera·
ture, and we possess written accounts of thousands of the most inconspicuous
houses. In a beautiful nun of phrase, Hugo von Hofmannsthal called <this city)
"a landscape built of pure life." And at work in the attraction it exercises on
people is the kind of beauty that is proper to great landscapes-more precisely, to
volcanic landscapes. Paris is a counterpart in the social order to what 'ksuvius is
in the geographic order: a menacing, hazardous massif, an ever-active hotbed of
revolution. But just as the slopes of Vesuvius, thanks to the layers of lava that
cover them, have been transfonned into paradisal orchards, so the lava of revolu­
tions provides uniquely fertile ground for the blossoming of art, festivity, fashion.
o Fasruon 0 (C I,6]
Balzac has secured the mythic constirution of his world through precise topa­
grapruc contours. Paris is the breeding ground of his mythology-Paris with its
two or three great bankers (Nucingen, du Tillet), Paris with its great physician
H orace Bianchon, with its entrepreneur cesar Birotteau, with its four or five
great cocottes, with its usurer Gobseck, with its sundry advocates and soldiers.
But above all-and ~ see this again and again-it is from the same streets and
comers, the same little rooms and recesses, that the figures of this world step into
the light. What else can this mean but that topography is the ground plan of this
lel ,2] mythic space of tradition <Tradi/ionsraum>, as it is of every such space, and that it
can become indeed its key-just as it was the key to Greece for PawarUas, and
just as the history and siruation of the Paris arcades are to become the key for the
underworld of this century, into which Paris has sunk. [Cl ,7]
To construct the city topograpruca1ly-tenfold and a hundredfold-from out of
its arcades and its gateways, its cemeteries and bordellos, its railroad stations and
its ... , just as formerly it was defined by its churches and its markets. And the
more secret, more deeply embedded figures of the city: murders and rebellions,
the bloody knots in the network of the streets, lairs of love, and conflagrations.
o FJaneur 0 [C l ,S]
Couldn't an exciting film be made from the map of Paris? From the unfolding of
leI ,. ] its various aspects in temporal succession? From the compression of a cenruries­
long movement of streets, boulevards, arcades, and squares into the space of half
an hour? And does the Bineur do anything different? 0 Flineur 0 [Cl ,9]
IC I ,S]
''1'wo 8teps from the Palais-Royal, between thtl Cour des FontaintlS and the Rue
Neuve-d ~.Bons- Enfants , there i, II dark a nd tortuous Little arcade adorned by II
public scribe and a greengrocer. It could resemLie the cave of Cacu8 or or Tro­
phonius, but it could l1t!ve r resemble an arcade--even with soot! will and gu
lighliug." (A]fn:d) Delvau . Le, Denolu de Parit (Paris, 1860), PI" 105-106.
(C h ,l]
One knew of places in ancient G~ece whe~ the way led down into the under­
·world. Our waking existence likewise is a land which, at cenain hidden points,
leads down into the undernrorld-a land full of inconspicuous places from which
dreams arise. All day long, suspecting nothing, we pass them by, but no sooner
has sleep come than we are eagerly groping our way back to lose ourselves in the
dark corridors. By day, the labyrinth of urban dwellings resembles conscious·
ness; the arcades (which are galleries leading into the city's past) issue unre­
marked onto the stret:ts. At night, however, under the tenebrous mass of the
houses, their denser darkness protrudes like a threat, and the nocturnal pedes­
trian hurries past-unless, that is, we have emboldened him to rum into the
narrow lane.
But another system of galleries runs underground through Paris: the Metro,
whe~ at dusk glowing red lights point the way into the undetworld of names.
Combat, Elysee, Georges V, Etienne Marcel, Solferino, Invalides, Vaugirard­
they have all thrown off the hwniliating fetters of street or square, and here in the
lightning·scored, whistle-resounding darkness are transfonned into misshapen
sewer gods, catacomb fairies. This labyrinth harbors in its interior not one but a
dozen blind raging bulls, into whose jaws not one Theban virgin once a year but
thousands of anemic young c:mssmakers and drowsy clerks every morning must
hurl themselves. 0 Street Names 0 H ere, underground, nothing more of the colli·
sion, the intersection, of names-that which aboveground fonus the linguistic
network of the city. He~ each name dwdls alone; hell is its demesne. Amer,
Picon, Dubonnet are guardians of the threshold. (Cla,2)
" Doesn ' t every quartier have il.s true apogee some time before it is full y built up?
At Ihal point it. planet detlcri.bes a curve iii! it draw. near businesses, fir&( the large
and then the small . So long as the street is still somewhat new, it belongs to the.
common IH!Ople ; it gets clear of them only when it is smiled on by fashion. Without
naming price., the interes ted parties dis pute among themselves for the right. to
the small housel and the apartments, but onl y so long as the beautifuJ women , the
ones with the r adia nt degance that ado rnl not only the lalon but the whole house
and eve n the I treet , continue to hold their receptions. And should the lady become
a pedestrian , s ht! will want some s hops. and often the street must pay not a litlle for
acceding 100 quickl y 10 thiH WiHh . Court ya rds are made sDlaUer, and many are
entirely done aWIlY wilh ; Ihe houses draw closer logether. In the eud . there come.
a New Yellr'. Day whcn it is considered bad form to have s uch an address 011 one'.
visiting ca rd . By tllcn t1u~ majority of tenants are businesses only, and the gateways
of the neighborhood no longer have lIIuch to 10ije if now Illld agai n they furnis h
asylulII for one of the slIlaU IradeSIH!Ople whose misera ble 8Ialls have replaced t.hc
s ho p ~ .'· <Charles) Lcfeuve, Le, Anciennes Maitons de Paris 'OIU Na poleon /II
( Parisll lltl Uru s~e18. 1873), vol. I , p . 482.~ D Fashion 0 [C l a,3]
Ie is a sad testimony to the underdeveloped amour-propre of most of the great
European cities that so very few of them-at any rate, none of the German
cities-have anything like the handy, minutely detailed, and durable map that
exists for Paris. I refer to the excellent publication by Taride, with its twenty-two
maps of all the Parisian arro"disstmenlJ and the parks ofBoulogne and Vmcennes.
Whoever has stood on a street comer of a strange city in bad weather and had to
deal with one of tho~ large paper maps- which at every gust swell up like a sail
rip at the edges, and soon are no more than a little heap of dirty colored soa~
with which one tonnents oneself as with the pieces of a puzzle- learns from the
srudy of the PIa" Tande what a city ma p can ~. People whose imagination does
not wake at the perusal of such a ttxt, people who would not rather dream of
their Paris experiences over a map than over photos or travel notes, are beyond
help. [CIa,4]
Paris is built over a system of caverns from which the din of Metro and railroad
mounts to the surface, and in which every passing onmibus or truck sets up a
prolonged echo. And this great tedUlological system of tunnels and thorough­
fares interconnects with the ancicnt vaults, the limestone quarries, the grottoes
and catacombs which, since the early Middle Ages, have time and again ~en
reen te~d and traversed. Even today, for the price of two francs , one can buy a
ticket of admission to this most nocrumaJ Paris, so much less expensive and less
hazardous than the Paris of the upper world. The Middle Ages saw it diffe~ntly.
Sources tell us that there we~ clever persons who now and again, after exacting
a considerable sum and a vow of silcnce, undertook to guide their fellow citizens
underground and show them the Devil in his infernal majesty. A financial ven­
tu~ far less risky for the swindled than for the swindlers : Must not the church
have considered a spurious manifestation of the Devil as tantamount to blas­
phemy? In other ways, too, this subtemmean city had its uses, for those who
knew their way around it. Its streets CUt through the great CUStoms barrier with
whi~ the F~ers General had secured their right to receive duties on impons,
and m the sIXteenth and eighteenth cenruries smuggling operations went on for
the most part bdow ground. we know also that in times of public commotion
mysterious rumors traveled vcry quickly via the catacombs, to say nothing of the
prophetic spirits and fortunctellers duly qualified to pronounce upon thcm. On
the day after Louis XVI Bed Paris, the ~volutionary goverrunent issued bills
ordering a thorough ~arch of these passages. And a few years later a rumor
SUddenly spread through thc population that certain areas of town were about to
-~ ~.I)
1'0 I'ecollstrllct tht! city ulso fro m its jotlfCIine, <s pr ings, wells). "Some streets hllve
preserve!1 these ill IIllmC, although tile most cclehrata l among them , the Puits
d 'Amollr <Well of Love), whidl was located not far from the marktltplace 0 11 th t!
Hue de III Trllauder ie, hllil ht:clI drie!l , fiJl ed up, and smoothed over wit hout a trace
r!'lIIaining. l'lenee, there is hardly an yt hing lefl of the echoing wells ,.,hieh pro­
vided a name for Ihe Hue du Puits-qui- Pllrlt: . or of til t! weUs ,,·hiGh Ille taliller
 Adam-I'Hennitc h ad dug in I.he quartier Saint-Victor. We ha ve known the Rues de
- Pllil8· Malico nseil . du Puil~-de- Fer. du Puita·du-Chs llilre, dll Puils·Certain , du
BOIl-Puiu , and fin ally the Rue dll Puil8, which, after heing the Rue dll Bout-du­
Monde, became the l.mpa88c Saint-Claude-Montmartre. T he marketplace wells,
the buckel-drawn wells. the water carners li Te aU giving way 10 the public weUI,
and our children , who will easily d raw waler even on the top Ooon of the tallest
buildings in Paris. will be amazed that we have preserved for 80 long these primi­
tive meallS of supplying olle of humankind ', most imper ious needs." Maxime <ill
Camp , Paris: Ses orgam!l. se!jonctionIJ et 10 vie (Paris, 1875), vol. 5. 1). 263.
[C' ,')
A different topography, not architectonic but anthropocc=ntric in conception,
could show us all at once, and in its true light, the most muted quarrier: the
isolated fo urteenth ammdis.ument. 1bat, at any rate, is how Jules Janin already
saw it a hundred years ago. If you were hom into that neighborhood, you could
lead the most animated and audacious life without ever having to leave it. For in
it are found , one after another, all the buildings of public misery, o f proletarian
indigence, in unbroken succession : the birthing clinic, the orphanage, the hospi­
tal (the famous Sante), and finally the great Paris jail with its scaffold. At night,
one sees o n the narrow unobtrusive benches-not, of cou rse, the comfortable
ones found in the squares-men stretched out asleep as if in the waiting room of
a way station in the course of this terrible j ourney. [C2,3}
There are arcruteaonic emblems o f commerce: steps lead to the apothecary,
whereas the cigar sh op has taken possession of the comer. The business world
knows to make use o f the threshold. In from of the arcade, the skating rink, the
swimming pool, the railroad platfonn, stands the tutelary of the threshold: a hen
that automatically lays tin eggs containing bonbons. Next to the hen, an autO­
mated fo rruneteller-an apparatus for stamping our names automatically on a
tin band, which fixes our fate to our collar. [C2,4)
In old Paris, there were executions (ror examl)le, by hanging) in the open street .
[C' ,5)
Rodenberg SIH:aks or the "stygian existence" of certain worthless securitie8---8uch
as shares in the Mires fund - which are sold by the "small-time crooks" of tbe
Stock Exchange in th e hOIH: or a " rulure res ur~ tion brought to pass by the day's
market (I uotation,." Julius RodenlH:C!h Pa n.. be; Son nenJchein lind Lampenlicht
(Berlin , 1867), PI" 102- 103. [C2a,1)
Conservative tendency of Parisian life: as late as 1867, an entrepreneur conceived
lhe plan of having fivc hundred sed an chairs circulate throughout the city.
[C2a,2J
Concerning the mythological topography of Paris : the character giv~n it by its
gates. Important is their duality: border gates and triumphal arches. Mystery of
the boundary stone wlUch, although located in the heart of the city, once marked
the point at which it ended.- On the other hand, the Arc de Triomphe, which
today has become a traffic island. Out of the field of experience proper to the
threshold evolved the gateway that transfonns whoever passes under its arch.
The Roman victory arch makes the returning general a conquering hero. (Ab­
surdity o f the relief o n the inner wall of the arch? A classicist misunderstanding?)
IC2a,3]
The gallery that leads to the M o thers 5 is made o f wood. Likewise, in the 1arge­
scale n:novatiorlS of the urban .scene, wood plays a constant though ever­
shifting role: amid the modem traffic, it fashions, in the wooden palings and in
the wooden planking over open sUbStructiOrlS, the image of its rustic prdlistory.
DIron D [C2a,4]
..It is the obscur ely rising dream of northerl y , treet! in a big city-not only Pari"
perhap s, b ut al, o Berlin and the largely unknown London--obscurely rising, in a
rainless twilight that is nOnethele88 damp. The streets grow n arrow a nd the houses
right and lert draw closer to~ether; ultimately it becomes an arcade with grimy
, hop windows , a gallery or glass. To the right and left : Are those dirt y bi81ros, with
waitresse, lurking in black-and-white , ilk blouses? It stink, of cheap wine. Or i, it
the garish vestibule or a bordello? As I ad vance a IittJe further. however, I see on
both sides smaU , ummer-green doon and the rustic window shutten they caU
volets. Sitting there. little old ladies are spinning, and through the windows hy the
somewhat rigid flowering plant , 88 though in a country garden , I see a rair-skinned
yo ung lady in a gracious apartment , and , he sings: 'Someone i, 'pinnin~
silk .... '" Franz Hes,el, manuscript . Compare Strindberg, "The Pilot', Trials ....
[C2a,5]
AI the entrance, a mailbox: last opportunity to make some sign to the world one
is leaving. [C2a,6]
Underground sightseeing in the sewen. Preferred r oute: Ch iltelet- Madeleine.
[C2a.7J
"1'he rui ns of the Church and of the a ristocracy, or reudalism, of the l\liddle Ages,
are sublime-they fill the wide-eyed victo rs of today with admiration . But the
ruins of Ihe bourgeoisie will be a n ignoble detrilu, or pa' ieboard , "laster, and
coloring. ,. (Honore de Balzac and other authors,> Le Diable a I'liru (Paris, 1845),
vol. 2 , p. 18 (Balzac, " Ce qui w sparail de Paris"). 0 CoUector 0 (C2a,8)
... All this, in ou r eyes, is what the arcades are. And they were nothing of all this.
"It is only today, when the pickaxe menaces them, that they have at last become
the true sanauaries o f a cult of the ephemeral, the ghosdy landscape o f damnable
pleasures and professions. Places that yesterday were incomprehensible, and that
tomorrow will never know." Louis Aragon, u Paysan tk Pari; (Paris, 1926),
p. 19.'D CoUeClor O [C2a,9]
 Sudden past of a city: windows lit up in expectation of Christmas shine as though
their lights have been burning since 1880. [C2a,lO)
The dream- it is the earth in which the find is made that testifies to the primal
history of the nineteenth century. 0 Dream 0 [Cl a, ll )
Reasons for the decline of the arcades : widened sidewalks, dectric light, ban on
.~ prostitution, culture of the open air. [C2a, 121
] The rebirth of the archaic drama of the Greeks in the booths of the trade fair.
111e prefect of police allows only dialogue on this stage. "1b.i.s third character is
11 mute, by order of Monsieur the Prefect of Police, who pennits only dialogue in
theaters designated as nonresident." Gerard de Nerval,
aujourd'hui").
u Cabaret dt fa M'm :
$aguet (Paris <1927)), pp. 259- 260 ("Lc Boulevard du Temple autrefois et
[C3, I)
] AI.. the entrance to the arcade, a mailbox: a last opportunity to make some sign to
the world one is leaving. [ca,l )
'" The city is only apparently homogeneous. Even its name takes on a different
sound from one district to the next. Nowhere, unless perhaps in dreams, can the
phenomenon of the boundary be experienced in a more originary way than in
cities. To know them means to understand those lines that, running alongside
railroad crossings and across privately owned lots, within the park and along the
riverbank, function as limits; it means to know these confines, together with the
enclaves of the various districts. As threshold, the boundary stn=tches across
streets; a new precinct begins like a step into the void-as though one had
unexpectedly cleared a low step on a flight of stairs. [ca ,3)
AI.. the entrance to the arcade, to the skating rink, to the pub, to the tennis coon:
proa/eJ. The hen that lays the golden praline-eggs, the machine that stampS our
names on nameplates and the other machine that weighs us (the modem gnathi
;eau/on),' slot machines, the mechanical fortuneteller- these guard the threshold.
They are generally found, it is worth noting, neither on the inside nor ttuly in the
open. They protect and mark the transitions ; and when one seeks out a little
greenery on a Sunday afternoon, one is turning to these mysterious pena/(J as
well. 0 Dream H ouse 0 Love 0 [ca,4)
The despotic terror of the hand bell, the terror that reigns throughout the apart­
ment, derives its force no Jess from the magic of the threshold . Some things shrill
as they are about to cross a threshold. But it is strange how the ringing becomes
melancholy, like a knell, when it heralds departure-as in the Kaiserpanorama,
when it starts up with the slight tremor of the receding image and announces
another to come. 0 Dream H ouse 0 Love a [C3,5]
These galeways-the entrances 10 the arcades-are thresholds. No stone step
serves to mark them . But this marking is accomplished by the expectant poSture
of the handful of people. Tightly measured paces reflect the fact, altogether
unknowingly, that a decision lies ahead. aD rean} H ouse 0 Love 0 [C3 ,6)
Other cour ts of miracles besides the one in the Passage du Caire that is celebra ted
ill Notre-Dame de Pari, <The Hunchback of Notre Dame.) " In the old Pa ris neigh­
Iw rhood of the Ma ra is, on the Rue des Tour neUee, a re the Passage and the Cour
~ I cs Miracles. T here were other cour, des mirack, on the Rue Saint- Denis, the Rue
,III Bac, the nue de Nellilly, the Rue des Coquilles, the Rue de Ia Jussienne, the
Rue Sai nt-Nicaise , a nd the pro montory of Saint-Roch ." <Emile de) Labedolliere
lIiJtoire <cles environs ) du n Olw c au Paris (Paris <l86] ?)), p . 31. [The bihlicai
pU$sages aft er which these courl8 were named : Isaiah 26.~5 and 27 .J [ca,7)
In reference to H au8sma nn 's s uccesses wi th the water s uppl y and the drainage of
Puris: " T he poct8 would say tllat lIau8Smann was inspired more by the divinities
below than by the gods above ." Lucien Dllbech and Pier re d ' Es pezel, lIistoire de
I'a ru ( Pari8, 1926), p . 'US. [C3,S)
Metro. " A great many of the stations have been given ab surd names. T he worst
seems to belong to the one at the corner of the Rue 8reguet and the Rue Saint­
Sabi n , which ul tim ately joined together, in the a bbr eviation ' Un!guet-Sa bin,' the
na me of a wa tchmaker and the name of a saint. " Duhech and d ' Espezcl, lIu toire
cle Pam , p . 463. [C3,9)
\\bod an archaic element in street construction : wooden barricades. [GJ,IO]
June lns urr(!(:tion . " Most of the prisoners were tra nsferred via the qua rries a nd
subter r a nean paS8age8 which are located under the forts of Pa ris, and which are so
extensive Ihat haU the population of the eity could be con tained tbere. T he cold in
these underground cor r idors is 80 intense that many had to run continually or
mo ve Iheir a rms a bout 10 keep from freezing, and no one d aretllo lie down on the
col ~ 1 stones ... . The prisoners gave all the passages na mes of Pari8 streets, and
whenever Ihey met one another, they exchanged add resses." Englander,
<Ceschichte tier fnlllzosuchen Arbeiter-Anociationen (H am burg, ISM)), vol. 2,
pp .3 14-3 15. [C3a,IJ
'"T he Pa ris stone <llIa r ric8 are ull illlerconnecteti. ... 1.11 se"er al places p iUa rs have
heen SCI up so that the roof docs not ca ve in. III other places tile w l1 l1~ have bt.' ell
reinforced . T he ..e Willis fo rm IOllg pa88ages under Ihe eart b , Ijke n arro",' s treeU .
On 8e" cr al of them. at the end , nu mbers have been inscribed to p re"enl wrong
1l1l'1I ~, bill witllollt a guide olle is not ... likely to vcnture into these e x h a u ~ tc tl
Scums of limeslone ... if one docs not wish .. . to ris k Sla rva tiOIl ." -" The legend
according to which olle can scc the s tars by da y from tin: IlIllnela of the Paris
<llI arries"' originated in an old mille shaft " thai was coveretl over on tilt: sur face hy
 II etollc slab in which the re is II s mall hole some six millimetcn in diame te r.
- Through lhill hole, the dayLighl ll hincs into the gloom below like II pule s la r." J . F.
Benzcnberg. Briefe gClIchriebe fl auf eine r Reise noch Pam (Dortmund . 1805),
vol. 1, 1'11 .207-208. (C3a,2]
" A thing which 8oJOked and clacked on the Seine, making the noisc of II 8wunming
dog, we nl and came heneuth the wind ows of the Thileries, from the Pont Royal to
the Pont Louis XV; il was a pi~e of mechanism of no great value, a l o rt of toy, the
d aydream of II visionary. a Utopia- a steamboat . The Parisians looked upon the
usele8B thing with indifference," Victor Hugo, Les Miserable., p art I ,' cited in
Nada r, Quondj'elois photographe (Paris d90(b), p . 280. [eJa,3)
"As if an enchanter or II stage manager, at the first peal of the whistle from the fi rs t
locomotive, gave a signal to aU thiugs to awake and ta ke flight ." Nadar. Quand
j'etais photoS rcll,he (Paris). p. 281 . [C3a,4]
Characteristic is the birth of one of the great documentary works on Paris­
namely, Maxime Du C amp's Paris: &J {JTganeJ, m fanctioru et sa vie dam Ifl
seconde moitie du XIX' siecieJ in six volumes (Paris, 1893-1896). About this book,
the catalogue of a secondhand bookshop says: "It is of great interest for its
documentation. which is as exact as it is minute. Du Camp, in fact, has no t been
averse to trying his hand at all sorts of jobs-performing the role of omnibus
conductor, street sweeper, and sewerman- in order to gather materials for his
book. His tenacity has won him the nickname 'Prefect of the Seine in partibwJ '
and it was not irrelevant to his elevation to the office of senator." Paul Bourget
describes the genesis of the book in his "Discours academique du 13 juin 1895:
a
Successio n Maxime Du Camp" (Antlzologie de l'Acadimie Frallfdue [Paris, 1921J,
vol. 2, pp. 191- 193). In 1862. recounts Bourget, after experiencing problems
with his vision, Du Camp went to see the optician Seaitan, who prescribed a
pair of spectacles for farsightedness . H ere is Du Camp: "Age has gotten to me. I
have not given it a friendly welcome. But I have submitted. I have ordered a
lorgnon and a pair of spectacles." Now Bourget: "The o ptician did not have the
prescribed glasses on hand. H e needed a half hour to prepare them. M. Maxime
Du Camp went out to pass this half hour strolling about the neighborhood. He
found himself on the Pont N euf. .. . It was, for the writer, one of those moments
when a man who is abo ut to leave youth behind thinks of life with a resigned
gravity that leads him to find in all things the image of his own melancholy. The
minor physiological decline which his visit to the optician had just confirmed put
him in mind of what is so quickly forgotten: that law of inevitable destruction
which governs everything human.... Suddenly he began-he, the voyager to the
Oriem, the sojourner through mute and weary wastes where the sand consists of
dust of the dead- to envision a day when this town, too, whose enonnous breath
now filled his senses, would itself be dead, as so many capitals of so many
empires were dead. 111e idea came to him that it would be extraordinarily inter­
esting for us to have an exact and complete picrurc of an Athens. at the time of
Pericles, of a Carthage at the time of Barca, of an Alexandria at the time of the
Ptolemies, of a Rome at the time of the Caesars ... . By o ne of those keen
intuitions with which a magnificent subject fo r a work Hashes before the mind, he
clearly perceived the possibility of writing about Paris this book which the histo­
rians of antiquity had failed to write about their towns. H e regarded anew the
spectacle of the bridge, the Seine, and the quay.... The work of his mature years
had announced itself." It is highly characteristic that the modem administrative­
technical ,",,'Ork on Paris should be inspired by classical history. Compare further,
conceming the decline of Paris, U on Daudet's chapter o n Sam Coeur in his
Paris vicu <Experiences of Paris). LO 1C4]
T he following rema rkahle sentence. from the bravura piece. " Paris souterrain ," in
Nadar's Quand j'etais photographe: " III his history of sewer s, written with the
genial pen of the poet a nd philosopher, Hugo mentions at one point (after a de­
scription that he has made nlOre stirring than a drama) that , in China , not a single
peasant returns home , after selling his vegetables in the city, without bearing the
heavy load of an enormous bucket fi lled with precious fertilizer" (p . 124).
[C4a, I)
Apropos of the gates of Paris: " Until the moment you saw the toll collector appear
between two columns. you could imagine yo urself before the gates of Rome or of
Athens." Bios raphi4! universelk ancienne et moderne. new edition published UD­
der the direction of 1\1. Michaud . vol. 14 (Paris, 1856), p. 321 (article by P. F. L.
Fontaille). [C4a,2]
" In a book by Theophile Gautier, Caprice, et :;igzaSI, I find a curious page. 'A
great danger threatens us,' it says. ' The modem Babylon will not be smashed like
the tower of Lylak; it will not be lost in a sea of as phalt like Pentapolis , or buried
under the sand like Thebes. It will simply be depopulated and r avaged by the rau
of !\Iontfaucon.' Extraordinary vision of a vague but prophetic dreamer! And it
has in essence proven true.... The rau of Montfaucon ... have not endangered
Paris; HaU8Smann 's arts of embellishment have driven them off.... But from the
heights of !\Iontfaucon the proletariat have descended , a nd with gunpowder and
petroleum they have begun the destruction of Pa ris which Ga utier foresaw. " !\lax
Norda u, A/L$ dem wahren i'tfilliurdenlarule: Puriser Srudien urnl Bilder (LeipJlig,
1878), vol. I , pp. 75-76 ("Belleville"). [C4a,3]
In 1899, dur ing work on the M ~ t ro , found ations of a tower of the Bastille were
discovered on the Rue Saint-Antoine. Ca binet des Estampes. lC4a,4)
Halls of wine: "The ....arehouse. which conl in s partly of vaults for the spir its and
partly of wille cellars dug out of stone , forlllS ..., as il were , a cit y in which the
streets bear the names of the most importa nt wine regions of France. " Acht Tage in
Paris (Paris. July 1855), pp. 37-38 . [C4a,51

"The cd lltrs of the Cafe Anglais ... extend quite a distance under 1111: LH,Iulevltrds.
forming the most comJllicl'ted (Iefil es. The management took the truuble to tlivide
the.m into slret:ts .... You hl've the Rue du Bourgogne, the Rue du Bonit:a u" , the
Rue. du Beanne, the Rue de l' Ermitage, the Rue du Chamberlin , the crossroads of
. Tonnel'u" . You cOllie 10 a cool grotto ... rilled with shellfish ... ; it is the
grotto for the willee of Champagne . ... The greal lords of bygone d aye conceived
the idea of dining in their stablet.... Bul if you want to dine in a really e.cCClllriC
fa shion : vivent k s co lJf!s!" Tuile Delord , PariJ-viveur (Pa ris, 1854), I)P' 79-81 ,
83--84. IC4a,6]
" Resl assured Ihal when Hugo saw a beggar on the road , . .. he saw him for what
he is, for wha t he really i, in reality : the a ncient mendicant , the ancient suppli­
ca nt , ... on the ancient road . When he looked at a marble slab on one of our
mantlepil.."(;es , or a cemented brick in one of our modern chimneys, he saw it for
what it is: the stone of the hearth . The ancient hearthstone. Wilen he lookt.-d at a
door to the "reet , and at a doorstep , which is usually of cut stone, he distinguished
clearly 011 this stone the ancient line, ,he sacred threshold, for i, is one and the
same line ," Charles Peguy, Oeuvres compli~tes, 1873-1914: Oeuvres de prose
(Paris, 1916), pp . 388-389 (" Victor-Marie, Comte Hugo" ). [C5, 1)
"The wille shops of tile Fa ubourg Antoine resemble those taverns on Mount
Aventine, above the Sibyl's cave, which communicated with the det:p and sacred
afflatus; taverns whose tables were almost t ripods, and where men dra nk what
Ennius calls ' the sibyWne wine.·.. Victor Hugo, Oeuvres completes, novels, \' 0 1. 8
(Paris, 1881 ), IlP. 55-56 (i.es fttis erabks . pa rt 4). II [CS,2)
"Those who have traveled in Sicily will remember the celebrated convent where,
as a res ult of tbe earth ', capacity for drying and preterving bodiet , the monb at a
cer tain time of year can deck out in their ancient rt'galia aU the ~a ndee, to whom
they have accorded the hospitality of the grave: ministers, popes, cardinals , war­
riors, a nd kings. Placing them in IWO rows within their spacious catacombs, they
allow the Imblic to pau between these rows of skeletons .. . . Well , this Sicilian
cOllvent givcs us an image of our society. Under the pompous garb tha t adorns our
art and liter a ture, 110 hear' beats-there a re only dead men , who gaze at yOIl with
staring eyes, lusterleu and cold , when you ask the century where the inspiration
is , where the arts, where the litera ture:' <Alfred) Nettemenl , Les Ruines 1II0ruks
et j,rtellecwelk5 (Paris, October 1836), p. 32. This may be cOlllpa retl wilh Hugo's
" A l'AI·c de Triomphe" of 1837 . IC5,3)
The last Iwo chaplers of Leo Claretie's Purios depuis ses orig ines jllsqu 'en run 3000
(Pa ris, 1886) arc enlitletl " T ile Uuins of Paris" and "T he Year 3000." The fi rs t
contaills a para phrase of Victor Hugo's verses on Ihe Arc de Triomphe. Tile second
reproduccs I' leclu.re 0 11 the alltiquities of Paris that are prClltlrved ill. the famOlls
" Academie de Floksima ... located in La Cellt! pire. This is a new continent .. .
discovered between Cal)e Horn and the southern territories in the year 2500"
(p.347). IC5.4]
" There was, at the Chitdet de Paris, a broad long cellar. This cellar was eight feet
deep below the level of the Seine. It had neither windows nor ventilators .. . ; men
could enter, but air could not . The cella r had for a ~iLing a stone arch , and for a
Roor. ten inches of mud . . . . Eight feet above the floor, a long massive beam
crossed this vault from side to side; from this beam there hung, at intervals , chains
... and at tbe end of these chains there were iron collars. Men condemned to the
galleys were put into this cellar until the da y of their departure for Toulon . They
were pushed under this timber, where each had his iron swinging in the darknets,
waiting for him... . In order to eat , they had to draw tbeir bread , which was
th rown into the mire, up their leg with their heel, within reach of their band ....
In this hell-sepulcher, what did they do? What can be done in a sepulcher: they
agonized. And what can be done in a hell : they sang.... In this cellar, almost all
the argot songs were born . It is from the dungeon of the Gr and Chatelet de Paris
that the melancholy galley r efrain of Montgomery comes: 'Timaloumisaine, timou­
lamison .' Most of these 80ngs are dreary; some are cheerful." Victor 8ugo,
Oeuvres completes novels, vol . 8 (Paris. 1881 ). IJP. 297- 298 (i.es Miserabks).lt
o Subterranean Paris 0 [CSa,l !
On the theory or thresholds: '''Between th03e who go on foot in Paris and those
who go by carriage, the only difference is the running board,' as a peripatetic
philosopher ha, u id. Ah , the running board ! ... It is the point of departure rrom
one country to another, from misery to luxury, from thoughtleu ne8s to thoughtIuI­
nellS. It ill the hyphen between him who i, nothing and him who is all . The question
is: where to put one', foot." Theophile Gautier, Etudes philosophiques : Paris et ks
Parisien! au XIX' sieck (Paris, 1856), p. 26. [CSa,2)
Slight fOTellhadowing of the Metro in this d escription of model houses of the future :
" The basements , very spacious and well lit , are all connected . forming long galler­
ies which follow the course of the " reet,. Here an underground railroad has been
built-not for human travelers, 10 be l ure , but exclusively for cumbersome mer­
chandise, for wine, wood , coal, and so forth , which it delivers to the interior of the
home . . . . These underground trains acquire a steadily growing importance."
Tony Mollin , Parios en l'an 2000 (paris, 1869), pp. 14-15 ("Maisons-mode:les'"').
IC5a,3]
Fragments from Victor Hugo's ode " A l' Arc de Triomphe" :
"
Alwa ys Parill cries li nd muU eu.
Who ca n tell- unfathomable (IU ell ljolt ­
What would be 10" fro m the univerllal cla mor
On the day lhal Paril fell ll ilent !

III
Silent it will be nonethelesl!-Alter 80 mllDy dawn,.
So many mo nthf and yean_ 80 m a ny played-out « nlurie..
Wh en lhill bank, where the , Iru m breaklll!ain,t the ech oin~ bridges.
b relurn ed 10 the modelll and murmuring reed.;
When the Seine , hall flee th e obstructing I tonel,
Consuming l ome old dome coll.pied into illl depth ••
lleed rul of the sentle breeze thai u n ite to the cloud.
The rul tling of the leavel a nd the 8On! of bird.;
When il , h.1l ftow, at night. pale in lhedarkneM.
Happy. in the drowsing of ils lons,u'ouhled courte.
To Ii l ten al last to the countle.. voice.
Pan ing indillinctly beneath th e atarry Iky;
When thi. city, mad and churlith OUllnen!',
Thai h.,lenl the rate reKrved for iu w.u.,
And, (Urning to dUll under the blow. of its hammer,
Convertl bronte to coinl! and marble to ftaptonet;
When the roo£" the bell., the tortuOUS hiVfll,
Porchel, pedimente, archei fu11 of pride
That make up this city, many. voiced Ind twnu1luous,
Stiftinfll, inextricable, and I« milll to Ihe eye,
When from the wide pllin aU lhe.e thlnp bave pined,
And nothing remains of pyramid Ind plntheon
Bultwo granite tower. built by Charlemagne
And a bronze column raised by Napoleon,
You, Ihen , will complete the sublime triangle!
IV
Thill, arch . yo u wiUloom eternal and inlact
When aJllhal the Seine now mirron in ita surfa ce
Will have vanished for ever,
When oflhat city-the equ I I. yet. of Rome­
Not hing will be lefl except . n .tlfIlfll. an e.pe. a man
Surmounting thn:e . ummi"!
V fl oorboards suspcnded over the aLyn . their colorful fl owered ....·allpapcr still
No . lime takel nothing away from thinp.
More Ihan one portico wrongly vaunted
In il8 protracted metamorpho.e.
Cornel to he.uty in the end .
On the monuments we ~vere
Time casu I IIOmber SI)flU.
Stut ching from fa f,ade to 111!!fl.
Never, though it cracks a nd rul t • •
It the robe which time JI'flf!'ls from them
Worth the one it puts back on .
It is time whochiseu a Voove
In an indigenta n:h.,tone.
Who rllhs hi, knowing thumb
On Ihe corner of a harren marble 8lab ;
h i. he who , in correcting Ihe work,
Introduce. a living . nake
Midsllhe knOb of a vanile hydra.
I think I tee a Cothic roof start laughing
When. from ite a ncient !riue,
Time r emovflS I stone and Jluts in a nest.
VUI
No, everythi ng will be dead. Not hinfll le!t in this camJlIgna
But a vani,hed popuiation .llill around,
But the dull eye o! man and Ihe living eye of God,
But a n arch , and a column. and ther e, in the middle
or thit silvere<l-over river, atill .foam,
A church half·stranded in the mil t.
February 2, 1837.
Victor Hugo. Oeuvre. comple,e• • Poetry, vol. 3 (Pans , 1880), pp. 233-245.
IC6; C6a,lj
Demolition sites: sources for teaching the theory of construction. " Never have
cir cumstances been more favorabl e for this genre of stud y than the epoch we live
in today. During the past twelve yean, a multitude or Luildings--among them,
churches and cloister8--have been demolished down to the first layers or their
foundations ; they have aU provided . . . useful instruction. " Charles-Fran~oil
Viel , De l'lmpuiuunce de. matllematiques pour aUllrer la solidile des batimena
(Paris, 1805), pp . 43-44. (C6a,2]
Demolition sites: "'The high walls, with their bister-colored Lines around the chim­
lIey fiues, reveal , like the crosa-seclion of an architeclUra l p lan , the myster y of
intimate distributions. . . . A cu rious 81)fl(;tac1e, these open houses, with their
Showing the shape ofthe rooms, their staircases Icading 1I0where now, their cellars
0llen to the sky. their bizarre collapsed interiors and battered ruins. It all resenl'
bles, though withou t the gloomy tOile, those uninhabita ble structures wbich Pin·
nesi outlined with such fe\'ensh intensity in his etchings." TheophiJe Ga utier,
Mo.m ique de rllines : Pa ri. e t leI I'liriaien. au XIX' .ieck. by Alexandre Dumas,
Thcophile Gautier. ArseJlc Houssaye, Paul de Mu s~ct , Louis Enault, and 011 Fayl
(Paris, 1856), pp. 38-39. IC7,1]
Condu,.ion of <Louis) !..urine', a rticle "Le, Boulevards": "The boulevard8 will die
of an a neurism: the eXpl08ion of gas ." Pori., chez soi (Paris (1854». p . 62 (allthol­
ogy issllt....1 by Paul 8 oiza nl). [C7,2)
Baudelaire to Poulet-Malu u is on January 8 , 1860, concerlling Meryon : " In olle of
his large "Iates. be 8uhstitutcd for a little balloon a cloud of predatory birds. a nd
when I pointed out to him thai il wu impla usible that 80 many eagles could be
found in a Parisian sky, he answered that it was Dot without a h asis in fact , since
' thoilc men ' (the emperor 's government) had often released caglell to stud y the
presages according to the rites, and tha t this had been r eported in the newspa­
pers--c,'en in Le Moniteur. " 13 Ciled in Gustave Geffr oy, ChMie. Meryon (Pa ril ,
1926), 1)1>, 126- I27. [C1.3)
On the triumphal arc h : " The triumph was aD institution of the Roma n state and
was conditioned on tile l)Ossession of the fi eld-eommander 's right- the right of the
military imperium-which , however, was extinguished on the day of the tri­
umph .... Of the various provisions attaching to the right of triunlph , the m08t
important was tha t the territorial bounds of the city ... were not to be crossed
prematurely. Otherwise the commander would forfeit the rights of the a uspices of
wa r-which held only for operations conducted outside the city- and with them
the claim to triumph .... Every defil ement , all guilt for the murderous battle (and
perhaps originally tltis included the danger posed b y the spirits of t he slain), is
removed from the commander and the arm y; it r emains ... outside the sacred
ga leway. ... Such a conception ma kes it clear ... that the porto triumpllalu was
nothing less than a nlOIlUment for the glorification of victory." Ferdinand Noack ,
Triumph lind Trillmphbogen. Warburg Library Lectures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928),
pp. 150-1 5 1, 154. [C7,4)
"Edga r Poe created a ch ar acter who wanders the streets of capital cities; he called
him the Man of the Cr owd . The restlellsly inquiring engraver is the Man of
Stones . . . . Here we have . . . an ... artist who did not stud y and draw, like
Pira uesi, Ihe remnants of a bygone e:-:istence, yet whose wo rk gives one the 8ensa­
lioll of lHl-rsistent nostalgia .... This is Charles Mer)"on . His work as an engr aver
represents one or the profoundest poems ever written about a city, ami wha t is
trul y origi ual in all these striking pictures is that they seem to lHl- the image, despite
being drawlI directl y from life, of thiugs that are finished , that a re dead or a hout to
die .... This imprcn ion exists independeutiy of the must scrupulous and realistic
reproduction ur subjects choscn by the artist . There was something uf the visioll­
ur y in Meryon. aud he unduubtedly di vined that these rigid alld un yielding form s
were cphcmeral , thlll Ihelle singula r beauties were going the way of all fl esh . lie
li8lcne<1 tu tile language spokcn b y strects and alleys that , since the ea rliest da ys of
the city, were being continually torn "I) and redone; alld that is why his evocative
poetry makes contact with the Middle Ages th rough tile nineteenth-centu ry city,
why il ralli utes cterual nlclallchuly through the vision of immcdiate appcara nces.
" Old Pa ris is gune ( 111.1 human hea rt I changes half su rast as a city's ru c.c). "I I T hese
two tines by Baudelaire could serve as an epigraph tu Meryun '8 entire oeuvre."
Gustave Geffroy, Charies Meryon (Parie, 1926), PI' . 1-3. [C7a,l )
" There is nu need to imagine that the allcient porta triumphom was already an
arched gateway. On the cOlltra ry, since it served an entirely symbulic act , it wuuld
uriginally have been er ected by the simplest of meall8--nameiy, twu posts and. a
straight lintel ." Ferdin and Noack , Triumph lind Trillmphbogen. Warburg Library
Lectures , vul. 5 (L.e..ip:-:ig, 1928), p . 168. [C7a,2)
The march thruugh the triumphal a rch as rite de pauage; "The ma rch of the
troops thruugh the narrow gateway has been compared to a ' rigorous passage
through a narruw opening,' something to which the significance uf a rebirtb at­
taches." Ferdinand Noack , Triumph und Triumphbogen , Warburg Library Lec­
tures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928), p . 153. [C7a,3}
The fantasies of the decline of Paris are a symptom of the fact that teclmology
was not accepted. These visions bespeak the gloomy awareness that along
with the great cities have: evolved the means to raze them to the ground.
[C7a,4)
Nuack mentions " that Scipio's arch uood nut abuve but oppusite the road that
leads up to the Capitol (adver sus viam , (IUa in Capitulium ascenditur).... We
are thus given insight inlo the purely munumental character of these Uructu res,
which are withuut any practical meaning." On the other hand , the cultic sig­
nificance of these structures emerges as clearl y in their relation tu special occa­
SiODS as in their isulation : " And there, where many ... later arches stand-at tbe
beginning and end of the 8l~t, in the vicinity of bridges, at the entrance to the
forum , at the city limit- there was operative for the ... Rumans a conceptiun of
the sacr ed as boundary or th res hold ." Ferdinand Noack , Triumph und Tri­
umphbogcn , Warburg Lihrary Lectures, vol. 5 (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 162 , 169.
[ca, l)
Aprupos of the bicycle: "Actually une should nut deceive oneself about the real
purpose of the fa shion able new mount , which a poet the other day referred to as
the horse of the Apocalypse." L 'lllwtration. June 12 , 1869, cited in Vcndredi,
October 9, 1936 (Louia Cheronllet, "Le Cuin des vieux"). [C8,2)
Concerning the fire that destruyed the hippodrome: "The gossips uf the dislrict see
in this disaster a visitatiun of the wrath of heaven on the guilty spectacle of the
velocipedes." ,.£Gaulois. Octuber 2 (3?). 1869, cited in Vendredi, Octoher 9 , 1936
(Louis Cheronnet , "Le Coin des vieux"). The hippodrume was the site of ladies'
bicycle races. [C8,3]
To elucidate Les Myu erc. de I'(lris a nd simila r wurks, Caillois refers to t.he romon
noir, in particula r The Myllerie. of Udolpho . on accuunt uf the " prel)onder­
ance of vaults and underground passages." Roger Caillois, " Paris, mythe
moderne," Nou velle Revue fraru;ai$e , 25, no. 284 (May I , 1937), p. 686.
IC8,41
"The whole of the rive gauc he. aU the way from the Tour de Nesle to the Tombe
Issoire ... , is nothing but a hatchway leading from the surface to the depths. And
if the modern demolitions reveal the mysteries of the upper world of Paris, per·
haps one day the inhabitantll of the Left Bank will awaken IItartled to discover the
mysteries below." Alexandre Dumas, Le. Mohicam de Porn . vol. 3 (Paris, 1863).
IC8,S}
" Thill intelligence of Blanqui's,. . thill tactic of silence, this politics of the cata­
combs, must have made Barbes hesitate occasionally. as though confronted with
... an unexpected stairway that suddenly gapes and plunges to the cellar in an
unfamiliar house." Gustave GeCfroy, L 'Enferme (Paris, 1926), vol. 1. p . 72.
IC8,' }
<Regis) Mes8ac « in Le " Detective Nove' " et l'influence de fa pemu .cientifique
[Paris, 1929] ,> p . 4 19) quotes fr om Vidocq's Memoire& (chapter 45): " Paris ill a
spot on the globe, but this spot ill a sewer and the emptying point of all sewers ."
[CSa,l }
I.e Panorama (a literary and critical revue appearing five times weekly), in vol­
ume I , number 3 (its last number), February 25, 1840, under the title "Difficult
Qyestions": "Will the universe end tomorrow? Or mwt it---enduring for all
etemity-see the end of our planet? Or will this planet, which has the honor of
bearing u s, outlast all the o ther worlds?" Very characteristic that one could write
this way in a literary revue. (In the first number, "To Our Readers," it is acknowl­
edged , furthennore , that Le PanOTama was founded to make money.) The
founder was the vaud evillian Hippolyte Lucas. (C8a,2)
Saint who each night led back
The entire flock to the fold, dil.igent shepherdess,
When the world and Paris come to the end of their term ,
May you , with a firm step and a light hand ,
Through the last ya rd and the Il8t portal,
Lead back, through the vault and the folding door,
The entire flock to the right hand of the Father.
Charles Peguy, La Tapinene de Sainte-Genevieve, cited in Marcel Raymond . De
Baudelaire au Surreawme (Paris, 1933) , p . 219. 15 [C8a,3}
Di ~ tru 5t of cloisters and clergy duri.ng the Commune: "Even more than with the
incident o( the Rue Picpus, everything possible was done to excite the popular
imagination , thanks to the vaults of Saint-Laurent. To the voice ~f the preu was
added publicizing through images . Etienne Carjat p hotographed the skeletons,
' with the aid of electric light. ' ... After Picpus, after Saint-Laurent, at an interval
of some d ays , the Convent of the & sumption and the Church of Notre-Dame-des­
Victoirell. A wave of madness overtook the capital. Everywhere people thought
they were finding buried vaults and skeletons." Geor ges La ron ze, Il i.$ I.oire de la
Com mune de 1871 (Paris, 1928), p . 370 . [C8a,4}
187 1: " The popular imagination could give itself free reign , and it took every
opportunity to do so. There was n' t ODe civil-service official who did not seek to
expose the method of treachery then in fas hion: the subterranean method . In the
prison of Saint-Lazare, they searched for the underground passage which was said
10 lead (rom the chapel to Argenteuil-that is, to cross two branches of the Seine
and some ten kilometer s as the crow Ries . At Saint-Sulpice, the passage supposedly
abutted the chateau of Versailles." Georges Laronze, Hi.$toire de la Commune de
1871 (Paris , 1928), p . 399. [CSa,S]
"As a matter of fact , men had indeed replaced the prehistoric water. Many centu­
ries after it had withdrawn, they had begun a similar overRowin g. They had
spread themselves in the same hollows, pushed out in the same directions. It was
down there-toward Saint-Merri , the Temple, the Hotel de Ville. toward Les
Hailes, the Cemetery of the Innocents , and the Opera, in the placell where water
had found the greatest difficult y escaping, places which had kept oozing with
infiltrations, with subterranean streams-that men , too, had most completely
saturated the soil. The most densely populated and busiest qltartier! still lay over
what had once been mars h ." Jules Romain" Les Homme. de bonne volonte. book
I , Le 6 octobre (Paris <1932» . p . 191 . hI [C9,l]
Baudelaire and the cemeteries: " Behind the high walls of the houses, toward Mont­
martre, toward Menilmontant, toward Montparnasse. he imagines at dusk the
cemeteries of Paris , these three other cities within the larger one--cities smaller in
appearance than the city of the living, which seems to contain them, but in reality
how much more populous, with their closely packed little compartments a rranged
in tiers under the ground . And in the same places where the crowd circulates
toda y-the Square des Innocents, for example-he evokes the ancient ossuaries ,
now leveled or entirely gone, swallowed up in the sea of time with all the.ir dead ,
like ships that have sunk with aU their crew aboard ." Fra m;:ois Porclle, La Vie
doulo ureuse de Cha rles Baudelaire, in series entitled Le Roman des Grande!
Existences , no. 6 (Paris <1926» , pp. 186- 187. [C9,2}
Parallel passage to the ode on the Arc de Triomphe. Humanity is apostrophized:
As for yo ur cities, Bah-els of Hlonunumls
Where all events clamor aI once,
How 8uhslanlial are they? Arche$, lowers, I'yramid!l­
I would not be surprised if, in its humid incandescence,
The dawn one morning suddenly dissol ved then"
 AloDIl with the d~drOIJ8 o n •• 1It' . nd th yme.
And . 1I yo ur no hle dwellin ll'. m. ny-tiered,
End up II ~ heap. of I ione and grau
Whe re , ill I.he ~ ullli gh t . the l u btl e Ilet'JJe nt hisllel.

Victor I-Iugo, w fin de Salan : Dieu (P ari., 1911 ), liP. 475-476 C'Dieu- L'Ange"').
o
[C9,3] [Boredom, Eternal Return]
Leon Daudet on the view of Paris from Sacre Coeur. " From high up you can see
thi. population of palaces, monuments, houses, and hovels, which seem to have Must the SWl therefon: murder all dreams
gathered in ellpectation of some ca taclysm, or of several cataclysm&-meteorologi_ the pale children of my pleasure grounds?'
cal, perhaps, or social. ... As a lover of hilltop nnctuaries , which never fail to Th~ da~ have grown so still and glowering.
stimulate my mind and nerves with their bracing harsh wind . I have spent houn SatlSfaruon lures me with nebulous visions
on FOllrviereslookjng at Lyons, on Notre-Dame d e la Garde looking at Marseilles, while dread makes away with my salvation:""
on Sacre Coeur looking at Paris . ... And . yes, at a certain moment I heard in as though I wen: about to judge my God.
myseU something like a tocsin , a strange admonition, and I saw thete three mag­ - Jakob van HoddQ l
nificent cities . .. threatened with collapse , with devastation by fire and flood, with
carnage, with rapid erosion , like foresl8 leveled en bloc. At other tinles , I saw them Bon:dom waiu for death.
preyed upon hy a n obscure, subterranean evil, which undermined the monumentl -Johann Ptter HebeF
and neighborhoods , ca llsing entire sections of the proudest homes to crumble ..• .
From the standpoint of these promontories , what appears most clearly is the men­ Waiting is life.
ace. The agglomeration is menacing; the enormous labor is menacing. For man has - VICtOr HuF
need of labor, that is clear, bllt he has other need8 a8 well .... He need8 to isolate
himself and to form groups, to cry out and to r evolt , to regain calm and to sub­
mit . ... Finally, the need for suicide is in him; and in the 80ciety he form8 , it is
stronger than the instinct for seU-preservation. Hence. as one looks out over
Paris , Lyolls. or Marseilles, from the heights of Sacre Cocur, the Fourvieres. or
Notre-Dame de la Garde, what a8l0unds one is that Paris, Lyons, and Marseillet
have endured." Leon Oaudet , Paru uecu , vol. I , Rive droite (Paris <1930), Child with its mo~er in th~ panorama. The panorama is presenting the Battle
pp.220-221. [e9a,! ] of Sedan. The child finds It all very lovely: "Only it's too bad the sky is so
dreary'o"- "That's what the weather is like in war," 'answers the mother. 0 Dio­
",",,,
" In a long !eries of classical writers from Polybius onward , we read of old, re­
nowned cities in which the st.reets have bec:ome lines of empty, crunlbling shells, .Thus:, the panoramas too an:: in fundamental complicity with this world of
wllere the cattle browse in forum and gymnasium , and tile amphitheater is a 80wn trust, this cloud-world : the light of their images breaks as through curtains ofrain.
field , dolted with emergent statues and herms. Rome had in the fifth century of our [Dl ,l ]
era the population of a village, but il8 imperial palaces were still habitable. "
" '1'1 ' P .
Oswald Spengler, Le Deciin de I'Occit/enl <traus. M. Tazerout), vol. 2, pI. I (Paris, . liS arts [of Baudelaire's] is very different from the Paris of Verlaine wllich
1933), p. 151.11 [C9a,2] ~ t sdf hus already faded. The olle is somber and rainy, like a Paris on w~ch the
;olllge of Lyons has been superimposed ; the other is whitish and dusty like a pastel
J)' Uaphuel. One is 8uffocating, whereas the other is airy, with n: w buildings
~:lI ltcr:d ill II wasteland , and , Ilot far away, a gate leading to withered arbors ."
ra ll\,Ols Porche . La Vie dQulourewe de Charles BalUleLaire (Paris, 1926), p. 119.
[Dl ,2]
Them .. rr
r e,: ~arcotwng euect which cosmic forces have on a shallow and brittle
pc sonahty 15 attested in the rdation of such a person [0 one of the highest and
m Ost geniaJ manifestations of these forces : the weather. Nothing is more c.harac.
 terucic than that precisely this most intimate and mysterious affair, the working
of the weather on humans, should have become the theme of their emptiest
chatter. Nothing bores the ordinary man more than the cosm os. H ence, for him,
j the deepest connection between weather and boredom. How fine the ironic
overcoming of this attitude in the story of the splenetic Englishman who wakes
first symptoms of the Revolution <of 1830) had broken o ut. VVhen they came to
prepare the room for the festivities of the young couple, the people in charge
found it as the Revolution had left it. On the ground could be seen traces of the
military banquet-candle ends, broken glasses, champagne corks, trampled
cockades of the Gardes du Corps, and ceremoniaJ ribbons of officers from the

] up onc m oming and shoots himself because it is raining. Or Goethe: how he

managed to illuminate the ",,-eather in his meteorological srudies, so that one is
Aanders regiment." Karl Gutzkow, Briift au; Pam (Leipzig, 1842), vol. 2, p. 87. A
historical scene becomes a component of the panopticon. 0 Diorama 0 Dust and
tempted [Q say he unclenook this work solely in order to be able to integrate even Stifled Perspective 0 [Ola,l ]

f the weather into his waking, creative life. [01 ,3]

Baude.laire 8 S the poet of Spleen de Paris: " One of the central m o tielJ of tlli, poetry
" He explains that the Rue Crange..Bateliere is particularly dusty, that one gets

'" is, in effect . boredom in the fog, ennui and indiscriminate haze (fog of the cities).
terribly grubby in the Rue Reaumur. " Louis Aragon, Le Payson de Paru (Paris.
1926) , p. 88. ' [O l a,2]
In a word , it is spleen." Fram;:ois Porche, La Vie douloltreu.se de Charles Baude·
loire (Paris , 1926), p. 184. [01 ,4] Plush as dust collector. Mystery of dustmotes playing in the sunlight. Dust and
the "best room ." "Shottly after 1840, fully padded furniture appears in France,
In 1903 , in Paris, Emile Tardieu brought out a book entitled L'Ennui, in which all and with it the upholstered style becomes dominant." Max von Bochn, Die Mode
human activity is sho\'lll to be a vain attempt to escape from boredom, but in im XIX. Jahrhundert, vol. 2 (Munich, 1907), p. 13 1. Other arrangements to stir
which, at the same time, everything that was, is, and will be appears as the up dust: the trains of dresses. "The true and proper train has recently come back
inexhaustible nourishment of that feeling. To hear this, you might suppose the into vogue, but in order to avoid the nuisance of having it sweep the streets, the
work to be a mighty monument of uteratuTe-a monument aere perenniUJ in wearer is now provided with a small hook and a string so that she can raise and
honor of the taedium vitae of the Romans.' But it is only the sdf-satis6ed shabby carry the train whenever she goes anywhere." Friedrich Theodor Vtscher, Mode
scholarship of a new H o mais, who reduces all greatness, the heroism of heroes und ..(jnismUJ (Swugan, 1879), p. 12. 0 Dust and Stifled Perspective 0 [Ola,3)
and the asceticism of saints, to documents of his O\'lll spirirually barren, petty­
bourgeois discontent. [01 ,5] The Calerie du Thermometre and the Calerie du Barometre, in the Passage de
(,Opera. [OIa,4]
" When the French went into Italy to maintain the rights of the throne of France
over the duchy of Milan and the kingdom of Naples, they r eturned home quite
A feuilletonist of the 18408, writing on the subject of the Parisian weather, has
amued at the pr ecautions which Italian genius had taken against the excessive
detennined that Corneille spoke only once (in Le CUI) of the stars. and that Racine
heat ; and, in admiration of the arcaded galleries, they strove to imitate them. The
spoke only once of the S UD . He maintains, further, that stars and Rowers were first
r ainy climate of Paris. with its celebrated mud and mire , suggested the pillars,
discovered for literature hy Chateaubriand in America and thence transplanted to
which were a mar vel in the old days. Here, much la ter on, was the impetus for the
Puis. See Victor Mery, "Le Climat de Paris," in Le Diable a Paru <vol. I (Paris,
Place Royale. A strange thing! It was in keeping with the same motifs that, under
1845), p. 245>. [OIa,5)
Napoleon, the Rue de Rivoli , the Rue de Castiglione, a nd the famou s Rue des
Colonnes were constructed." The turban came out of Egypt in this manner as wen .
Concerning some lascivious pictures: " It is no longer the fan that 's the thing, but
Le Diable a Paru (Paris , 1845), vol. 2, pp . 11- 12 (Balzac, " Ce qu.i disparait de
the umbreUa-invention worthy of the epoch of the king's national guard. The
Paris").
umbrella ellcouraging amorous fa ntasies! The umbrella furnishing discreet cover.
How many years separated the war mentioned above from the Na poleonic expe..
The canopy, the roof, over Robinson 's island. " J ohn Crand..Carteret , Le
dition to ltaly? And where is the Rue des Colonnes located?5 [01 ,6]
Decolleleet fe relrou.ue (Paris ( 1910» , vol. 2, p. 56. [Dla,6]
"Rainshowers have given birth to <many> advenrures."· Diminishing magical
"0 Illy here," Chirico once said . " is it possible to paint. The streets have such
power of the rain. M ackintosh. [D1 ,11
gradations of gray.. . ." [D1a,7]
As dust, rain takes its revenge on the arcades.- U nder Louis Philippe, dust settled
even on the revolutions. When the young duc d'O rieans "married the princess of 1'he Parisian atmosphere reminds Caruss of the wa y the Neapolitan coastline looks
MeckJenburg, a great celebration was held at that famous ballroom where the when the sirocco blows. CD I a,8J
 Only someone who has grown up in the hig city can appreciate its rainy weather,
which a1together slyly sets onc dreaming back to early childhood. Rain makes
everything more hidden, makes days not only gray hut unifonn. From morning
j until evening, one can do the: same thing-play chess, read, engage in argu­
ment-whereas sunshine, by contrast, shades the hou rs and discountenances the
] dreamer. The latter, therefore, must get around the days of sun with subter·
fu ges-above all, must rue quite early, like the great idlers, the waterfront loafers
and the vagabonds: the dreamer must be up bd'ore the sun itself. In ~e "Ode ~
i" Blessed Morning," which some yean past he sent to Enuny H enrungs. Ferdi­
nand Hardekopf, the only authentic decadent that Germany has produced,
confides to the dreamer the best precautions to be taken for surmy clays.'
[Ola,9]
""0 give to Ihis dust a semblance of consistency, as by 80aking it in blood .... Loui,
Veuillot , Le, Odeltrs de Paru (Paris. 1914), p. 12. [Ola,10)
Other European cities admit colonnades into their urban perspective, Berlin
setting the style with its city gates. Particularly characte!is:tic is the Ha?e Gate­
unforgettable for me on a blue picture postcard represen~g Belle-~ce ~tz
by night. The card was tranSparent, and when you held It up to the light, all Its
windows were illuminated with the very same glow that came from the full moon
up in the sky. [02, 1]
" The buildings cOllstructed for the new Paris revive aU the styles. The ellsemble it
not lacking in a certai n unit y, however, because all the styles belong to the category
of the tedious-in fact , the mos t tedious of the tedious, which is the emphatic and
the aligned. Line up! Eye,jronr! It seenu that the Amphion orthis city is a corpo­
ral. ... I He moves great quantities of things---ehowy,stately, coloual-and aU of
them are tetlious. He moves other things, extremely ugly; they too are tedious. I
The8e great 8treetl, thesc great quayli, theae great boules , thele great sewen, their
physiognomy l)I)Orly copied or poorly dreamed-aU h ave an indefinable 10me thi ll5
indicative of unexpected and irregular fortune . They exude tedium." Veuillot , Le.
Oc/eur! de Paris <Paril, 1914~, p . 9. 0 Haussmann 0 [02,2]
Pelletan describes a vilit wilh a king of the Stock Exch ange, a multimillionaire:
"As I cntered the courtyard of the house, a squad of grooms in red veets were
occupied in ruh hing down a half dozen English horses. I ascended a marble I lair·
case hung with a giant gilded chandelier, and ellcountered ill the vestibule a major·
domo with white cravat allli plump calves. He led me into a large glass-roofed
galler y whOle walll were decorated entir ely with camelliali alld hotilOuse plants.
Something like l upp resscd boredom lay in the air; at the very first step . ~ou
breathe.l a vapor as of opi um . I then passed between two rows of pcr che8 011 wluch
parak(..'Cts from va rious countrie8 were roosting. They were red , blue, green, gr ay.
yellow. a nti white; but all seemed to s uffer from homesickneu. At the extreme e n.d
of the !;allery stood a Imall table oPpolite a Re.llaislance--style fire place. for at thil
IlOur the master o£ the house took hil breakfa&1. ... After I had waited a quarter
of an hour, he. deigned to appear. . . . He yawned , looked sleepy, and seemed
continually on the point of nuddi n!; off; he walked like a somnambulis t. H is fatigue
had infe<:led the walill of his mansion . The parakeeu stood out like his separate
thoughl$ . each one materialized and attached to a pole .... " 0 Interior 0 <Juliua>
Hodenberg, Paru bei Sonneruchein unci wmpenJichr (Leipzig, 1867), pp . 104­
105. (02,3]
Feles frant;aises, au Puris en miniatur e <French Festivities. or Paril in Mini­
atu re>: IJrOOuced by Rougcmont and Gentil a t the Theatr e del Varietes. The plot
lias to do with the marriage of Napoleon Ito Marie--Louile, and the convcraation,
at this point, concerns the planned fe8tivities. ""Nevertheless," lI&yll one of the
characters. " the weather iii rather uncertain."-Reply: ""My friend , you may r est
assured that this day ia lhe choice of our sovereign ." He then strike8 up a song that
begills:
At his lJiercing glance, doubt not­
The future is revealed;
And when good weather i8 required .
We look to his star.
Cited in Theodore MUTet , L 'Histoire par le theatre, 1789-1851 (Paris, 1865), vol.
I , p. 262. [02,4]
"'This d ull, glib ladness called ennw." Lowl Veuillot , U8 Odeurs de Paris (Paris,
1914), p. 177. [02.5]
""Along with every outfit go a few accessorie8 which show it off to best effect-that
iii to say, which cost loti of money beeaule they are so quickly ruined, in particular
by e,·cry downpour." This apropOI of the top hat. 0 Fuhion 0 F. Th. Viacher,
Ve rniinftige Gedunken iiber di/? j etzige Mode (in Krituche Gange, new leriee. no.
3 (Stuttgart , 1861», p . 124. [02,6]
\~ are bored when we don't know what we are waiting fOT.lbat we do know, OT
think we know, is nearly always the expression of our superficiality or inatten­
tion. Boredom is the threshold to great deeds.-Now, it wou1d be important to
know: What is the dialectical antithesis to boredom? [02,7]
The quite humorous book by Emile Tardieu, L'Ennui (Paris, 1903), whose main
thesis is that life is purposeless and groundless and that all striving after happi­
ness and equanimity is futile, names the weather as one among many factors
Supposedly causing bored om.-lbis work can be considered a son of breviary
for the no,'entieth century. [02.8]
Boredom is a warm gray fabric lined. o n the inside with the most lustrous and
colorfu1 of silks. In this fabric we wrap ourselves when we: dream. \>\t are at

home then in the arabesques of its lining. But the sleeper looks bort:d and gray
- within his sheath. And when he later wakes and wants lO [ell of w hat he
dreamed, he communicates by and large only this boredom. For who would be
j able at one stroke to tum the lining of time to the outside? Yet to narrate dreams
signifies nothing else. And in no other way can onc deal with the arcades-struc­
1 tures in which we relive, as in a dream, the life of our parents and grandparents,
as the embryo in the womb relives the life of animals. Existence in these spaces
Bows then without accent, like the events in dreams. F'linerie is the rhythmics of
!
this slumber. In 1839, a rage for tortoises overcame Paris. One can ",'dl imagine
the elegant set mimicking the pace of this crearurt: mort: easily in the arcades than
II on the boulevards. oFlineur 0 [02a,11
Boredom is always the extema1 surface: of unconscious events. For this reason,
it has appeared to the great dandies as a mark of distinction. Ornament and
boredom. (0231,2]
On the double meaning of the term Irnps'~ in French. [02a,31
Factory lahor as economic infrastructure of the ideological boredom of the up­
per classes. "The miserable routine of endless drudgery and toil in which the
same mechanical process is repeated over and over again is like the labor of
Sisyphus. The burden of labor, like the rock, always keeps falling back on the
worn-out labo rer." Friedrich Engels, Die Lage der arbritrnden K/asse in England
<2nd ed. (Leipzig, 1848) ~, p. 217; cited in Marx, Kapitai (Hamburg, 1922), vol. 1,
p. 388. l! [02a,4]
The feeling of an "inrurable imperfection in the very essence of the present"
(see Les PltJiJirs tiles jours, cited in Gide's homage)12 was perhaps, for Proust, the
main motive for getting to know fashionable society in its innermost recesses,
and it is an underlying motive perhaps for the social gatherings of all human
beings. [02a,5]
On the salons: " All fa ces evinced the unmistakable traces of boredom , a nd conyer·
sations were in general scarce. quiet , and serious. Most of these people viewed
dancing al drudgery. to which you had to submit becaule it was SUPI)osed to be
good fonn to dance." Further on, the proposition that " no other city in Europe,
perhaps, dilplays such a dearth of satisfied . cheerful. lively faces at its soirees as
Paris does in its salons .... Moreover, in no other society so much as in this one,
and by reaSOIl of fashion no lell than real cOllviction, is the unbearable boredom
so roundly lamented." "A natural consequence of this is that social affairs are
marked by silence and r eserve. of a 80rt that at larger galherinp in other citiel
would 01 0&1 certainly be the exception ." Ferdin and von Gall. Paris Iltul seine
Salons, vol. I (Oldenburg, 1844), PI" 151- 153. 158. [02a,6)
The following lines provide an occasion for meditating on tiinepieces in apart­
ments : .. A certain blitheness, a casual and even careless regard for the hun:ying
time, an indifferent expendirure of the all too quickly passing hours-these are
qualities that favor the superficial salo n life," Ferdinand von Gall, Paris und seine
Salotu, vol. 2 (Oldenburg, 1845), p. 171. [02a,71
Boredom of the ceremonial scenes de:picte:d in histo rical paintings, and the: dolce
far nirote of battle scenes with all that dwells in the smoke of gunpowde:r. From
the imagts d'Epi1lai to Manet's E-ctcution 0/ Emperor Maximilian, it is always the
same-and always a new- fata morgana, always the smoke in which Mogreby
<?, or the: genie: from the bottle suddenly emerges before the dreaming, absent­
minded art lover. 0 Dream House, Museums 0'-' (D2a,8)
Chess playen at the Cafe de la Regence: " It was there that clever playe" could be
secn playing with their backs to the chessboard. It WaR enough (or them to hear the
name of the piece moved by their opponent at each turn to be assured ofwiomng."
IlisloirJJ des cafes de Paris (Paris. 1857), p. 87. [02a,9]
" In SUIII , clastic urban a rt , after presenting its masterpieces, fell into decrepitude
at the time of the philosophes and the constructors of Iyatems. The end of the
eightccnth century saw the birth of innumerable projects; the Commiuion of Art·
isu brought them illlo accord with a body of doctrine. and the Empire adapted
them "1thout creative originality. The fl exible and animated classical style waa
succeeded by the systematic and rigid pseudoclauical style.... The Are de Tri·
omphe echoes the gate of Louis XIV; the Vendome column is copied from Rome;
the Church of the Madeleine, the Stock Exchange, the Palais-Bourbon are so
many Greco·Roman temples." Lucien Dubech and Pierre d' Espezel, Histoire ~
Pari., (Paris. 1926). p. 345. 0 Interior 0 [03 ,1)
"The First Empire copied the triumphal arches and monuments of the two clau i·
cal centuries. Then there was a n attempt to revive and reinvent more remote
models: the Second Empire imitated the Renaiuanee. the Cothic, the Pompeian.
After this came an epoch of vulgarity without style." Dubech and d'Espezel, His·
loire de Pari., Waris, 1926), I)' 464. 0 Interior 0 [03,2)
Announcement for a book by Benjamin Gastineau, La Vie en chemin defer <Life
011 the Railroad): " La Vie en chemin de f er is an entr a ll cin~ prose poem. It is an
epic of modern life. alway, fiery and turbulent , a I)anorama of gaiety and tears
Ilassillg before us like the dust of the rails hefore the windows of the coach:' By
LJclljamin Castilleau, Puri., en rose (Pa ris. 1866), p. 4. [03,3)
Rather than pass the time, o ne: mUSt invite it in. To pass the time (to kill time,
expel it): the gambler. Tune: spills from his every pore.-To store time as a
battery stores energy: the 8:ineur. Ftnally, the third type: he who waits. He: takes
ill the time and renders it up in altered fo rm-that of expectation. IO [03,4)
"This recently {Iepollited Iimell ton~th e bed 011 which PMri8 rests-readily crum­
hlcs illto a dll ~ t which, like MUlimestone dust , is very pMinful to the eyes and lungs.
 A little rain doe. nothing at . u to help, aince it i. immedi ately
absorbe d a llli the
l urtace left d ry o nce again .... " He re ia the aource of the unp rel)0!J8C peii. They have had to be exhume d with the help of a hrush .
88ing b leached if not a pickaxe ."
gr ay of the houIes, which a r e a U buill fro m the brittle limesto H. de Pene. Pari&in time (Paris , 1859), p . 320.
ne mined lIt:ar Paris; [03a,5]

J here, too. the oripn o f t he dun-co lored B1ate roof. tha i black
yean, &8 well a8 the high . wide chimne ys which deface even
e n wilh 8 00t over the
the public huild­
"Thc introdu ction of the Macad am ~ys t em for p avi ng the houleva
rds gave rillc to

1 ings •... and which in some districb of t he old city stand 80

they almost block the view entirely ." J . F. Bell ~e nberg. Briefe
einer Reile nach Paru (Dortm und . 1805). vol. 1, pp . 112, Ill .
close togethe r thai
g€achrieben (Ill!
uu nlerOU li caricat ures. Cham shows the Pa risians blinded hy
dus t, aud he pro­
poses to erect ... a statue with the inscript ion : ' In recogni tion of
the grateful oculists and optician s.' Others represe nt IJede8tr
Macada m , from

f [03,5] ians 1II0Uute d on

stilts traver sing mars hes and bogs." Pori&.fO U&la Republ ique de
1848: Expo.fit ion
"Engeb told me that it was in Paria in 1848, at the Cafe de I. Regcne (Ie ItI Biblioth eque et des Tra t)(lUX hi.ftoriq ues de la Ville de Paris
e (one of the (1909) [Poete,
Bea urepair e. Clouzot , Henrio t], p . 25.
'" earliest centers of the Revolut ion of 1789), that Ma rx first laid
ec!ononU c determi nis m of his materia list theory of histor y.
out for him the
" Paul Lafa rgue, "Onl y England could have prod uced d andyism. France is as incapab
[03a,6]

" Personl iche Erinne rungen an Friedri ch E ngels," Die neue
Zeit , 23, no. 2
(Stuttga rt , 1905). p . 558.
[03,6]
Boredo m-as index to particip ation in the sleep of the coUecti
ve. Is this the
reason it seems distingu ished, so that the dandy makes a sh ow
of it? [03,7]
In 1757 ther e were onl y three cafes in Paris. [03., I}
Maxims of Empire p ainting: " The new a rtists accept only ' the
heroic style, the
sublime , ' and the sublime is attained onl y with ' the nude and dra
pery. ' ... Paint­
ers are IUppose d to find their inspira tion in Plutarc h or Homer,
Uvy or Virgil,
a nd , in keeping with David', r ecomme ndation to Gros, are s uppose
d 10 choose ...
'subj ects known to everyon e.' ... Subject s taken from conlem
porary life were,
because of the clothing styles. unwort b y of 'great a rt .'" A. Malet
a nd P. Grillet ,
XIX' &iede ( Paris, 19 19), p . 158. 0 Fashion 0
[03a,2)
" Happy the man who is an observe r ! Boredo m , for him , is
a l'I'ord d evoid of
sense." Victor Fourne l, Ce qu 'on voit dan! leI rue! de Paris ( Paris,
1858) , p . 27 1.
[03a,3]
Boredo m ~gan to ~ experie nced in epidem ic proport ions during
the 18405.
Lamart ine is said to be the first to h ave given express io n to the
malady. It plays a
role in a litde Story abou t the famous comic Debura u. A distingu
ished Paris
neurolo gist was consu1ted one day by a patient whom h e had
not seen before.
The patient compla ined of the typical illness of the times-w earines
s with life,
deep depress ions, boredo m. "There 's no thing wrong with you,"
said the d octor
after a thoroug h examin ation. just try to relax-f ind som ething
to enterta in
you . Go see Debura u som e evening , and life will look differen t
to you." "Ah, dear
sir," answer ed dle patient, "I am Debura u."
[03a.4)
Heturn from the Course ! de la Marche: " The dust cxc(.oede(1 all
expectu tiolili. The
d egant folk hack from the r aces a re virtuall y encrust etl; they remilltl
yo u of Porn-
le of it as its
neighho r is incapah le of anyt hing like our ... liont . who are as
eager to plealle as
the daudiel are d isdainfu l of pleatin g.... D'Orsa y ... was natural
ly and pasllion ­
ately pleasin g to everyone, even to men , wherea s the dandies
plcased only in
displeas ing. . . . Betwee n the lion and the dand y lies an ahy n.
But how much
wider the ahYlis between the dand y and the fop! " Larou8se, ~Gr(lfl
d Diction no ire
uni ~ r.fe/le> du dix-neu v;eme siecle<, vol. 6 (Paris.
1870), p . 63 (article on the
dand y».
[04, 1]
In Ihe second- to-Iast chapter of his book Poru: From Iu Origin&
to th e Year 3000
(Paris, 1886), Leo Claretie spea ks of a crys tal canopy that would
slide over the cily
in case of rain. " In 1987" is the title of this cha pter.
[04,2]
With referenc e to Chodru c-Dudo s : " ~ are haunte d by what
was perhap s the
remains of som e rugged o ld citizen of H erculan eum who, having
escaped &om
his underg round ~d, rerume d to walk again amo ng us, riddled by the thousan
d
furies of the volcano , living in the midst o f death." Mimoiw de
Chodruc-Dudos
,
ro.]. Ango and Edouanl GoWn (Paris, 1843), vol. I , p. 6 (pmace). The
first
Bineur amo ng the dic/a.s;iJ.
[04,3]
The world in which one is bored-" So wha l if onc is bored ! What
inftucnc e can it
possibly ha" e?" " What influence ! . .. What influenc e, boredo m,
with us? But an
enormo us influenc e• ... a decisive influen ce! For eunui, yo u St.'e.
the French man
has a horror verging on venerat ion . Ennui , in his eyes. is a lerrihle
god with a
devoted cult following . It is onl y in the grip of horedo m tll al Ihe French
mall can he
serio us. " Edouar d PaiUcro n , Le Moncle ou I'on .f'ennuie ( 1881 ).
Act I , scene 2; in
'>aillero n , T heatre comple t. vol. 3 (paris <19 1h ), p . 279.
[04,4]
Miclu:.le t ';offers a descrip tion , fu ll of inteUige nce and coml)assion,
of the conditio n
of Ihe fi rs t specialized ractory ...·orker s around I&W. There ....ere
'true heUs of
horedom ' in the s pinlling and weaving mills: ' E ller. eller, ever.
is the ull varying
"'·onl tlullule ring in yo ur ears fro m the automa tic Ctluipm Cllt which
~ h ukes cven
tile floor. One can nevcr get used to it .' Often the remark s of Michele
t (for exam­
ple, 011 reverie and the rh ythms of {lifferen t occupat ionlJ) anticipa
te, 0 11 all ill lui­
 live level, the e xperimentul analyses of modern psychologists. tt Georges Fried. thiij idea; for how call we be ~ure thallhose tribes which we call 'savage' may not in
111111111 . La Crise dll progri!1l ( Pa ri, (1936» , p . 244; quotation from Mic helet . Le fact be the ciisjecf(J membra of greal extinci civilillations? ... It is hardly neces­
Pel/pie (paril>. 1846), p . 83 .1S [04,5] sary to say thai when MOlls ie ur G. s ketches one of his dandies on paper, he never

j Faire droguer, ill the k nsc of fuire attendre. "to keep waiting," belongs to the
(aiJs 10 give him his his torical personality- his legendary penonality, I would
" elltllre to say, if we were nol speaking of the present time and of things ge nerally

] argot oC tbe amlie8 of the Revolution and of the Empire. According to <Ferdinand>
Bnlllol, Iliatoire de 10 lc,"sue/ram;aue, vol. 9, La Revolution et l'Empire (Pans .
cIHlsitiered frivolo us. " Baudelaire, L'Ar' romontiqlle, vol. 3, ed. Hachette ( Pa ris).
pp.94-95. 11 [05,1]
1937) <po 997). [04,6]

f Pn"';! ian Life: "The eonlellll)orary scelle ill preserved, like a lp4!(:imen under glass,
in II leiter of ~ommendation to Melella given by Baron Stanislas de Fraseala to
" his friend Baron Condremarek. The writer, tied to the 'cold country' in which he
live" sighli for the champagne supper! , MeteOa', sky-blue boudoir, the longs. the
glamor of Paris . the gay and glitte ring city. throbbing with warmth a nd life, in
~'hl ch differences of sta tion are abolis hed . Metella reads the le tte r to the strains or
Offenbach 's mus ic, which s urrounds it with a yea rning melancholy, as thou~
Paris were paradise lost , and at the same time with a halo of bliu as though it were
the paradise to come; and . as the action continues, one is given the impression that
the picture given in the leite r is beginning to come to life." S. Kracauer, Jacques
OffenbClch und dos Poru seine r Zeit (Amsterdam, 1937), pp. 348-349.1 ~
[04.,1]
"' Roman ticis m end!! in a theory or boredom, the characte ristically modern 8e.Dti­
ment; that is, it ends in a theory of l)Ower, or at least of energy.... Romanticism,
in effect , marks the recognition by the individual of a bundle of instincts which
society has a strong inte rest in repressing; but, for the most part, it manifeslll the
abdication of the s truggle .. . . The Romantic writer ... turns toward ... a poetry
of refuge and escape. The effort of Balzac and of Baudelaire is exactly the reverse
uf llus and tends to integrate into life the postulates whic h the Romantica were
resigned to wo rking with only on the level of art . ... Their effort is tbuslinked to
the myth according to whic h imagi nation plays an e ver-increasing role in life. tt
Hoger Caillois, " Paris. my the moderne," Nouvelle Revue/ramiaue. 25, no . 284
(May I , 1937), pp. 695,697. [04a,2]
Baudelaire describes lhe impression that the consummate dandy must convey: " A
rich man. perhaps, but more likely an o ut-of-work He rcules!" Baudelaire, L'Art
romolltique ( Paris), p . 96. 19 [05,2]
In the essay on Guys, the crowd appears as the supreme remedy (or boredom:
"'Any man ,' he said Olle d ay, in the course of one of those conversations which he
illumines with burning glance and evocative gesture, 'any man ... who can ye t be
bored in ,he heart 0/ the multitude is a blockhead! A blockhead! And I despise
him !" Baudelaire , L 'Art romantique, p . 6S.zo [05,3]
Among all the subjects first marked out for lyric expression by Baudelaire. one
can ~ put at the forefront: bad weather. [05,4]
As a uributed to a certain " Carlin," the well-known anecdote about Deburau (the
actor affli cted with boredom) forms the pi~e de resistance of the versified Ewge de
l'ertnui <EnconuulII to Boredom>, by Charles Boissiere. of the Philotechnical Soci­
ety (Paris. 1860).-"Carlin" is the name of a breed of dog!; it cornel from the fint
name of an Italia n actor who played Harlequin . [OS,S]
" Monotony feeds o n the new." J ean Vaudal, Le Tableau flair; cited in E. Jaloux,
" L' Esprit des livres ," Nouvelles fitteroires, November 20, 1937. [05,6)
Counterpan to Blanqui's view of the world : the universe is a site of lingering
catastrophes. [05,1]

On L'E/t:TTIi/i par Ie; astm: Blanqui, who, on the threshold of the grave, recog·
1839: " France is bornd" (Lamartine). [04a,3]
nizes the Fan du Taureau as his last piau of captivity, writes this book in order to
opcn new doors in his dungeon. [05a,1]
Butltlclaire in his essay on G uys: " Dandyism is a mysterious institution , no less
peculiar than the duel. It is of great antiquity, Caesar, Catilille, and Alcibiades
On L'E/ernili par Ie; astres: Blanqui yields to bourgeois society. But he's brought
provitling us with dazzling examples; a nd very widespread . Chateaubriand having
to his k.nces with such force that the throne begins to totter. [05a,2]
found it in the forests a nd by the lakes of the New World ." Baudelairn , L'Art
rolllontilille (Paris). p. 91 .17 (04a,4]
On L'Eternili par I~$ as/m: The people of the nineteenth u ntury see the stars
against a sky which is spread out in this text. [05a.3]
Tim GUYBc hapte r in L'A rt romtuuique. 011 dalldieij: " They a re all repre~entatives
... o( Iha l compelling 1It.'etI , ala ~ onl y 100 rare loday. for comhating and destroying
t.rivialit y.... DUlldyism j ij Ihe las l s purk of heroism amid tlecadence; a nd the t ype It may be that the figure of Blanqui surfaces in the "Litanies of Satan": "You who
o( dandy tli3coveretJ hy o ur Iraveler ill North America doe~ nothing to invali~ate give the outlaw that serene and hauglllY look" (~Bauddaire, Ckuure;, ) cd. Le
 Dantec, (VOl. 1 [Paris, 1931],) p. 138).21 In point of fact, Baudelaitt did a drawing
from memory that shows the head ofBlanqui. (05a,4]
J To grasp the significance of nouue4uti, it is necessary to go back to novelty in
1
everyday life. Why does everyone share the newest thing with someone else?
Preswnably, in order to triumph over the dead. This only where there is nothing
really new. (05a,5]
!,. Blanqui's last work, l'Iritten during his last imprisonment, has remained en·
tirely lUlIloticed up to now, so far as I can 5«. It is a cosmological speculation.
Granted it appears, in its opening pages, taSteless and banal. But the awkward
deliberations of the autodidact are merely the prelude to a speculation that only
this revolutionary could develop. ~ may call it theological, insofar as hell is a
subject of theology. In fact, the cosmic vision of the world which Blanqui lays out,
taking his data from the mechanistic natural science of bourgeois society, is an
infernal vision. AI. the same time, it is a complement of the society to which
Bianqui, in his old age, was forced to concede victory. What is so unsettling is
that the presentation is entirely lacking in irony. It is an unconditional surTeIlder,
but it is simultaneously the most terrible indictment of a society that projects this
image of the cosmos-understood as an image of itself-across the heavens.
With its trenchant style, this work displays the most remarkable similarities both
to Baudelaire and to Nietzsche. (Letter ofJanuary 6, 1938, to H orkheimer.):1:2
[DS••6]
From B1anqw'e L 'Etemite por le, MIre,; " Wha t man does not find him8elf 8ome­
times faced with two opposing courses? The one he dec!line8 would make for a far
different life, while leaving him hi8 p articular individuality. One lead8 to mieery.
sh ame, servitude; the other, to glory a nd liberty. Here, a lovely woman and h appi­
ness ; thcre. fury and desolation. I am 8peaking now for both sexe8. Take your
chances or your cboice---it makes no difference. for you will not e8cape yo ur
destin y. But destiny finds no footing in infinity, which knows no altcrnative and
makes room for everything. There exists a world where a man follows the road
that , in the other world , his double did not take. His existence divides in two. a
globe for each ; it bifurcates a 8ccond time, a third time, thOllsallds of times. He
thus possesses fuDy formed doubles with innumerable variants, which , in multi­
plying, always represent him a8 a person but capture onl y fragm ents of his destiny.
All that one might have been in this world , one i8 in anot her. Along with one',
entire existence from birth to death , experienced in a multitude ofplaccs, olle also
lives, in yet other places, ten thousand different vcrsions of it. " Cit(.'(1 in Guslave
Gcffroy, L 'Enfernle (Paris. 1897), p . 399. [06, 1]
From I.he conclusion of L 'Eter-nile par les astre,; " Wltat I write allhis mOJIIClit in
a cell of the Fort flu Taureau I have written aud sha ll write tltroughout all eter ­
nit y- al a tahle, with a pen, clothed as I am now, ill circuJIIstances like thcse."
Ciled in Gustave Geffroy. L 'Enfernle (Paris. 1897). p . 401. Right after·this . Gef­
froy writes: " lie thus inscribes hi8 fal e, at each instant of ils duration , acron t.he
numberless sta r8. His prison cell is multiplied to infinity. Throughout the enUre
. h•.,. the same conftned lIIau thai he is on this earth , ,.';th his rebellious
uJUvene. II
strength and his freedolll of thought ." [D6,2]
f rolll the conclusion of L 'Eternile par les «stres: " At the prC8e nt time, the elltire
life of our planet , from birth to death. with all its crimes and miseries, is being
J
Ii" ed partly here and p artly there, day by d ay, on myriad kindred planets. What [
",'e call 'progress' is confined to each particular world , and vanishes with it. AI·
ways and everywhere in the terrestrial arena . the same drama, the same setting,
on the same !Iarrow slage---a noisy humaui ty infat u ated with its own grandeur,
believing itself to be the univer se and living in its prison as though in 80me im­
r
mense realm , only to founder at an early date along with its globe . which has borne
with tleel)est disdain . the burden of human arrogance. The same monotony, the
same immobility, on other heavenl y bodies. The universe repeats itself endlessly
and paws the ground in place." Citcd in Gustave Geffroy, L'E fI/ernie (Paris,
1891), p. 402 . [D6a,l ]
Blanqui expre88ly emphasizes the 8cientific character of his theses, which would
have nO lhin~ to do with Fourierist frivolities . " One must concede that each par­
ticular combination of materials and people 'is bound to be repeatcd thousands of
times in order to satisfy the demand8 of infinity.'" Cited in Geffroy, L'Enferme
(Paris, 1897) . 1). 400. [D6a,2]
B1amlui'8 misanthropy: "The variation8 l)egLn with those living creatures that
havc a will of their own , or something like caprices. As soon as human beillg, ellter
the scene, imagination enten with them. It is not as though they have much effect
on the planet . . . . T heir turbulent activity never seriou sly disturbs the natural
progre88ion of physical phenomena . though it disrupts humanity. It is therefore
advisable to a nticipate this subversive inftuenee, which ... tean apa rt nations
ami b rings down empires. Certainl y these brutalities run their course without
even scratching the terrestrial surface. The disappea r ance of the disruptors would
leave no trace of their self-styled sovereign presence, and would suffice to re turn
natu re to its virtually unmolesled virginity." B1amlui , L'E ternite <par les (IStres
(Paris , 1872)), pp . 63-64. [06a,3]
Final chapter (8, " Resume") of Bl allllui's L'Eternite par les (I, tres; "The entire
uni\·crse is composcd of astral systcms. To create them , n atu.re has only a hundred
sim,/Ie bodies at its rusposal. Despite the great adva ntagc it d erives from these
resources , and the innumerable combinations that these reso urces affonl its fe­
cundity, thc result is ne<:e88aril y afinire number. like that of the d cments them­
sch ·es ; and in order to fill its expanse, nature must repea t to infinity each of ill
origillal combinations or typ es . I Su cach heavenl y bod y, whatever it might bc,
ex.i8ts ill infinite number in time and sp ace. not olily in olle of ill aspe<:ts b ut a8 it is
al ellch 8e<:ond of its exi8tente. from birth to death. All the beillgs distributed
 ac rou it ~ ~ urfa ce. wllether large or smaU , living or inanimate. share the privilege
of thi ~ perpetuity. I The ea rth i ~ one of these heavenly bodies. Every huma n being
is thus eternal at every seeo",1 of hi.s or her existence. What I write at this moment
j in a cdl of the Fort du Taureau I have written and shaU write throughout aU
eternit y-at a table. with a pen , clothed as I am now. in circumstances like these.
] And thus it is for ever yo ne. I All worlds are engulfed . one after another, in the
revivifyi ng fl ames, to be reborn from them and cons umed by them once more-.
monotonous fl ow of an hourglass that etem ally empties and turns itaelf over. The
j uew ia alwaya oM, aud the old alwaya new. I Yet won ' t those who are intere8led in
.. extraterrC8trial life Bmile at a mathematical deduction which accorda them nOI
onl y immortality but eternity? The number of our doubleB ia infinite in time and
alJau. One cannot in good conscience demand anything more. TheM! doublet! erilt
in flesh and bone--indeed, in troUBenl and jacket , in crinoline and chignon. They
are by no mealls phantollls; they are the present eternalized . I Here. nonetheless,
lies a great drawback : there ia no progress, alas, but merely vulgar revisiona and
reprin18. Such a re the exemplanl, the ostenaible ' original editions,' o( all the
worlds ,)ast and all the worlds to come. Only the chapter on bifurcation. is still
OIJeIl to hOIJe. Let us 1I0t Corget: all that one might have been in thia world, one it
in anotller. I In this world . progress is (or our descendanta alone. They will have
more of a chauce than we did . All the beautiful thingB ever seen on our world have,
oC course, already been seen- are being seen at this instant and will always be
seen- by our descendanta, and by their doubles who have preceded and will (01­
low them . Scions o( a fin er humanity, they have already mocked and reviled our
existence on dead world8, while overtaking and succeeding ua . They continue to
scorn us on the living world8 from which we have disappeared . and their contempt
for us will have no end on the worlds to come. I They and we. and . U the inhabi­
tants of Ollr planet , are reborn prisoners o( the momeot and o( the place to which
dcstin y haa auigned us in the series of Earth's avatara. Our continued life depend.
on that ohhe planet. We are merely phenomena that are ancillary to ita reflurree­
tions. Men of the nineteenth century, the hour of our apparitions is fixed fo~ver,
and always brings U8 back the very 8ame ODCS, or at m08t with a prospect o(
felicitoua varianu . There ia nothing here that will much gratify the yea rni.ng (or
improvement . What to do? I have sought not at aU my pleasure . but only the truth.
Here there is neither revelation nor prophecy, but rather a simple deduction on
t.he basis of s pectra l a nal ysis and Laplacian cosmogony. These two di8coveries
make us eternal. Is it a windfaU? Let li S profit from it. Is it a mystification? Let us
resign ourselves to it . I. . I At bottom , this eternity of the human being among
the star s is a melancholy thing, and this sequestering of kindred worlds by the
inexorable ha rrier oC space is even more sad. So many identical populations pas!
away without 8uspccting one a llother 's existence! But no--this has finally been
di ~eovered, in the nineteenth century. Yet who is inclined to believe it? I Until
now, the past has . for us, meant barharism, whereas the Cuture has signified pro­
gre~ 8. ~ ri e " ct'. hap pincs8, illu sion! This past. on all our counterpa rt worlds. h as
seen the 111081 hrilliant civilililations disappear without leaving a trace. and they will
continue 10 lliJlIIIJIl'ea r without leaving a trace. The future will wit.Aen yet again . on
billiolls of world., the iplOrance, folly, and cruelty of our bygo ne eras! I At the
present time, the entire life of our planet , from birt.h to death. with all ita crimes
and miseries, is heillg lived partly here and partly there. tla y b y d ay, on myriad
kindred planets . What we call 'progr eu' is confinetilO each particular world , and
"anishes with it. Always and e\'cr ywlU!re in the terrestrial a rena , the same drama,
t.he same setting, on the sa llie narrow stag~a noisy humanity infatuated with iu
own grandeur, believing itself to be the univerBe and living in its prison as though
in SOlin: immense rea lm , onl y to (ounder a t an ea rl y d ate along with its pohe, which
has borne with deelM!8t disdain the burden of human a rrogance. The same monot­
ony, the Jlame immobility, on other heavenly bodies . The universe repeats itself
endlessly and (laws the ground ill place. In inflDity, eternit y performs--imper_
turbably- the same routine8." Auguste B1allllui , L 'Eternite par ies (J$tres: Hy­
por/l ~e a5tronomique (P aria. 1872). pp. 73-76. The elided paragraph dweUs on
the "consolation" afforded by the idea that the doublea of 10'·00 ones departed
from Earth are at this very hour keel'ing our own doubles company on a nother
planet. [D7; D7a)
" Let us think this thought in its most terrible form: e,ustence as it is, without
·meaning or aim, yet recurring iuevitably without any fmale into nothingness: the
eterrlal retllm [p o45].... We deny end goals: if existence had one , it would have
to have been reaehed ." Friedrich Nietzsche. Ce$ammelte Werke (Mullich (1926» ,
vol. 18 (Ti, e Will to Power, book I). p. 46 .Z3 [D8,I)
"The doctri.ne of eternal rec urrence would have scholarly presuppositions."
Nietzsche. Ge5ammelte Werke (Munich). vol. 18 (Th e Will to Power, book 1),
1' . 49. ZI [D8,2)
"The old habit , however, of Buociating a goal with every e,·ent ... is 80 powerful
that it ret:luircs an effort for B thinker lIot to CaU into thinking oC the very aimless­
lIess of the world a8 intended . Thi8 notion- that the world intentionally a voids a
goal ...- lIlust occur to all those who would like to force on the world the capacity
for eternCii novelty (p . 369).... The wo rld , as for ce, ma y Dot be thought of 8S
IIl1linuted , for it camlOI be 80 thought of. . . . Thus--the world also lacks the
capacity for eternal novelty. '" Nietzsche. Gesammelte Werke. vol. 19 (Th e WiU to
/)o,,;er, hook 4). 1'. 370. 15 [D8,31
'·The ....orld . . . lives 011 itself: its cxcr emcnts are it~ nourishment. " Nietzsche.
Cesu lllmelte Werke , vol. 19 (Ti,e Will 10 Po wer. book 4), 1'. 37 1.:'; [D8,4)
T he ....orld " witllG!!t gou l, unless the joy of the circle is itst:lf a goal; without will.
unless a rillg fl!i!ls good willluwartl it ~e1f. " NiclzllcI,e. Cesammelte Werl.-e. vol. 19
(Th e Will to I'ower, hook 4), p . 374.2: [D8,5)
On eternltl recurrCllce: " The great tlmught II~ II Metlusa heatl: all fea lure~ of the
""orltl become lIlotjonlesH. II frozen deu ll, throe. -- Frietlrich Nietzsche, GestUFlmelle
if'erke (M unich ( 1925», vol. 14 (Unpllbfislled PCI/Je rs_ 1882-/ 888), p. 188.
!DB ,. ]
 "We have created the weightiest thought- now let '" creote the being for whom it
is light and piell.sillg! " Nietzsche , Ge80 mmelte Werke (Mullich). vol. I" (U'lpub­
lished Poper8. 1882_1888j, p . 179. [08,7J
j Analogy between Engels and Blanqui : each turned to the natural sciences late in
] lifo. (D8,8)
I..
" If the world mlly be thought of as a certain definite qu antity of force a nd a& a
certain defmite number of centers of force--and every other representation re­
mains ... weleu-it follows that, in the great dice game of existence, it must pas8
through a calculable number of combinations. In infinite time, every possible
combination would at some time or another be realized ; more: it would be r ealized
an infinite number of times. And since between every combination and its next
recurrence aU othcr p088ible comhinations would have to take place, ... a circu­
lar movement of ab80lutely identical series is thus demonstrated .... This concep­
tion is not simply a mechanistic conception; for if it were that , it would 1I0t
condition an infinite recurrence of identical cases but a filial slate. Because the
world has not reached this, mechanistic theory must be considered an imperfect
and merely provisional hypo thesis." Nietzsche, Gesammelte Werke (Munich
<1926» , vol. 19 (Th e WiUto Powe,.., book 4) , p. 373.28 [08a, IJ
~ the idea of eternal reCl.llTeIlcc, the historicism of the nineteenth century cap­
SIZes. As a result, every tradition, even the most recent. becomes the legacy of
som~~g that has already run its course in the immemorial night of the ages.
TradilJon hencefonh assumes the character of a phantasmagoria in which primal
history enters the scene in ultramodern get-up. [08a,2J
Nietzsche's remark that the doctrine of eternal recurrence does not cnbrace
mechanism seems to turn the phenomenon of the J>r:rPetuum mobile (for the world
v.'Ould be nothing else, according to his teachings) into an argument against the
mechanistic conception of the world. [08a,3)
On the problem of modernity and antiquity. " The existence that has lost its stabil­
it y and its dir~tion. and the world that has lost its coherence and its significance,
come together in the will of ' the eternal recurrence of the same' as the attempt to
repeat---on the pea k of modernity, in a symbol- tile life which the Greeks lived
within the living cosmos of the vislLle worM ." Karl Lowith. Nietzsches Philosoph ie
lIe,.. ewigen Wiede,..kllnft del Gleichen (Berlin, 1935), p. 83. [08a.4)
i'Eternili par ItJ a.strtJ was written four, at most five , years after Baudelaire's
death (contemporaneo usly with the Paris Commune?) _- This text shows what
the stars are doing in that world from which Baudelaire, with good reason,
excluded them.
(D9,I)
The idea of eternal recurrence conjures the phantasmagoria of happiness from
the misery of the Founders Years?9 This doctrine is an attempt to reconcile the
mutually contradictory tendencies of desire : that of repetition and that of eter­
nity. Such heroism has its .counterpart in the heroism of Baudelaire, who conjures
the phantasmagoria of modernity from the misery of the Second Empire.
(D9,2)
The notion of eternal return appeared at a time when the bourgeoisie no longer
dared count o n the impending development of the system of production which
they had set going. The thought of Zarathustra and of etcrnal recurrence belongs
together with the embroidered motto.seen on pillows: "Only a quarter hour."
(D9,3)
Critiifue of the doctrine of eternal recurrence: "As lIatu ral scientist ... , Nietzsche
is II philosophizing dilettante, and li S founder of a religion he is a ' hybrid of
sickness and wiJI to power '" [preface 10 Ecce Homo] (p. 83).30 " The entire doctrine
thus seems to he nothing other than an expe riment of the human will and an
auempt to eternali%e aUour doings and failings, an athei&tic surrogate for religion.
With this accords the homiletic style and the composition of Zar'athustro , which
dOwn to its tiniest details often imitates the New Testament" (PI). 86--37). Karl
Uiwith, Nietzsches Phiu,sophie de,.. ewig6fl Wiede,..kllnjt des GIeichen (Berlin ,
1935). (D9,4)
There is a handwritten draft in which Caesar instead of ZarathUStra is the bearer
of Nietzsche's tidings (LOwith, p. 73). lOat is of no little momenL It underscores
the fact that Nietzsche had an inkling of his doettine's complicity with imperial·
ISm. [09,5)
Lowith calls Nietzsche's " new divination ... the syntilesis of divination from the
stKrS with divination from nothingness. which is the last verity in the desert of the
freedom of individual capacity" (p. 81 ). [09,6J
From "u s Etoiles" <The Stars>, by Lamartine:
Thus theBe globes of gold . t.heBe islands of light .
Sou gil t instinctively by the dN!aming eye.
Flash up by the thousa nds from fugitive shadow.
Like pillerinfj; dust o n the tncks of night ;
And the hrea th of the evenin g that Riel in il8 wake
Semb them swirling through th e ra diance of s pace.
All th ut we see k- Io \'e. truth .
These fruil' of the sky, full en o n eart h's palate.
TI,rollgh ,)ut yo ur brilliant cli mel we long 10 see­
Nourish fore\'er the children of life;
t\"d o ne day man l>erha l"" hi8 ,le' lin)' fulfilleo.l .
Will reccn'er in )·o u all the thin~ he h a ~ lo~t.
~A lphon 5e de) Lamurtine, OeulJn~s completes , vol. I (Pari,. 1850), PI' . 22 1. 224
( J\MrlitmiOlI8). TJ.ill metlitation c10llell wilh a re\'crie in ....hicl. Lamartine ill pleused
to imagine luntllclf trullsformed into a star a lllong stars. [09a, l]
 From " L' lnfini dana lea cieux" <Il1finity ill the Skiel), by w m artiue:
Man, nonethdeu, Ih at imli8covcrable in&ecl .
C r awling abo ul the ho Uo wBof a n o bsc ure o rb ,
j Ta ke1l the measure of these fier,· pla neu,
As~ignB them th eir place in the heave ns.
] Thinking. wilh handsl hal ca nno t m anage t he co mpass,
To aifl Bu n8 li ke Vains of land.
..f
And Saturn bedimmed by its dista nt ring!
l..amartlne, Oeuvre, complete, (Parit, 1850), pp. 81-82, 82 (Jl armonie, poe,iques
e, relis iel/Je,) . (09a,2]
Dislocation of hell: "And, fmally, what is the place of punishments? All regions of
the universe in a conditio n analogous to that of the eanh, and still worse." Jean
Reynaud, Terre et ciel (Paris, 1854), p. 37Z 1b.is uncommonly faruow book pre­
sents its theologica1 syncretism , its p/lliosophie religieuJe, as the new theology. The
eternity of hell's tonnents is a heresy: "The ancient trilogy of Earth. Sky, and
U nderworld 6nds itself reduced, in the end, to the druidical duality of Eanh and
Sky" (p. xili). !D9.,31
Waiting is, in a sense, the lined interior of boredom. (Hebel: boredom waits for
death.) (09a,4]
" I alway! arrived first. It was my lot to wait for her.... J .-J . Rousseau, Le, Co nfe.­
, iom, ed . HilsulII (Paris( 193 1» , vol. 3, p. 11 5. 31 (09a,5]
First intimation of tbe doctr ine of ett!rnal rt!currence at tbe end of the fourth book
of Diefrohliche Wi.uenschaft : " How. if 80me day or night a demon "'ere to sneak
after you into your loneliest )olleline88 and say to you: 'Tlu8 li£e as you now live it
ulld bave lived it , you will have to live once more a nd innumerable times more; and
there ,.d Ube nothing ne'" in it , but ever y pain and every joy a nd every thought and
sigh and everything immeasurably smaUor great in your life must return to you­
all i..II tht! same succession and Se(lut!lIce--even this spider and this moonlight
between the trees, and e\'ell this 1II0ment a lld I my8eLf. The eternal hourglau of
e:ll:istence is tu r ned over and ovt!r, and yOIl with it , a du ~ t grain of (luHt .' Would you
lIot ... cu rse the dellloll who spoke thus? Or did you once eXl.erience a tremen­
dous moment when YOIl would hU\'e a nsweretl him : ' You a re a god and never bave
I helml lIuything more godly!"'J2 Cilt!d ill Lowith , Niet:ache, 1'l!iwsophie der
ell:igen Wiederkm ift <des Gleichen (Berlin . 1935), p. 57-58. (010, IJ
Blanqui's theory as a ripi titi()1I du mythe-a fundamental example of the primal
history of the nineteenth century. In every century, humanity has to be held back
a grade in school. Sec the basic fomlUlation of the problem of primal hisLOry, of
UrgeJchichte, in N3a,2; also N4,1. [0 10,2)
"Eternal return" is ulefondamentalfoml of the urgeJ(;hichllichen, mythic conscious­
ness. (Mythic because it does not reflect.) (010,3]
L 'Eternite pu. r res u.5tre, should be compared with the spirit of '48, 8!1 it animate8
Heynau<l 's Terre el ciel. With regard to this, Cassou: " On dillcovering his ea rthly
destin)". ma n feels a 80rt of vertigo and callnot at ft rst rec:oncile himself to this
destiny alone. He must link it up to the grea test possible immensit y of tillle alld
space. Only in the contex t of its m08t sweeping bread th will be intoxicate himself
with being, with movement, with progress. Only then can he in aU eonfldence and
ill all dignity pronounce the sublime word8 of J ean Reynaud : ' I have long made a
practice of the universe. '" " We ftnd nothing in the universe tbat cannot serve to
elevate U8, and we a re genuinely elevated only in taking advantage of what the
univer se offers. The sta rs themselves, in their sublime hier a rchy, a rc hut a series
of Stel)S hy which we mount progressively toward infinity." <J ean) Cassou, Quar­
llllte-huit <Pa n s, 1939), pp. 49.48. (0 10,4]
Life within the magic circle of etemal rerum makes for an existence that never
emerges from the auratic. (OlOa,l ]
As life becomes more subject to administrative nonns, people m ust learn to wait
more. Games of chance possess the great charm of freeing people from having to
wait. (O l Oa,2]
The boulevardier (feuilletonist) has to wait, whereupon he really waits. H ugo's
~ Waiting is life" applies firs t of all to him. (O IOa,3]
The essence of the mythica1 event is rerum. Inscribed as a hidden figure in such
events is the futility that furrows the brow of some of the heroic personages of
the underworld (Tantalus, Sisyphus, the Danaides). 'Thinking o nce again the
thought of etemal recurrence in the nineteenth century m akes Nietzsche the
figure in whom a mythic fatality is realized anew. (The hell of eternal damnation
has perhaps impugned the ancient idea of etemal recurrence at its most formida­
ble point, substiruting an eternity of torments for the eternity of a cycle.)
(OlOa,4]
Tbe belief in progress-in an infinite perfectibility understood as an infinite
ethical task- and the representation of etemal rerum are complementary. They
are the indissoluble antinomies in the face of which the dialectica1 conception of
historical tim e must be developed. In this conception, the idea of etenm.l return
appears precisely as that "shallow rationalism" which the belief in progress is
accused of being, willIe faith in progress seem s no less to belong to the mythic
mode of thought than d ocs the idea of eternal return. [0 10a.5)
E
[Haussmannization, Barricade Fighting]
11l(: B.ow~ry realm of dccoratioll.'l,
TIle chann of landsca~, of architecture,
And alIl.hc effect of sttncry rest
Solely on the law of perspective.
- Franz Bohle, '(}uattT·CaltdtiJmlLl, fKkr "'lIlIoristisdlt ErAliiru"l INT­
Kili,t/mn- ufmiWidt im Biill1lmkbm iiblicMr Frmui-.diTt(T (Munkh),
p.74
I venerate the Beautiful, the Good, and all things great;
Beautiful nalUrc:, on which great an resLS-
How it cndlanUi the ear and channs the eye!
I Icrve spring in blossom: women and TO.'ICli.
-OJ,ywioll d'u" lion dC!Kflu lIilU;f (Baron Haussmann, 1888)
11l(: brtathless capitals
Opened thcll1Klves to the carolon.
-Pierre Dupont. u Claant da iludu,niJ (ParU, 1849)
The characteristic and, properly speaking, sole decoration of the Biedenncicr
room "was afforded by the curtains, which-extremdy refined and compounded
preferably from several fabrics of dilTerent colors- were furnished by the uphol.
sterer. For nearly a whole century aftenvard, interior decoration amoWlts, in
theory, to providing instructions to upholsterers for the tasteful arrangement of
draperies." Max von Bodm, Die Mode im X IX. Jahrhundert, vol. 2 (Munich,
1907), p. 130. TIUs is something like the interior's perspective on the window.
[EI, I]
P"I'~ W'cli\' 1I 1 c IJa ractc r of Illc (Ti no linc . ..... ith it;; lIumifo l.1 flOIlIl CC!!. A I leasl fi ve 10
~i" pl'l linlll lS ","' rc wo rnllnJc rllcu lh . {El ,2]
I't·t· p .~ h o ",· r hc to ri(·. pt·r!lpt·c tivul figul't!fI of 51H:ech : "'Inc idc nt a ll y. tile fi gu re of
~rt ·a l ,·! t ,·ff,·d. c mployc.1 by a ll F rcnch om tor'S fro m Iheir pO(IiuIIl8 li nd t ri hunes,
!lo lI'Hl s I'I'clly milc h li kc thi ~: 'T lIt'rl' wus in Ihc Mj.lJle Ages a hoo k which concen·
t ra led the s pirit of thc l imcs as a mirro r COllcclltra tcs the rays of thc sun , a book
""hieh to wered "I' in mllj t'l8l.ic glory 10 the heavell' like II primeval fo rest, a book in
which ... a hook for .....!tich ... flll a Uy, a hook which ... by whic b a nd th rough
which [ the most IOllg. willdt.'tl spt..'C ifica lions foUow] ... a book ... a book ... this
book was th e DilJjfle Comedy.' Lolld appla use." Karl G utzkow, Brie/e aus Puris
(Lei pzig, 1842), vul. 2. Pl'· 151- 152. {EI .3)
Strategic basis for the perspectival articulation of the city. A contemporary seek.
ing to justify the construction of large thoroughfares under Napoleon III speaks
of them as "unfavorable 'to the habitua! tactic of local insurrection.''' Marcel
Poete, Ulle flie de a'ti (Paris, 1925), p. 469. "Open up this area of continual
disturbances." Baron Haussmann, in a memorandum calling for the extension of
the Boulevard de Strasbourg to Chatdet. Emile de Labedolliere, Ie Nouueau
Paro, p. 52. But even earlier than this: "They are paving Paris with wood in
order 10 deprive the Revolution of building materials. Out of wooden blocks
there will ~ no more barricades constructed." Gutzkow, Brieft aUJ Paris, vol. I,
pp. 60-61. What this means can be gathered from the fact that in 1830 there
",etc 6,000 barricades. (E I,4]
" Ill Paris . .. they a re fl eeing the a rcades, 8 0 lo ng in fas hio n , as one flees sta le a ir.
T he a rcades a re d ying. Fro m time to time, o ne of the m is closed, like the !lid
Pa ssage Delorme, where, in the wilderness of the ga Uer y, fe ma le figures of a ta w­
dry an tiquit y used to da nce a lo ng the shopfro nts, as in the scenes from Pompeii
inte r preted by G uerino n B enellt . T he arcade thllt for the Pa ritia n was a 80 rt of
salo n-walk , where YO Il s trolled a nd smo ked and chatted, it now nothing more tha n
a species of refu ge which yo u think of when it r am s. Some of the a rcades ma mta in
a cert ai n a ll raclio n on acco unt of t his or that fa med esta blishment still to be found
there. But it is the tena nt 's renown t ha t prolongs the exciteme nt , or r a the r the
dea th ago n y, of Ihe plncc. The arcades have o ne grea t deft..'C 1 fo r mode r n Pa risia ns:
you could say that , just like certa in paintings do ne fro m stifled perspectives,
a
t hey're in need of air. " Jllies Cla retie, La Vie Pa m, 1895 (Paris, 1896), pp. 47f('
[E I,5]
The radical transfonnation of Paris was carried out under Napoleon III mainly
along the axis ruruung through the Place de la Concorde and the H6td de V ille.
It may be that the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 was a blessing for the architec.
lU.ra1 image of Paris, seeing that Napoleon III had intended to alter whole dis­
tnets of the city. Stahr thus writes, in 1857, that one had to make haste now to see
the old Paris, for "the new ruler, it seems, has a mind to leave but little of it
slanding." (Adolf Stahr, MlChfii,y]ahrm, vol. 1 (O ldenburg, 1857), p. 36.)
[E I,O]
The stifled perspective is plush fo r the eyes. Plush is the material of the age of
Louis Philippe. D Dusl and Rain D [E 1.7]
Regarding "stifled pers pec tives": " ' Yo u can come to the panoroma to do dra wingll
fr om nat ure,' David told his s tude nts." Emile de LahedoWer e, Le iVOll lJeO. U Porn
( Paris), p . 3 1. [£ 1,8]
Among the most im pressive testimonies to the age's unquenchable thirst for
perspectives is the perspective painted on the stage of the opera in the Musee
GrCvin. (This arrangement should be described.) [£1,9)
" Havi ng, as they do , the appeara nce of walling-in a massive e te r nity, Ha uu ­
ma nu's urhan works a re a wholly a ppropria te re presentation of the a bsolute gov­
erning principles of the Empire: rep ressio n of e ve r y individual fo rma tio n, every
or ganic self-de velopmen t, ' fund a me nta l ha tred of all individuality. ,,, J . J. Honeg_
ger, Grunm teine einer a llgemeine n Kulturgeschichte der nel«!lte n Zeit , vol. 5
(Leipzig, 1874), p. 326. But Lou.is PhiliPIJe was alread y known as the Ro i~Ma ~on
<Mason Kin g). [E l a,I)
On the tra n8fonna tio n of the city under Napoleon 11.1 : "The 8ubsoil h al heen
profo undl y dis tur bed by the installa tion of gas mai ns a nd the co nstruction of
sewe rs . . . . Ne ve r befo re in Paris h ave so ma ny buil<ling s upplies been mo ved
a bout , so man y bouses a nd a pa rtment buildings constr uc ted , so ma ny monume ntll
resto red or e rected , so ma n y fa~a de8 dressed with cut sto ne .. . . It was ne<:e88ary
to act qu.ic kly a Dd to ta ke ad va ntage of properties acq ui red a t a ,·er y high cost : a
double s timulus. In Paris, shallow b aseme nts ha ve taken the place of deep cellars,
which requi red excavations a fun sto ry deep . The use of co ncrete a nd cement ,
which was fi rst made possible b y the discove ries of Vica t, has contributed botb to
the reaso na ble cost a nd to the boldness of the&e sub81ructio ns." E . Levasseur.
flistoire del clauel o uvr ;er el el de l'itldw trie en France de 1789 ii 1870, vol. 2
( Paris . 19(4), pp. 528-529 . 0 Arclldes 0 [El a,2]
" Pa ri ~ ,
as we find it in the period following the Re volutiun of 1848, was about to
become uninha bita ble. Its popula tio n h ad been greatly e nla rged a nd unsettled by
the ince u a nt activit)' of the railroad (whose rails e xte nded furthe r eac h day a nd
linketl up wi th those of neighbo ring co un tries) , a nd now t his popula tion was suffo­
ca ting in the na rrow. ta ngled , putrid alleywa ys in which it was forcibly confined ."
~M axi me) 011 Camp, IJa ru • vol. 6 <Paris, 1875), p . 253. [Ela,3)
Ex prupria tio ns umler Ha Ulsma nn . "Certain ba rris ter"! made a s lH!Cialty of this
kind of ca se... . The y defended rea l estate e xpropria tio ns. indus trial expro pr ia­
tiolls, tcn a nt expro priatio ns. sentime nt al e xprop r ia tio n8; they spoke of a roof fo r
fa lhe n! a ud a cr adle fo r in fa nts .... ' I-Iow did yo u ma ke YOllr fortune? ' II par ve nu
....as asked : ' I',·e been expropriated .' ca me t.he response.... A new illlius tr y was
crea ted , ....hich , o n the pre text of taki ng in ha nd tile inte rests of the expropria ted,
did no t shrin k fro m t he hu est fra ud .... It so ught uut sOlan ma nufactllrt!rs a nd
t.."quippcd the m with tleluiled account houks. fal se invcnt ories, a llli fuke merc ha n­
<lise tha t ofte n Was nothi ng mo re t ha n logs wr a pped in paper. It would e ve n pro­
cure gro up8 of c us tome rs to fillt.he sho p o n t he day the j ury made their prescribed
"is it. It fab rica ted lea se~x a ggera tcd . e xte nded , a nlcd a ted--on s hectll of old
pape r bea ring offi cial II ta mps, which it had ma naged to procllre. It wo uld ha ve
stores newl y repainted a nd ~ t a ffed ....ith impro vised cle rks, whom it paid th ree
fra nc8 a day. It was a so rt of mid night gang t.ha t rifled the till of the city govern­
ment. ·' 0 11 Ca mp , Pa ri&. vol. 6, pp . 255-256. [E 18,4]
Engels' c ritique of har ricade tactics : " T he most tha t the insurrectio n caD ac tuall y
impleme nt ill the wily of tactical practice is the correct co ns tructio n lind defe nse of
a single h a rricade." But "eve n in t he clau ic period of I t reet fi ghting, . . . the
ba rricade produced more of a mo ral t han a ma te rial effe<:t. It was a mea ns of
sha king the steadfas tness of the military. If it held o n until this was a ttained , t hen
\'ictor y was WOII ; if not, there was defea t. " Friedrich Engell, Introductio n to Karl
Ma rx, Die Kllusenk iimpfe ira Frarakreicll , 18,UJ-- 1850 (Be rlin , 1895) , pp . 13, 14. L
[El a,5)
. No less retrograde than the tactic of civil war was the ideology of class sttuggie.
Marx on the February Revolution : "In the ideas of the proletarians, ' .. who
confused the finance aristocracy with the bourgeoisie in general; in the imagina­
tion of good old republicans, who denied the very existence of classes or, at most,
admitted them as a result of the constirutional monarchy; in the hypocritical
phrases of the segments of the bourgeoisie up till now excluded from power-in
aU these, the rule 0/ Ihe bourgeoisie was abolished with the introduction of the
republic. All the royalists were transfonned intO republicans, and aU the million­
aires of Paris intO workers. The phrase which corresponded to this imagined
liquidation of class relations was fraim/iii." Karl Marx, Die KitJJJenAAmpje in
Frankreich (Berlin, 1895), p. 29.2 (Ela,6]
I n a ma nifesto in which he proclaims the r ight to wo r k . Lama rtine speaks of
t he " ad ve nt of the industrial Chris t." J ournal del I!!cotlomistel , 10 (1845), p . 2 12 .J
o Indust ry 0 [El a,7]
"T he reco nstructio n of t.he city ... , hy obliging the workers to fmd 10dgiu gII in
outl ying (lrro ndiuemetlts . has dissolve!1 t he hOllds of neighho rhood t ha t pre­
vio us ly united t he m ....it h the ho urgeois ie." Levasseur, Ililloire del cl(luel ou­
vrie res et (Ie l'indw t r ieen Fran ce, vol. 2 (Pa ris, 19{)<h. p . 775. {E2, 1]
" Pa ris is 1II1I8t y allli dose." Louis Vcuillot , l.el OrJe url de P(l r is ( Pa ris. 1914),
p. 14 . [E2,21
)'arks, ~ (lu ar(:8, a nd public gardens fin t ins talled ulllicr Na poleon III. Between
fo rt y a llli fift y we re created . [E2,3)
Co n ~ lruc lion
in the faub(lurg Saint-Antoine: Boulevard Prince Eugene, 'Boule­
vanl Maza., IIml Bou levard Richard Lenoir. as strategic axef. [E2 ,4J
The heightened expression of the dull perspective is what you get in panoramas.
It signifies nothing to their detriment but only illuminates their style when Max
Brod writes: "Interiors of churches, or of palaces o r art galleries, do not make fo r
beautiful panorama images. They come across as Bat, dead, obstructed." <Max.
Brod,) Vb« die Schiinheit ha.uli,h« Bilder (Leipzig, 19 13), p. 63. An acrurnte
descriptio n, except that it is precisely in this way that the panoramas serve the
epoch's will to expression. 0 Dioramas 0 fE2 .5)
011 June 9, 1810 , a t the Theatre de la Rue de Chartres, a play by Barre, Radet,
a ud Desfontaines is given its first performance. Entitled Momieur Durelie!. ou Le.
EmbeUUsement. de Pari•• it presents a series of rapid scenes as in a review, s how­
ing the ch anges wrought iu Pa risia n life by Napoleon J. " An architect who i. the
bearer of one of those sigllificant names formerly in use on the stage, M. Durelief,
has fabricated a miniature Paris, which he illtellds to exhibit. Having labored
thirt y yea rs on this project , he thinks he has fini shed it at lns t ; but suddenly a
'creative epirit ' aplHlars, and proceed s to pmlle and sharpen the work , creating
the need for ince88ant co rrections and addi tions:
Thi, vast and weahh y capital,
Adorned wilh his fine monument"
I \1;«1) Me II. card board model in my room,
And I follow the embelli, hmenls.
But alway. lliud myself in arrears­
By m)' word, it', ~tting desperate:
Even ill miniature, one cannot do
Whallhll.t man doe. full ·Kale.­
Tile play ends with an a potheosis of Marie-Louise. whoSi: portrait the goddess of
the cit y of Pa ris holds , as her loveliest ornament , high above the head, of the
audience. Cited in Theodore Murel, L 'Hutoire par k theatre , 1789- / 851 ( Paris,
1865). "01. I . pp. 253-254. (E2 ,6J
Use of omnibuses to build barricades. The horsee were unha rnessed , the passen­
gers were put (Iff, the vehicle was lllrlled over, and the fl ag was fa stened to an axle_
1'2,71
On the expropriatiulIs: " Before the war, there was talk of demolis hing the Passage
1111 Cu ire ill ortler to pUI a circus on the site. TOIla y there's a shortage o(funds, and
the proprieton (all fort y-four of them) are hard to please, Let 's hope there's a
8110rtage of fUlI(l s for a long I.jllle to come amllile proprietor.!! become s till harde r to
plcalOc. The hilleous ga p of the Bouleva nl l-I au8smalln at the corner of the Rue
Drouot. with all Ihe charming houses it has brought (1(I""n , s hould I;Olllelll u. for
Ihe momcnt :' Paul LCa niaUlI. " Vieu" Parill," Mercure de "'ran ce (Octoher 15,
1927). p . 503. (E2,8J
Haussmann ami the Chamber uf De putie8: "Olle day, in an exceu of lerror, Ihey
accused him of having created a desert in the very ccnter (If Pa ri.!!! Thai de.!!crt wae
t.he Boulevard SCI,aslopol.·' Le Corbu.!!ier, UrbcHl u me ( Pari.!! (1925), I)' 149.~
[[2,91
Very important : " Ha u.!!,manll's ~: qllipmclIl "-iIIu.!!tration8 ill Le Corbusicr. Ur­
bllnisme. p . 150. s Va rious s hovels. picks . ",·heelharrows, and so on. (£2, IOJ
J Illes Ferry, Comptes !ClII/(utiqlle. d 'H(I.lIlSmunn <Paris, 1868). Panlphlet direc::led
against Hau8smann's autocr atic management of finan ces. (£2, 11]
" The ayc nues [l:Iau88mallll] cut were entirely arbi t.rary: Ihey ""ere not b ased 0 11
strict deductions of the sciellce of tOWII 1)lanliing. T he measures he took were of a
financial a nd milita r y ch aracter. " Le Corbusier, Urbflni. me (Paris). p. 250. ~
(E2a, l]
"... the impossibility of obtaining permission to photograph an adorable wax­
. work figure in the Musee Grevin, o n the left, between the hall of modem political
celebrities and the hall at the rear of which, behind a curtain, is shown 'an
evening at the theater': it is a woman fastening her garter in the shadows, and is
the only statue I know of with eyes-the eyes of provocation." Andre Breton,
Nadja (Paris, 1928), pp. 199-200. 7 Very striking fusion of the mo tif of fashion
with that of perspective. 0 Fashion 0 [E2a,2J
To the characterization of this suffocating world of plush belongs the description
of the role of Bowers in interiors. After the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, an
attempt was made at first to return to rococo. But this was hardly feasible. ~e
European situation after the Restoration was the following: "Typically, Cor:n­
thian columns arc: used almost everywhere. . . . This pomp has something
oppressive about it, just as the restless bustle accompanying the city's tranS­
formation robs natives and foreigners alike of hoth breathing space and space for
reBection.... Every stone bears the mark of despotic power, and all the ostenta­
tion makes the atmosphere, in the litera1 sense of the ",'Oros, heavy and close ....
One grows dizzy with this novel display; one chokes and anxiously gasps for
Dreath. The feverish haste with which the work of several centuries is accom ­
plished in a decade weighs on the senses." Die Grem.bolenJournal of politics and
literature « Leipzig,~ 1861), semester 2, vol. 3, pp. 143- 144 ("Die Pamer Kunst·
ausstellung von 1861 und die bildende Kunst des 19 .... Jahrhunderts il~ Frank­
reich"). The author probably Julius Meyer. l"b.ese remarks are allned at
HaUSSmaJUl. 0 Plush 0 (£2a.3J
Remarkable propensity for structures that convey and COlUlect-as, of course,
the arcades do. And this cOlUlccting or mediating function has a literal and spatial
as well as a figurative and stylistic tx:arin g. One thinks, above all, of the way the
Louvre links up with the Tuileries. "111e imperial govenmlent has built practi­
 cally no new independent buildings, aside from barracks. But, then, it has been
all the mo re zealous in completing the lxudy begun and half·finished works o f
previous cenruries .... At first sight, it seems strange that lhe govemment has
mad e it its business to preserve existing monumen ts.... The government, how.
ever, d ocs no t aim to pass over the people like a stonn; it wants to engrave itself
lastingly in their existence .... Let the o ld houses collapse, so long as the old
monuments remain." Die Grenzhott1J (1861 ), semester 2, vol. 3, pp. 139-141
("Die Pariser Kunstausstellung von 1861"). 0 D ream H ouse D [E2a,4]
ConneClion of the railroads 10 Haussnu.lnn's projt!CIS. From a memorandum by
II l1 ullllma nn : ""The railway slations are t!Hlay the principa l entrywa ys into Paris.
To put Ihem in communica tion with the city centcr by mealls of large a rteries is a
IWI:C!ssity of the fi rsl order. " E. de Labedolliere , lli$loire tlu 'IOU Ileall Ptlri.s. I). 32.
This applies in pa rticular 10 the so-caUl..d Boulevard du Centre: the extenliion of
tilt: Boule\'ar<1 de Stras hourg ItJ Chi telel by what is loday the Boulevard Sebas­
lopol. [E2a,5]
,Ol>cninguflh e Boulevard Sebalilopollike the ullveiling of a monument . "At 2:30 in
Ihe IIflC!rn OOn, at Ihe lIIoment Ihe [impcrial] procession was IIpproaching from the
Bouleva rd Saint-Dcnis, an immense scrim , which had mas ked the entrance to the
Boule\'ard de SebaslollOl frOIll this side, was dra....n like a curtain . Thi.ll dra pery
had been hung lH! twcen two Moorish columns, on the pe(les tals of whic h we re
fi gures rcprcsenting the arts, the sciences, indus try, and commerce ." Labedol­
lil~ re , f1is lQire du IIQ1Weflll Paris , p . 32. [E2a,6]
Hausslll;um 's p redilection fo r perspectives, fo r long open vistas, represents an
attempt to d ictate art fonns to techno logy (the techno logy o f city plaruting). nus
ah vays results in kitsch . [E2a,7]
lI a tlss nla un on himself: " Born in Paris, in the old .' auhonrg du Roule, which is
joilwd IIOW 10 the Fa ubourg Saint- Hollore at the I)oint where the Boulevard
II lI lIsilln;ulII ends ami the Aveline d e .' ried land hegins; student at the College
1I t'lIr i IV :11111 the oM LycCe Na poleon , which is situated 011 the Montagne Sainte­
CI·llc\Oii·\'t· . where I lalt'r studie<1 al the law school a nd . at odd 1II0ments, at the
Su duolll w ululthe College de France. I took walks, morcover, through all parts of
Ilw d l y. alltl J was oft en absorl wtl , during my youth . in protracled contemplation
uf a lIl ap uf Ihis many-sitled I~aris . a lIla p which re\'ealed 10 me weaknesseli in the
Iwt wol·k uf ,,!lhlie ~ 1!·t·t· l s. I Despite Illy long reijitlcnce in Ilrc provincC!s ( no less
th:tI\ IWI·nl y-t"'·o years!). I ha"c managetl 10 reta in my lIlC!moricii and impressiolls
uf for mCI' times. so thai . wlrell J was iludtlC!lIl y called UpOII . sOllie da ys ago. 10 direct
III!' Irlll1 sful'llI ation uf IIII' Capil al of IIIC Empire (ovet· which lire Tuileries alld Cil y
11 :111 1I 1'l~ l'urn'lIt ly :11 luggcl'hell lls). I fell myself, in fa ct, lietter pre pared than olle
miglll hll\'l' supposcd hI fulfill this complex mission , alld read y, in an y case. to
('lIler buld ly inlo lite IICIIl't of lite pruhl(·lIIs 11.1 lie re80Ivc{I. " Mcmoircs du Haroll
1If1f1 ss I//(///JI . \'1.11. 2 ( Pllris, 1890), 1'1" 34-35. DClllull81rale.ll ver y ~cll how it is
often dista nce a lollc thai , inle rvening betweell 1'11111 a nd work. ena ble! the plan to
be realized . [E3, l]
How Baron i:laussma nn advllnced upon Ihe drea m city thai Pa ris 81.ill was in 1860 .
From a ll a rticle of 1882: "There wcre hills in ['aris, evcn Ull the UOlllm'ard8....
We lacked waler, markets. liglll in those remote times-scarccly thirl y yea rs ago.
Some ga8 j ets had begun to a plJCar -lhat is all . We lacketl Churcilt.'8, 100, A nUIII­
ber of the more IIncient oncs. including the mOdt lieautiful , were ser ving a8 stores,
bllrrllcks, or offlccs. The othcrs were wholly concealed by a growth of tumbledown
ho\·els. Stm, the Railroads exisled ; each day in Parili they discilargetl torrents of
tra\'elers who cou ld neither lod ge in our houses 1I0r r01l1ll through ollr torluouli
slreets. I . .. He [1IIIussmllllll] demo lislied some (11I<lrtier8--olle might say, entire
tOWIIS. There were erie8 that he would bring on Ihe plague; he toler ated .IIuch
outcries and gave us inslead- through hili well-collsidered a rchitectural b reak­
Ihroughs--air, health , and Life. Sometimes it was a Streel that he created , .IIome­
limes an Avenue or Bouleva rd ; sometimes it was a Square, II Public Garden , a
IJromenade. He e.lltllliLished Hospita ls, Schools, Campuses. He ga ve us a whole
ri,'er. !-Ie dug magnificent 8ewers. " fttemoire$ tll/Haron HUllumwlll , vol. 2 (Paris,
1890), pp. x, ri o Extracts from an article by Jule8 SimOIl ill Le Gaillois. May 1882.
The nUlller:ous capital letters a ppear to be a characteris tic orthogra phic interven­
tion by Hau8smanll . (£3,2]
From a conve rsation , later on , between Na poleon III alld Haussmann. Napoleon :
-'How r ight you are to maint ain thai the People of France, who li re generall y
thought so fickle, are at bOIlOIll the most routinc people ill the world! " " Ye8, Sire,
though I would add : with regard to things! . . . I myself am charged wilh the
double offense of ha ving undul y diSlurhed the Population of Parili by boulever­
sanl , by ' boulevardi7.ing,' almost aLI the quartiers of the cit y. and of having al­
lowed it 10 keeplhe u me "rome in the same setting for too long." Memoire8 du
Haron Ha w s mann, vol. 2 ( Pa ris. 1890), I~ I) ' 18-19 , <Compare E9 , 1.~ (£3,3]
FrOIll a discussion between Napoleon III and HauSSlllann 011 the lalter's ass uming
his duties in Pa rill. Hauu mann : " I would add thai , although Ihe FH>pulatioll of
Pa ris as a whole was liympathetic to the plans for the tra nsformation--or, as it wll8
called then , Ihe 'emhelLisluuent '--of the Capitlll of the Empire. the gr eater pal'l of
the liourgeoisie and alm051 all Ihe a ristocracy were hostile:' ",III)' Ihough?
Memoire$ flu B(lrOIi H(lUu rtltllln, vol. 2 ( Paris, 1890), p . 52. {E3.4]
" 1 left Munidl 011 t.he sixth of Fe bru ar y. spelll len Ila ys ill IIrchil'e8 ill northerll
h aly, and a rri\'cd ill HOllie limier a pouring rain . i found Ihe l1 utt SSmlt llllizatioll of
Ille cit y wellllli vancell. " Bri('f e 11011 Fenlilll/1l(/ Grcgoro vil/ .~ rm tlell S /(lIIl ssekreliir
I-Ierm(lntl von 1'1,iie . cd . Ilermlllln "on r~c l c rs ll o rff ( Be rli" , 1894), p . 110.
[E3 .5J
Nicknallle for l-Ia ll8slllanll : " I'a8ha Ollllla n. " He himself Illukes the commenl , wil h
reference to hill IITOVidillg the cily with spring waler : " I mUlit build myself all
 aqlll.llluct." Another hon mot : " My t.itlcs? I have been luuned artist-d cmoli­
lionist. .•
(E3,6(
" In 1864. Ildcnding the arhitrary cha racter of the city's government . [ lIau88­
m81111J IHlopled a tone of ra re boldness. ' ''' or its inhabitants, 11aris is either a great
marketplace of consumption . a giant stockyard of labor, a n arena of ambitions, or
simply a re ntlCillvoUS of pleasures. It is not their home ... .' Then the statement
tha t polemicists wi U a ttach to his reputation like a stone: ' If there are a great many
who come to find an honorable situ ation in the city, ... there are also others,
\'eritable nomads in the midst of Parisian society, who are absolutely destitute of
municipal lIentimcnt .' And , recalling that ever ything-railroads, administrative
networks, bru nches of n ational activi t y~ ve ntually leads to Paris, he concluded :
' It is thus not surprisiug that in France, country of aggregation and of order, the
Cal)i tal almost always has heen placed, ",ith rega rd to its communal organintion ,
.
tlllt Ier an emergency regime. ,., GCOr ges La ronze, Le Baron Ilauumann (Paris,
1932), pp . 172- 173. Speech of November 28, 1864. (E3a,l ]
Political ca rtoons represented " Pa ris as bounded b y the wharves of the English
Cha nnel and those ufthe south of France, by the highways of the Rhine vaUey and
of Spain ; or, according to Cham , a8 the city which gets for Christmas the houses in
the suburhs! ... One ca ricature shows the Rue de Rivoli stretching to the hori­
zon ." Gt."Orges Laro rl ze .l...e Baron lIau.nmann (Paris, 1932) , Pl'. 148- 149.
(E3.,,]
,
" New arteries ... woulcllink the center of Paris with the railroad stations, reduc­
ing congestion in the latter. Othen would take part in the battle against povert y
a nd revolution; they wo uld be stra tegic routes, breaking through the sources of
contagion and the cenlel"ll of unrest , a nd lH!rmiUing, with the inOu,; of beuer air,
th e arriva l of an armed force, hence connecting, like the Rue d e Tur bigo, the
!O\'ernment with the barracks. and , like the Bou1evard du Prince-Eugene, the
ba rracks with the suburbs." Georges Laronze, Le Baron Haun mann , PI" 137­
1m. (E3a~
" An ind cpendent deput y, the comte de Durfort-Civrac, ... objected that these
lIew houlevartls. which were supposed to aid ill rep ressing disturbances, would
1I 1 ~ 0 mllke thcm more likely heca use, in order to construct them, it was neceasary
to as!;cmhle n muss of wOI'kers.'· Gcorges Larollze, Le l1aron J/cmnmflml, p . 133.
[E3a,4)
lI u ll s~ m a llll c.·lchrnte>! tile birlhd ay--or name Ila y (April 5)?--of Na poleoll III .
" Hunn ing the leugt h of the Chumps-Elysees, from tim Place de 11.1 Conconle to the
": toilc. then' was a 8CllllolH!d border of 12·1 sculpted arcades reposing on a tlouhle
row of columns. ·It is a reminiSl"ence; Le Corutitllfion1lel sought to ex plai n, ' of
Cordova a nti t.he Alhamhra .· ... T he visual effect was thus very striking, with the
swirling hra n c h e~ of the fift y.six great streetlights alollg the ave nue, the reOec tions
from the surfaces helow, and the fli ckering of flames (rom Ihe five hundred thou­
sand j ets of gas." Geor ges LarOI1 ~e, IAt 1101"011 Ilall-umlUlrl , p . 11 9. 0 F1iineur 0
[E3a,5)
On U aussma nn : " Paris now ccasetl forever to be a conglomeration of small towns.
each "'ith its distinctive physiogllomy and wa y of life--where one was horn and
where one died, where one ne\'er dreamed of leaving home, and where nature a nd
histor y had collaborated to realize variety in unit y. The centralization , the mega­
lomania , cr eated an a rtificial city, in which the Parisian (and this is the crucial
point) no longer feels at home; and so, a8 800n as he can , lIe leaves. And thus a new
need arises: the craving for holidays in the countr y. On the other h and , in the city
deserted by itll inhabitant.s, the foreigner arrives on a specified date--the start of
' the season .' The Parisian , in hiB own lown , which has become a cosmopolitan
crossroads, now seems like one deracinated ." Lucien Dubech and Pierre
d ' Espezel , <Hu toire de Paru (Pa ris, 1926),) PI' . 427-428. [E3a,6]
" 1\.10st of the time, it was necessa r y to resort to a jury of expropriations. Its mem­
bers , cavilers from birth , adver saries on principle, showed themselves generous
with fund s whi.c h , as they supposed , cost them nothing and from which each was
hoping one da y to benefit . In a single session where the city might offer a million
and a haU, the jury would dema nd from it near ly three million . The beautiful field
of speculation! Who wouldn ' t want to do his part? There were barrister s specializ­
ing in the mailer ; there were agencies guara nteeing (in return for a commission) a
serious profit; there were operations for simulating a lease or a commercial trans­
ac tion , and for doctoring account books." Georges Laronze, Le Baron Haws­
mann (Paris , 1932), pp . 190- 19 1. [E4,I)
From the Lamentationl raised against Ha uas mann : " You will live to see the city
grown desolate and bleak. I Your glory will be great in the eyes of future archae­
ologists. but your last da ys will be sud and biller. I . .. I Anti the heart of the city
will slowl y freeze. I ... , Lizards. stray dogs. and rats will rule over this mag·
nificence. The injuries inflicted b y I.ime will accumulate on the gold of the balco­
nies, and on the painted murals. I .... I And lonelineas, the tedious goddess of
desertll, ",ill come and seltle upon this new empire you will have made for her by so
fo rmidable a labor." Pori.! ciesert : I..{mlelltation.! cl 'un }eremic hawlmannue
« Paris, 18(8), PI' . 7-8). [£4,2)
"The problem of the emhellishment---(lr. more precisely. of tile r cgencration--(Jf
Paris arose ahoul 1852 . Until then . it Il ad bt.'Cn possible to leave this great cilY in
ils state of dilapidation . but no",' it bCi:ame lIeeeasa ry to dea l with the matter. This
was because, by a forluitous coincidellce, Frallce and the countries around it were
eonlpleting the construction of those long lines of r ailroad tracks which crisscross
Europe." Pa ril 1IouIJcaujuse I)ar Imjlancllr (Paris, 18(8). p. 8 . [E4.3]
"'I read , in a book which enjoyed great sllcceu last yea r, thai the streets of Paris
had heen enlarged to permit ideas 10 circulate and , above all, regiments to pan.
 T his malicious atalement (which comes in the wak e of othera) ia the ccluivalent of
aaying thai Pa ria haa been stralegically embellished. WeU, so be it .... I do nol
hesit ate to procluim that strll.legic emhelli.shments are the moSI admira hle of em­
bellishments." Puru nOUlleau j uge p ar Im jliineur (Paris, 1868). pp . 21- 22.
[£4,41
" T hey say tha t the city of Paris has condemned itself to forced la bor, in the lIeDse
Iha t, if it ever ceast:d its various constructiOIl projects and forced ils numerous
workers to re turn to their re.spective provinces, from that day forwa rd its toU
revenues would di rninillh consid er ably. " Paris nouveau juge par 1m jlaneur
(Paris, 1868), p . 23. [E4,5]
Proposal to link the right to vote for the Paris mUllicipal council to proof of a t least
fifteen months' resideDce ill the city. Part of the reasoning: " If yo u examine the
mailer closely, yo u will soon realize that it is p recisely during the agita ted, adven­
turou s, and turbulent I)eriod of his existence. that a ma n residell in Pa ris."
"(lris nouveau juse pur "njWne ur, p . 33. [£.4,6]
" It is und erstood that the follies of the cit y pro mote reason of state." Jules Ferry,
Co mptesjant(lstiqlleJl d 'IIClIlu nw nn (Paris, (868), p. 6. [FA ,7]
" T he cODceuions. worth hundred s of millions. a re uPl)Ortioned sub rosa. T he
principle of public adjudication is set aside, as is that of cooper ation." Ferr y,
CompleJlfimtUJl liqlU!s. p. II. [E4a, l]
Ferry analyzes (pp'. 2 1- 23 of his ComptesjantastiqueJl) the j udgments rendered in
caseli of expropriation- j udgments which , in the course of Ha llu mann 's pr ojects.
took on a tendency unfavorable to the city. FoUowillg a decr ee of December 27,
1858--which Ferry r egards as merely the normalization of an aDcient righ t , but
which Ha uu mann regardll 88 the establishment of a n e~' rigllt- the city was de­
nied the possibility of expropriating in their entir ety propt!rtiea which lay in the
way of the new arter ies. T he exp rop riation was limited to those por tions immedi­
alely rC(luiroo for the constr uction of the stnoets. In this way, the city lost out on
the profits it had hoped to make from the sale of remaining plOIS of land , whollC
value was dri ven up b y the construction. [E4a,2]
From Ha ussmann 's memorandum of December 11 , 1867 : " There is a deep-r ooted
a nd long-sta nding conviction tha t the last two method& of acquisition did not by
II.lIy mea llS a utomatica Uy termin ate the ten ants' occupancy. But the Court of Ap­
pt!als has ruled , in va rious decisions spanuing the pt!riod 186 1- 1865 , that , vis-a­
vis the city, the jU Ilgment re«(uiring the conllelll of the seller. ta ken together with
the pr ivate contract . has the effect ip Jlo jure of dissolving the lease of the tenants.
All II conSCCluence. man y of Ihe tenants doing business in hOIlst:s aC(luh-ed for
the city by mutua l agreemellt ... have acted to ann llilheir leases before the date
of expropriation and have de.ma nded to be immedia tely evicted and compen­
sated .... T he city ... has had to pay enormous, u nforeseen indemnities. I t Cited
ill Ferr y. Comptcsjallt6s tillues, p . 24. (E4a,3]
'·I...ollis-Nal)Oleon Bonaparte felt his vocation to be Ihe secu ri ng of the ' bourgeois
order .' ... hl(lustr y and trade, the affairs of the bourgcoisie , were to prospe r. An
im lllcnse num ber of concessions were given out to the railroads ; public sub ven­
tions were grantetl; credit was orga nized. T he wealth and luxury of the bourgeois
world increased . T he 1850.1 saw the ... beglnllillg8 of the Par isian department
stores: Au Bon Marche, Au Louvre. La Belle Jardi niere. T he turnover at Au BOD
Marche-which , ill 1852 , was only 450,000 fra ncs-rose, hy 1869, to 21 million."
Gisela Freund , " Entwicklung del" Photographie in Frankreich" [ manuscript] .'
[£4.,41
Around 1830: " T he Rue Suint-Denis a nd Rue Saint-Martin are the principal ar­
teries in this quartier, a godsend for rioters. T he wa r for the streets was deplorably
easy there. The rebels had only to ri p up the pavement and then pile up various
objC4:ts: fur niture from neighboring houses, cra tes from the grocer ' •• and, if Deed
be, a passing omnibu s, which they would 8tOp. gallantly helping the ladies to
disembark . In order to gaillthese Thermopylaes, it was thull necessar y to demolish
the houses. T he line infantry would advance into the OpeD, heavily armed and well
equi pped . A handrul of ill8urgents behind a b arricade could hold an entire regi­
ment at ba y." Dubeeh and d 'Espezel, Histoire de Pa ru (Paris, 1926), pp . 365-366.
[£4.,51
Under Louis P hilippe: " In the interior of the city, the governing idea seems to have
been to rearra nge the strategic lines that played 110 important a r ole in the rulitOric
days of July: the line of the qu ays, the line of the boulevards.... Finally, at the
center, the Rue de Rambuteau , gr andsire of the R aussmannized thoroughfares: it
presented . at Les Hailes , in the Marais, II breadth that seemed considerable
then- thirteen meters." Dubeeh and d ' Esllezel, Hu toire de Paru (Paris, 1926),
pp.382-383. [E5,11
Sailll-Simonians: " During the choler a epidemic of 1832 . they caned for the demo­
lition of crowded . closely built nei&hborhoods. wruch was excelleDt . But they de­
nla,;ded th at Louill Phili ppe and Larayette set the pace with shovel and pickaxe ;
the wor kers were supposed 10 work under the direction of uniformed Polytechni­
cians, amI to the 1I0und of military music; the most beautiful women in Paris were
to come anll offer their encouragement ." Dubech and d ' Espezel, H u lOire de Pa ris ,
I'p. 392-393. 0 Indust rial Developmeut 0 Secret Societies 0 [E5,2]
"All efforU notwithsta nd ing, the newly constructed buildi ngs did not slIffice to
aceonmlOdate the expropr iated. T he res ult was a grave crisis in rents : they dou­
liled. In IB5 I. the ()Opulation was 1,053 ,000; after the annexatioll in 1866, it
increase{1 to more than 1,825,000. AI the end of the Second Empire, Paris had
60.000 houst:s and 612,000 al)artme.nts. of which 48 1.000 were r ented for lelll than
 500 fran ct. Buildin ge grew taUer, but ceilinge became lower. Tile governm " If we had to defin e, in a word , the new s pirit that was coming 10
ent had p reside over the
to pa811 II law J"e(luiril lg a minimu m ceiling height of 2 meten tra nsforma tioll of Paris, we would have to call it megalom ani a.
60 centime ters." The empe ror allli
Duhech and d 'E spezd , PI' . 420-421 . Ius Ilrefect ai m to make Paris the capital not olily of France but
{ES t 3) of tile world .
Cosmop olit an Pllris will be the resuh ." Dubccll and d ' Espezel , p.
41)t1 . [E5a,2j
"Scand a lous fortune s ",·ere amasse d by those inille prefect 's inner
circle. A legend
altrih utes to Mad ame Ha Ullllnum n a naive remark in a talon : ' "Three facts will domina te the project to tralllifo rm Paris: a stratel,
It is curious that ';c fa ct that
every time we buy a houlre, II bouleva rd pusses through it. demand s, at the cilY's center, the break-u p of the ancient capital
, .. Dubech and and a lIew ar­
d ' Espezel , p. 423 . rangement of the hub of Paris; a natural fact , the push westwa
[E5,4 j rd ; and a fact
entailed hy the systema tic megalo ma nia of the idea of annexin
g the suburb s. "
"At the end of his wide avenue s, Haussm ann constru cts-fo r the Dube<:h and d'Espez el, p . 406.
sake of perspec­ [E5a,3)
tive--v ar ious monum en18 : a Tribuna l of Comllle rce al Ihe end
of the Boulev ard Jules Ferry, oppone nt of Haun mann, a l the news of the surrend
Sebasto pol, and bastard churches in all styles, such as Saint-A er at Sedan : "The
ugustin (where armies of the empero r a re defeated! " Cited in Duhech and d ' Espezel
Ballard copies Byn ntine structu res), a new Saint-A mbroise , and , p. 430.
Saint -Fra n ~o is­
Xavier. At the end of the Chauss ee d 'Antin , the Church of La Trinite [£5a,4)
imitates the
Renaiss ance style. Sa inte-Clo tilde imitates the Cothic style, while
Saint-Je an de "Until Haussmalln , Paris had been a city of moder ate dimens ions,
Belleville. Saint-Ma rcel, Saint-B ernard , and Saint-E ugene are all where it was
proouc ts of irOn logical to let experie nce rule; it develop ed accordi ng to pressur es
constru ction and the hideous embras ures of false Cothic .... Though dictated by na­
Hau8Snlann ture, accordi ng to laws inscribe d in the facu of history alld in
had some good ideas, he realized them badly. He depend ed hellvily the face of the
on perspee ­ lalldsca pe. Brusqu el y, H aussma nn acceler ates and crowns the work
tives, for exampl e, and took ca re to Jlllt monum ents at the end of revolut ion­
of his re<:tilin ear ary and imperia l centralization . . . . An artificia l and inordin
stree18. T he idea was excellen t , but ",·hat awk wardne u in the ate creatio n,
execution! The emerge d like !'tUncrva frolll the head of Jupiter , born amid the ab
Boulev ard de Strasbo urg franles the enormo us Right of stel's at use of the spirit of
the Tribun al of authori t y, this work had need of the spirit of authori ty in order to
Comme rce, and the Avenue de l' Opera providc s a vista of the porter develop accord­
's lodge at the ing to its own logic. No sooner was it bo rn , than it was Cllt off at
Louvre ." Duhech and d ' Espezel , Pl'. 416, 425. the source ....
[E5,5) Here was the parado xical speetac le of a constru ction artificial
in prillciple but
abando ned ill fact onl y to rules imposed by nat ure." Dubech
"Above all, the Paris of the Second Empire is cruelly lacking in beauty. and d ' Espezel ,
Not one of pp .443-44 4.
these great straight a venues has the charm of the magnifi cent {ESa,5)
curve of the Rue
Saint-A ntoine, and no hOllse of this period affords anythin g like " lI aussma nn cut immens e gaps right through Paris, and carried
the tender de­
lights of an eightee nth-cen tur y fa~ade, with its rigorous and gracefu out the most
l orders. Fi­ startlin g operati ons. It seemed as if Pa ris would never endure his
nally, this i110gica l city is structll rally weak . Alread y the architec surgica l experi­
ts are saying that ments. And yet , today, docs it not exist merel y as a conscllu ence
the O,.era is cracked , that La Trinite is crumbl ing, and that of his d aring and
Saint-A ugustin is courage? His equipm ent was meager ; the sho\'e1 , the pick , the wagoll
brittle. " Dubech a nd d 'Espezel, p . 427. , the trowel ,
[E5,6) tile wheelb a rrow- the simple tools of every race ... before the
mcchanical age.
His ac hievement was trul y admira ble." Le Curbus ier, UrbtwiSlll c (Pnris
d 925» ,
" In Haussmann's time, there was a need for new roads, but not necessa p . 149.'
ril y for the [ESa,6)
lIew roads he built .... The 1II0St striking featu re of his projects
is their scorn for
historic al eXIW!rie nce .... Haussm ann lays Ollt an artificia l city, The mighty seek to secure their position with blood (police), with cunnin
like sOlllethi lig in g (fash­
Canada or the .' a r West . . . . His thoroug hfares ra rely possess ion), with magic (pomp) .
any utility and [ESa,7)
nevcr an y beallty. Mon a re astollish ing are hitectu ral intrusiolls
that begin just
ahout a nywher e and end up nowher e, whilc dcstroy ing evcr ything Thc widenillg of the streets, it was said, was necessit att..'<1 by the crinolin
in their path ; to e. [E5a,S)
cun'e them would have been enough to prt:serv c preciou s old buildin
gs.... We
must not accuse him of too much Haussma nnizatio n , but of too Manlier of life II 1110ng the maso ns, ""ho often came from Marc he or
little. In spite of Limous in . (The
the megalom ania of his theoric s, his vision was, in practic e, 1I0t descrip tion dates from 185 1- before the great influx of this social
la rge enough . st ratum in the
Now here did he an ticipate tile future. II.is vistas lack amplitu de; wake of HalissmaJln '8 works.) " The masons , whose way of life is lIIore
his strects are too distinct than
narrow. Ilis clJllccp tion is grandiose but not graml; lIeither is it just that of other emigran ts, belong ordinar ily to famili es of smu.1l farmcr-
or providc nt. " llUusch oldcrs
Dubech li nd d'Espe zd , PI' . 424-42 6. establis hed ill the rural towlIshil)S and providt..-d with individ ual
. [E5a, 11 paSlura ge, allow­

Tools used by Haussmann's workers. Artist unknown. Set: £5a,6.
ing for the maintenance of at least one dairy cow per family.... During hie 80­
journ in Paris , the mason lives with aU the economy that is consistent with an
unmarried situation ; his provisionl ... come to approximately thirty-eight franc.
a month ; hil lodgings ... cost only eight fran ci a month . Worken of the .ame
profession ordinarily Ih are a room, where they sleep two b y two. TWI ch amber iI
b arely heated ; it is lit by means of a tallow candle, which the lodgers take turnl in
buying.... Havillg r eached the age of fort y~fi ve, the mal on ... henceforth re­
mains on his property to cultivate it himself.... This way of life fonns a marked
contralt to that of the sedentar y 1)OIluiationi neverthelell, after lome yean, it
tendl visibly to alter.. .. Thus, d urinA his stay in Paril, the youn~ mason showl
himself more willinA than before to contract illegitimate unionl, to spend money on
clothing. and to frequ ent various gathering places and placel of pleasure. AI he
becomes len capable of elevating Ilimllelf to the condition of prov.rielor, he finds
hi.m8elf more susceptible to feelinga of jeaJoulY toward the upper classes of toeiety.
Thil depravity, to which he succumbs far from the influence of his family, ... and
in which the love of gain develops without the counterweight of reUgioul aentiment ,
leads lometimel to the 10rt of coaraenel8 found ... among the sedentary workers
of Paril ." F. Le Play, Les Ouvrier. europeefU (Parie. 1855). p. 277 . [£6,1)
On the politics of finance under Napoleon Ill: "The financial policy of the Empire
has been consistently guided by two main concerns: to compensate for the in~
sufficiency of normal revenue. and to multiply the con. truction projecu that keep
capital moving and provide job•. T he trick W 81 to borrow without opening the
ledger and to undertake a great num ber of works without immediately overloading
the budget .... Thus, in the Ipace of l eventeen years, the imperial government ha,
had to procure for itself, in addition to the natural productl of taxation , a 8um of
four billion three hundred twenty-two million francs. With the gathering of this
enormous 8ubsidy, whether by direct loans (on which it was necel8ary to pay
interest) or by putting to work available capital (on which revenues were lost).
there h as re. u1ted from these ex tra~budgetary operatione an increase of debu and
liabilities for the state." Andre Cochut, OperatiofU et tendances jinancieres du
Second Empire (Paris, 1868), pp. 13,20-21. [£6,2)
Already at the time of the June Insurrection, "they broke through walls 80 as to be
able to pall from one house to another. " Sigmund Englander, Geschic:hte der
!ramosilchenArbeite"..Auocwtionen (Hamburg, 1864), vol. 2 , p. 287. [E6,3)
" In 1852, ... being a Bonapa rtist opened up all the pleasures in the world. It was
tbese people who, huma nly speaking, were the most avid for life; therefore . they
conquered . Zola was agitated and amazed at this tbought; suddenly, here was the
formula for those men who, ea ch in hie own way and from his own vantage point,
had founded a n empire. Speculation (chief of tbe vital functions of this empire),
unbridJed self-enricbment , pleallure !leeking-all three were glorified theatrically
in exhibition. a nd festivals , which by degrees took on the aspect of a Babylon . And
along with these brilliant malles taking part in the apotheosis, close behind
them, ... the obscure malleI who were awaking and moving to the forefront ."
Heinrich Mann. Ceilt und Tat (Berlin, 1931). p . 167 ("Zola"). [E6a,l)
Around 1837, Dupin , in the Calerie Colbert, issued a series of colored lithographs
(signed Pruche <?>, 1837) representing the theatergoing public in variou. postures.
A few plates in the series: Spectator. in High Spirits . Spectators Applaudiry;.
Spectator. Intrigu.ing, Spectator. Accompanying the Orchelfra. Attentive Spec~
. tator•• Weeping Spectator.. [£6a,2)
Beginnings of city planning in S oisse!'s Discourl con Ire leI servirude. publiques
<Discourse against Public Easements> of 1786: "Since the natural comnlunity of
goods has been broken up and dil tributed. every individual property owner has
built as he pleases. In the past , the locial order would not have suffer ed from this
trend . liut now that urlian construction proceeds at the entire discretion , and 10
till!: entire advantage, of the owners, t1lere is no longer a ny consideration at all for
the security. healdl , or comfort of society. Tllis is particularl y the case in Par is,
wher e churches and p alaces , lioulevards and walkwaYII are built in abundance,
while houllillg for the great maj orit y of inhabitants is relegated to the sluldows.
Boinel descr ihes in gra phic detail the ruth and perill that th reaten the poor pedell·
triall 0 11 the IItreelll of Pa ril .... To this miserable a rra ngemcllt of Itreell he now
turns his attention , a nd he eff~ ti nl y l olves the prohlem b y p ropol ing to Ira ns·
form the ~o und fl oors of houses into airy ar cades, which would offer prot~ ti on
from the vehicldl and the weather. He thus anticip atel Bellamy's idea of ' one
umb rella over all head s. "'10 C. Hugo. ""Der SO"llialismus in Frankreich wii hrend
der grossen Revolution ," part I , " Fra n ~ois Boilisel," Die neue Zeit, II , no. 1
(Stuttgart . 1893), p. 8 13. (E6a,3)
On NalwleQn III a round 1851: " Ue is a socialist with Proudhon , a reformer with
Gir ardin , a reactionary with Thiers. a moder ate r epublica n with the SUPl)Orters of
the republic, and an enemy of democracy and r evolution with the legitimists. He
promises everything and subscribes to everything." Friedrich Szarvady, Pam,
vol. I {the only volume 10 appear] (Berlin , (852), p. 401. (E6a,4)
" Louis Nalwleon , ... this representative of the lumpenproletariat and of every
type of fraud alld knavery. slowly draws ... all power to himself.... With glad
elan , Daumier reemerges. fi e creates the brilliant figure of Ratapoil, an audacioul
pimp and ch arlatan , And lhili ragged ma rauder, with his murderous cudgel for­
ever concealed behind his back , bet:omeli for Daumier the embodiment of the
downfallen Bonapartist idea." Frit"ll Th. Schulte, " Honore Da umier," Die neue
Zeit, 32, no. I (Stuttgart <19 13-1914» , p. 835. (E1,1)
With reference to the tranliformation of the city: " Nothing len than a COmpa88 is
req uired , if you are to find yo ur way. " J acques Fabien , Ptlru en !onge (Paril ,
\ 863), p . 7. [E?,2)
The fo llowing remark , by way of contrast , th ro ws a n interesting light on Pa ris:
" Where money. industry, and riches a re prelient , there are fa~ad e8; the houses
have assumed faceli tha t serve to indicate the differenccs in claSli. III London , more
than c1 s~wht!re , the distallces a re pitilessly marktl(1. ... A prolifera tion of led ges,
bow windowli, cornices, column!l--8o man y columns! The colullln is nobility."
Fernand Uger, " Londres," LII , 5. no. 23 (June 7, 1935), 1' . 18. (E7,3)
The (Iistanl native or the age-old Marais
RaN-ly IJets root in the Qua rtier tI ' Antin.
Ane! {ro m Menilmontant . calm lookout poinl ,
He lurvey. Parie u {rom a hei&!tt;
IIi. thrill anti rrul5alily won ' I let him butll5'"
"rom this '1>01 when Ihe (!:Ods h.ve (Iropped him.
[Leon Go:d an .] Le Trionl/,he rle! onirlibll..J: Poeme heroi:...comiqlU! (Paris. 1828),
p.7. [E?,' )
" Hundreds of thousands of families , who work in the center of the capital, lilcep in
the outskirtl. This movement resembleli the tide: in the morning the worken
stream into Paris, and in the evening the same wave of people flows out. It is a
melancholy image .... I ....ould add ... tha t it is the fi rs t time that humanity hal
aSliisted in a spectacle so dispiriting for the people." A. Gr anveau , L'Oll.vrier
c/evant W societe (Paris . 1868), p . 63 ("Les Logements a Paris"). (E7.5)
J u ly 27, 1830: " Outside the IIChool, men in shirtsleevell were alread y rolling casks;
others brought in paving siones and Ii8nd by wheelb arrow; a b arricade was be-­
gun ." G. Pinet, Hu toire de " Ecole poly,echniqlle (Paris, (887), p. 142. [E1a. l )
1833: '"The plan to surround Pa ris with a belt of fortifications ... aroused pas­
sionate interest at this time. It was a rgued that detached forts would be useleSli for
the defense of the interior, and th reatening only to I.h e population. The opposition
wali univeJ;sal. ... Steps were taken to or gallize a large popular demonstration on
July 27 . Informed of these prep aratiolls , , . , the government abandoned the proj·
eet .. . . Nevertheless, ... on the d ay of the review, numer ous cries of ' Down with
the forts! ' echoed in ad vance of the procession: 'A bas le! f ort! detacMs ! A btl! leI
b(l..J lille! !'" G. P inet , Hut oire de " Ecole polytechniqu.e (Paris, 1887), PI' . 2 14-2 15.
The government miniliterS took their r evenge with the affair of the "Gunpowder
Conspiracy."11 (E1a,2]
Engravings from 1830 show how the in surgentli threw all sOrU of furnilu re down
on the troops fro m oul of the windows. T his was a feature especially of the ba ttles
on the Rue Saint· Antoine. Cabinet des Estampeli. (E7a.3]
Rattier invokes a d ream Paris, which he calls " the false Par ili"-as distinguished
from the real one: " the p urer Parili, ... the truer Paris, ... the Parili that doesn ' t
exist" (p. 99): " It is gralld , at this moment in time , to set well-guarded Bab ylon
walzing in the arm! of Memphis, and to set London dallcing in the embrace of
Peking.... One ofth cse fine mornings, Fr ance ....iII h ave a rude awakening when it
realizes it is confIDed within the walls of Lutetia. of which she form s but a cr oss·
roads .... The lIext day. It aly, Spain . Denma rk, and Russia will he incorporated
hy decr ee into the Par isian municipality; three d ays later, the city gates will be
pushed back to Novaya Zcmlya alld to the Lalld of t.he Papuans. Paris will be the
world , and the uni vcrse will be Pa ris. The sava nnahs and the pampas and the
m ack Forest will compose the puhlic gardens of this greater Lutetia; the Alps, the
P yrenees, the Andes, the Himalayas will he the Aventine a nd the scenic hills of this
incomparahle city- knoilli of plealiure, st udy, or liolitude. But aU this is IitiU 1I0th­
illg: Paris will mount to the akica It.ntl scale the fi r mament offinnamen18: it will an­
nex, as suburbs . the planets and the stara." Paul-Ernest de Rattier, Pam n 'exute
IHU (Paris. 1857). PI)' ,n-49. Thc&e ea rl y fantasiell IIhould be compared with the
lIatircs on Uauu malln published W II years later. [E7a,4]
Mread y Rattier assignll to hill false Paris "'a unique and simple sylltem of traffic
control that links geometrically, and in pa rallel lines, all the avenues of this fa lse
Parill to a single center, the Tuiteries-this being all admirable method of defense
and of maintai ning order." Paul-Ernest de Rattier, l\Jrill 11 'exute pU ll (Paris.
1857), p . 55. [E8, l ]
" T he false Paris has the good tas te to recognize that nothing is more useless or
more immoral than a riot . Though it may gain the upper hand for a few minutes, it
is queUed for sever al centuries. Instead of occup ying itself with politics •... it is
peaceabl y absorbed in questions of t!t!onomy.. . A prince who is against fraud
. . knows ... very well ... that gold . a great deal of gold . is re(luiroo ... 011 our
planet to build a 81epladder to the sky." Paul-Ernest de Rattier. Paris n 'ex;.fle pas
(Paris, 1857), pp. 62 , 66-67. (£8,2]
July Revolution : " Fewer were felled ... by buUets than hy other projet!tilell. The
lar ge squares of gra nite witb which Pa ris is paved were dragged up to the top floors
of the houses a nd dropped 0 11 the heads of the soldiers." Friedrich \'on Raumer,
Briefe am Paru utld Frankreich im Jahre 1830 (Leipzig ~ 183 1)), vol. 2, p . 145.
[E8,3]
Report of a third party. in Raumer's book: '" saw a group of Swiss, who had been
kneeling a nd begging for their lives, kiUed amid j eering, aud I saw the stripped
bodies of the gravely wounded thrown cOlltemptuously onto the ba rricades to
ma ke them higher." Friedrich von Rau mer. Briefe uus PClr;.s und FrCIIlkre;ch ;n
Jahre 1830 (Leipzig, 1831), vol. 2, p . 256. (£8,4)
Descriptions of barrica des of 1830: Cil . Motte, RevolutiOlu de Pa ris. 1830: Pian
fig.lrarij des barricades aim; que de.s po.s;tions et mouvements de.s c;toyell5 arme.s
el de.s troupes (published b y the author ( Paris, 1830) . (£8,5]
Caption for a plate in u.s Ru;nes de Paru: 100 photogral)hies, by A. Liebert
(paris, 1871 ), vol. I : ""Barricade of the Federa tes, Constructed by Gailla rd
Senior... [ES,6]
"When the emperor ... enters his ca pital , the fifty horses of bis ca rriage are at a
I;;allop; between the Gateway of Paris a nd his Louvre, he pauses under two thou·
saud triumphal arc hes and passes before fifty colossi erected ill his image .... And
this idolizing of the sovereign by hisllubjocts causes some disma y a mong tllI~ la lter­
day pious, to whom it occu rs that tllt~ir idols were never recipiclits of s udl hom­
age." Arsene HOllu aye, " Le Paris fUlur"; in ( Dum a ~ . Gautier. l-IolIS8u ye , and
Hl hers ,) PlI ri.s el ie. Parisien.s (III X IX- siecie (Paris. 1856), p . 460. [£8,7]
High d aily allowallccs for the depulics under Napoleon III . ]ES,S}
" The 4 ,054 harricadefi of the ' Three Glorious llays' were made fro m . . .
8. 125,000 paving stones.'" Le Romanlume (Exhibitioll catalogue (at the Ilib­
Iiotheque Na tiollule), J anua ry 22-Mureh 10, 1930; exphlllato r y no te to no. 635,
A. de Grandsagne and M. P lant . Revolution de 1830, plun des combut.s de PlI r is].
]ES,9]
" When , last year. thousands of workers mar ched through the streets of the capital
ill a menacing ca lm ; when , at II time of peace and cOlluuercial prosltCrity, they
illierruptetithe course of their work ... , the govcrnment 's first responsibility was
10 take forcefullllca sures against a disturbance th at was a ll Illt~ more {Iangerolls
for not knowing il8elf as such ." 1... de Carne, " Publica tions democrati(IUes et
communistes," Revue de.s deux mOIU/e.s, 27 (Parill, 184 1), 1" 746. [E8a, l]
"Wh at fate does the present movement of society have in store for architecture?
I,..etlls look arou nd us . . .. Ever more monuments . ever more palaces . On aU sides
rise up great 'SlOne blocks, and everything tends toward the solid , the heavy, the
vulgar; the genius of a rt is imprisoned by s uch an imperati ve. in which the imagi­
nation no longer has any roo m to play, can 110 longer be great , but rather is
exhausted in rep rese ntin~ . . . the tiered orders on fa~_a d e8 and in det!orating
friezes and the borders of windo"" frames. In the interior, olle finds still more of
the court , more of the peristyle, ... with the little rooms more and mo re confined,
the studies a nd boudoirs exiletlto the niches under the spiral staircase, . . .·where
they constitute pigeonholes for people; it is the cellul ar system applied to th e
family group. The problem ooomes how, in a given sp ace, to make lise of the least
amoullt of materials alld to pack in the greatest num ber of people (while isol a tin~
them aU from one a nother) .... T his tendency-indeed . this fait accoDlpli- is the
result of progressi,'e subdividing. . . . In a word . each for him.self and each by
him.selfhas incr easingly ~ome the guiding pri nciple of society, while the puhlic
wealth ... is scaltered and s()uandered. Such are the causes , at this 1II0ment in
France, for the demise of monumentally scaled residential a rchitecture. For pri­
vate ha bita tions. as they become narrowe r, a re able to sustai n but a narrow a rt .
Tile artist, lackillg s pace, is reduced to making statuettes and easel paintings ....
In the presentl y cmerp ng condi tions of society, art is driveu illto a n impas8C where
it suffocates for lack of air. It is alread y s uffering the dfects of this new norm of
limited a rtistic fa cility. which ccrtllin souls , supposetll y ad" aIlCctl , st."em 10 regllrd
as the goal of thei r philalltbropy.... In architecture , we do not nHlke uri fOI' 11l'I'S
sake; we d o not raise monuments for the sole purpose of occupying the imagination
of architects and furni shing work for painters and sculptors. What is uecessll l'y,
then , is 10 apply the mon umel11 al mod e of construction ... 10 all the d ementi! of
iUllllan dwelling. Wt" must make it l)Ossihle 1I0t onl y fo r a few pri,'ilcgctl individuals
hu t for all people 10 live in pa laces. And if one is 10 occup y a pulace . one ~ h oulil
properly li ve there togeth er with others. in bonds of 88sociation .... Where al'l is
concerned . therefore. it iMonl y the aSliociation of all clements of the eummunily
that can laullch the immense development we are outlining." D. Laverda.nt . De to
miu iotl de I'lIr' I'll du role des artille.: Solon de 1845 (Paris. 1845). from the
offices of La I' lmlatlge. pp . 13-15. [E8a,2)
" For sOllie time now, .. there have L t t ll efforts to discover wher e this word
bOlllevard could have come from. As for me, ) am fin ally satis.fi ed as to the etymol­
ogy: it is merel y a variant of the word OOuleve,..ement ~co mmotion . upheavab ."
Edouard Fournier, Chmnique. et Ugende. de. rue. de Pari, (Pa ris, 1864). p . 16.
[E9, I)
" Monsieur Pica rd , attorney for the city of Paris , ... has energeticaUy defended
the interests of the city. What he has been p resented with in the way of anteda ted
leases at thc moment of expropriations, what he has had to contend with in order
10 nullify fanta stic titles a nd reduce the claims of the ex propriated is almost be­
yond belief. A collier for the city one d ay placed hefor" him a lealie, antedated
w me years, on paper hearing official stamps. The simple maD believed himself
ah'eady in poues8ion of a weighty 8um for his shanty. Bul he did nol know that this
palM!r bore, in iu watermark , the date ofils manufacture. The attorney raised it to
the lighl ; it had been made three years after the date stamped ." Auguste Lepage,
I.e. Cafe. politiqlle, et fitterai,.e. de Pam (Va ris <1874». p . 89. [E9,2)
Observations on the physiology of the uprising, in Niepovie's book: " Nothing has
changell 011 the surface, but there is something unuliual in the air. The cabriolets,
omnibuses, and hacklley coaches seem to have quickened their pace, and the
drivers keep turning their heads as though someQne were aft er them. There are
more groUI)S standing around than is usual. ... p eQple look at one another with
an ;\:ious interrogation in their eyes. Perhal)S this urchin or this worker hastening
by will know something; ami he is stopped a nd questioned . What 's going on ? ask
Ihe passersby. And the urchin or the worker responds, with a smile of utter indif­
ference, 'They are gathering al the Place de la Bas tille,' or 'They are ga lherin~
lIear the Temple' (or somewhere else), and then hurries off to wher ever they are
guthering. . . . On the sites themselves, Ihe scene is prett y much as he said : the
population 11 118 massed to 8uch an extenl that you can hardly get through . The
pavement is strewn with sheets of p aper. What is it? A proclamation of I.e
Monifeur republica in, which dates from the Year 50 of the one and indivisible
French republic. People have gathered , you are told , to discu88 the proclamation.
T he shops have lIot yet been closed ; shols have nOI yl:lt been fired .... Now then ,
behold the suviors . . . . All of a sudden , t.he holy battalion has halted before a
house . and , just as quickly. the third-story windows are thrown open and packets
of cartridges rain down . ... The distrihution is accomplished in the twinkling of
all eye and. wit h that , the battalion is Ilispatched on the run-a portion 10 one
~ i(l c, II porli"tl 10 the other .... Vehicles are no longer passing 011 the streets; there
is leu noise. Aud that ', why one can hear, if I do noilleceive myself .. . Listen ,
they' re bealing Ihe drum . It is the call to a rms. The authorilies are roused."
Caetan Niepovie, Euuie. phy.iologiquc. , ur le. grande, nuEtropole, e1e l'Eu,.ope
occidentale: Pari$ (Paris, 1840). pp . 20 1- 204. 206. [E9,3)
A barricade: " At the ent,.a nce to a narrow street , an omnibus lies witll its four
wlleels in the air. A pile of cr ates, which had served lM!rhaps to hold oranges. rises
to the righl and to the left , and behind them. between the rims of the wheels and
the openings, small fires are blui ng, continually emitting small blue clouds of
smoke. " Gaetan Niepovie, Etudes phy'iologique. , ur leI grllndel metropole, de
('Europe occidentale: Pari, (Paris, 1840), 1' . 207. [E9a,I)
1868: dea th of Meryon . [E9a,2)
" It has been said that Charlet and Raffet by themselvcs pre pared the way for the
Secoud Empire in France." Henr i Bouchot , UI Lithographie (Paris <1895» ,
pp. 8-9. [E9a,3!
From Arago's letter on the encirclement of Paris (Associations Nationales en
F~veu r de la I)resse Patriote) [extract from I.e Na tional of Jul y 2 1, 1833] : " All the
projected fort s, with regard to distance, would give access to the most populous
districts of the capital" (p . 5). " Two of the forts. those of Ita lie and Passy, would be
enough to set fire to aU sections of Paris on the Left Bank of the Seille; ... two
olhers, Fort Philippe and Fort Saint-Chaumont , could cover t.he rest of the city
with their circle of fire" (p . 8). [E9a,4)
1.11 Le Figaro of April 27, <1936,> Gaetan San voisin cites this remark by Maxime
Ou Camp: " If there were onl y Parisians in Paris, ther e would be no revolutionar­
ies." Compare with similar statements by Ha uu mann . [E9a,5!
"A one-act play hy Engels, written in haste alld performed in Septemher 1847 at
the Gennall Alliance for Workers in Brussels, already ,.ep resented a hattie on the
barricades in a German petty state--a battle ....hich ended ....ith the abdication of
the prince and the proclamation of a republic. " Custav Maye r, Friedrich Engeu ,
vol. I, F,.iedrich Engeu in !einer Friihzeit, 211d etl. (Berlin d 933». p. 269. I:
[E9a,6)
During the suppression of the June Insurrection , a rtiller y came to he used for the
first time ill street fightin g. [E9a,7)
Haussmann's attitude toward the Parisian population recalls that of Guttot ta­
ward the proletariat. Guizot characterized the proletariat as the "external popula­
tion." (See Georgi Plekhanov, "Oher die Anfange der Lehre vom K.lassenkampP,'
Die neue' Zeit, 21, no. 1 (Swttgan, 1903), p. 285. [E9a,8}
Tile building of barrica" e~ a ppears in Fourier as an example of " nonsalariell hut
impassioned work." [E9a,9j

T he practice of b amboozling the municipal exp ro priations committee became a n
industry under Ha USSmallIl . "Small tradcrs and shopkt."epers ... would be 811p­
"Iiell ,,; th fa lse book8 a nd inventorie1l, and , whcn necessar y. their p re mise8 would
(it tur ned out) be n~wl y retlecorated a nd refurnished ; while du ri ng the vi8it of the
cllmmiltee to the p remise8, a conSlant stream of unexpeclt."(1 clistomCr8 would pour
in ." S. Kracauer, Jo cqlles Offenbach Ilntl tlos Poris seiller Zeit (Amsterda m,
1937), p . 254. LJ [EIO, I)
Cit y pla nning in Fourier : " Each ave nue, each 8treet , should open onto 80me pa r­
ticula r pros pect, whether the countrY8ide or a public monument. The custom of
civilized nation8-where streets come to an end with a wall , as in fortresses, or
with a heap of ea rth , as in the newer 8t.'Ction8 of Mar seille8-sholild be avoided .
Ever y house that faces thc strttl sh ould be obliged 10 have ornamcntation of the
fi rst class, in the ga rdens as well as on the buildings." Charles Fourier, Cite,
Oll vrieres: Des modifica tions it intmduire dans " a rchitecture des villes <extracu
from LA. Phau.n8e~ (Par is, (849), p . 27. (E IO,2]
In connection with I-Iaussmann : " The mythic structu re develops ra pidly: opposing
the vaU city i8 the legenda ry her o destined to conquer it . In fact , ther e are h ardly
an y wo rks of the period that do not contai n 80me invocation in8pired b y the
ca pital, a nd the celebrated cr y of R asti gnacl~ is of unusual simplicity. . . . The
heroes of Ponson <iu Terrail are more lyrical in their inevitable apostrophe to the
' modern Babylon ' (thi8 is always the n ame used for Paris), See, for example, that
, , , of the ... false Sir Williams in the novel Le Club des Valets de coeur: ' 0 Paris,
Pa ris! You are the true Babylon , the true a rena of intellectual b attle, the true
temple where evil h as its cult and its priesthood; and 1 a m sure that the breath of
tile arc hangel of sh adows passes over you eternally, like the winds over the infinity
of the seas. 0 motiollleu tempest , ocea n of stone, I want 10 be that d ark eagle
which , amid your a ngr y wa \'es, d isdai ns Ihe lightning and sleeps cheer full y on the
thunderstorm, his great wing extended . I want to be the genius of e\'il, the vultu re
of the seas, of this most perfidious a nd tempestuous sea on which the human
passions toss and unfur l. ,.. Roger Caillois, " Pa ris, mythe moderne," Nouvelle
Relmeff"Um;aise, 25, no. 284 (May I , 1937), p. 686. [EIO,3]
Blanquist re \'olt of May 12 , 1839: '"' He had wailed a week to profit from the instal­
lation of new troops unfamiliar with the maze of Pa ris streets. The thousand men
0 11 whom he counted for the engagement \'I'ere supposed to asse mble hetweell the
Hue Sain t-Denis und the Rue Saint-Ma rtin . Under a lIIugnifi cent Sun . , . to­
warll th ree in the aft ernoon , in the midst of a burgeo ning Sunday cr owd , the
rc \'oill tioll ury bU1ll1 all at once muster s and appear8, Immedi atel y a vac uum , a
8ilellce, sets in aro und them, " G ustave Geffroy, L 'E rlf er llle (Pa r is, 1926), vol. I ,
pp.81-82. {E IOa, l]
In 1830, ro pe wus used , omong ot.her things, to ba rricade the streets. [EI0a,2]
Raslignac's (amous challenge (cited in Messac <Le "Detective Novel" et I'influence
de fa pensee ,ciem ifU/ue [ Paris, 1929]), pp . 41 9-420): " Eugene. now alone,
walked a few steps to the topmost part of the graveya rd . He 8aw Paris , s pread
wi ndingly along the two banks o( the Seine. Lighu were beginning to twinkle. His
gaze fixed itself almost avidly on the space between the column in the Place
Vendome a nd tile cupola of Les Invalides. There lived the world into which he had
,,;shed to penetrate. He fastened on the murmurous hive a look that seemed al·
read y to be sucking the honey from it , and uttered these words: 'Now I ' m ready
for yoU! "'I ~ [EIOa,3]
To the theses of Haussmann corres ponds the tabulation of Du Camp , acco rding to
which the population of Paris during the Commune was 75.5 perce nt foreigners
and pro\'incials. [E lOa,4]
For the Blanquist putsch of August 14, 1870,300 revolvers and 400 heavy dag·
gers were made available. It is characteristic of the street fighting in this period
that the workers preferred daggers to revolvers. [EI0a,5]
Ka ufmann plaees a t the head of his chapter entitled " Architectural Autonomy" an
epigr aph from Le Co ntrat social: " a form . , . in which each is united with all, yet
obeys only himself a nd remains as free as before.-Such is the fundamental prob­
lem that the 80cial contract solves" (p. 42). 16 In this chapter (p . 43): " (Ledoux]
j us tifi etl the separ ation of the buildinp in the second proj ect for Cb aux with the
words: ' Return to principle .... Consult nature; man is everywhere isolated' (Ar­
chitectare, p . 70). The feudal principle of prer evolutionary society ... can have
no furth er validity now. .. The autonomously grounded form of every object
makes all stri ving after theatrical effect appear sell8eleu .. , . At a stroke, it would
seem , ... the Bar oque a rt of the prospect disappears from Bight." E. Kaufmann,
Von Ledoux bis Le Corbwier (Vienna a nd Leipzig, 1933), p. 43. (EIOa,6j
"The renunciation of the picture8llue has its architectural equivalent in the refusal
of all pr08IJCcl-a rt . A highl y significant symptom is the sudden diffusion of the
silhouette.... Steel engra ving and wood engraving supplant the mezzotint , which
had fl ourished in the Ba roque age .... To anticipate our conclusions, ... let it be
said·that the a uto nomous principle retains its effi cacy . .. in the first decades a fter
the architecture of the Revolution , becoming ever weaker with the pauage of time
until , in the later decades of Ihe nineteenth centu ry. it is virtuaUy un recogniz­
ahle." Emil Ka ufmann . Von Ledoux bis Le Corbwier (Vienna and Leipzig, 1933),
pp , 47, 50. [E II ,I]
Na poleon Gaill ard : builder of the mighty ba rricade that . in 187 1, 8tood at the
entra nce of the Rue Royale a nd the Rue de Ri voli. [Ell.']
"At the curlier of the Rue de la Ch aussee-d 'Antin and the Rue Basse-du-Ramparl ,
there sit8 a house that is rema rka ble for t.he caryatids on the fa -;ade facing the Rue
Basse-du- Rampart. Because this lalle r sireN must disappear. the magnifice nt
house with Ihe caryatids, built o nl y twenly ye urs ago, is going 10 he {Icmolished.
The jury for expropriations grunts Ihe dll'ee miUion francs {lclllumle(1 by Ihe
owner and approved by the cily. Three miUion! What a useful and pro{luctive
expenditure!" Auguste Blanqui , Critique socia Ie, vol. 2 , Progments et Tlotes
(Paris , 1885). p. 341. [EII ,3]
"Against Paris. Ollilurate scheme to clear oul the cily, 10 dispe r se its population of
workers. Hypoc ritically-on a humanitaria n pretext- they propose to redistrib­
ute throughout the 38,000 townships of France the 75 ,000 workers afft,-.: ted by
unemployment. 1849. " B1anqui . Critique sociale. vol. 2 , Frag mellts et Tlotes
(Paris, 1885) , p. 313. [Ell ,4]
" A Monsie ur d ' Havrincourt receutIy expounded on the strategic theory of civil
war. The troops must never be a llowed to spend much time in the main areas of
disturbance. They are corrupted by co ntact with the rebels and refuse to fire
freely when repression becomes necessa ry.... The best system: construct citadels
dominating the suspect towns and ready at any moment to crush them . Solmen
mus t he kept garrisoned, away from the popular contagion." Auguste Blanqui,
Critique sociale, vol. 2 (Paris, 1885), pp. 232-233 (" Saint-Etienne. 1850").
[Ell ,SI
"The Haussmanization of Paris and the provinces is one of the great plagues of the
Second Empire. No one will ever know how many thousa nds of unfortunates have
lost their lives as a consequence of deprivations occasioned by these senseless
constructious. The devouring of so many millions is one the principal causes of the
present distress .... 'When building goes well , everything goes well,' runs a popu­
lar adage, which has attained the s latus of economic u1I:iom. By this standard , a
huudred pyramids of Cheops, rising together iuto t.he clouds, would attest to
overflowing prospe rity. Singula r calculus. Yes, ill a well-orde red state, where
thrift did not strangle exchange, construction would be the true measure of public
fortune. For then it would re veal a growth in population aud all excess of labor
that ... would lay a foundation for t.he future. In any ot.her circumstances, the
trowel mere ly betra ys the murderous fanta sies of absolutism , which , whe n its fury
for war momentarily slackens , is seized by the fury for building. . . . All me rce­
nar y tongues have been loosed in a c horus of celebration for the great works that
are re newing the face of Paris. Nothing 80 sad, so lacking in !Social spoutane il y, as
this vast shifting of stoues by the hand of despotism. The re is no more dis mal
symp tom of decadeuce. In proportion as Rome collapsed in agony, il s monuments
grew more lIumerous and more colossa l. It was building its own sepulclle r aud
making ready to die gloriously. Bul us for t he mode rn wodd- it has no wish to die,
and human stupidity is nearin g its em!. People are weary ()f grandiose homicidal
ac ts. The projects that have so dis rupted tile capital , conditione{1 as they are on
repression and va nity. ha ve failed the future no le8s thun the present. " A. Blanljui .
Critique &ocialc, vol. 1, CalJitai et travail (Parill, 1885) , I'p. 109- 111 (conclusion
e'
of " Le LU1l:e"). The foreword to Capital tm vail ill daled May 26, 1869.
[ElIa, l]
" The illusio ns aboul lhe fallta slic s tructures are dispelled . Nowhe re are there
materia ls other thu.1l t.he hundre d simple bodies . ... It ill with this meager assort­
me nt that the unive rse is necessa rily made a nd remade, without respite. M. Hau u­
malin had just as much 10 rebuild Paris with; he had precisely tbese mate rials. It is
nol variety that stands o ut in his const ructions. Nature , which a lso demolishes in
order 10 reCOllstruct , d ocs a littJe better with the things it c reates. It kuows how to
make such good lise of its me age r resources that one hesit ates to say ther e is a liuut
to the origillality of its works." A. Blanqui, L 'Etemite p(lr les futres: Hypothese
astronomique (Paris, 1872), p. 53. (EIla,2]
Di( TZeU( Wdtbiihn(, 34, no. 5 (February 3, 1938), in an essay by H. Budzislawski,
"Croesus Builds" (pp. 129-130), quotes Engels' "Zur WOhnungsfrage" <On the
Housing QyestiOID of 1872: "In reality the bourgeoisie has only one method of
settling the ho.u sing question after its fashion-that is to say, of settling it in such a
way that the solution continually poses the question anew. This method is called
'Haussmarm.' By the term 'Haussmarm,' I do not mean merely the specifically
Bonapartist manner of the Parisian Haussmann-cutting long, straight, broad
streets right through closely built working-class neighborhoods and lining them
on both sides with big luxurious buildings, the intention having been, apart from
the strategic aim of making barricade fighting more difficult, to develop a spe­
cifically Bonapartist building-trades proletariat dependent on the government,
and to tum the city into a luxury city pure and simple. By 'Haussmann' I mean
the practice, which has now become general, of making breaches in the working­
class neighborhoods of our big cities, particularly in those which are centrally
situated .... The result is everywhere the same: the most scandalous alleys ...
disappear to the accompaniment of lavish self-glorification by the bourgeoi­
sie . .. , but-they reappear at once somewhere else, often in the inunediate
neighborhood." 17_ With this goes the prize question: Why was the mortality rate
in London so much higher in the new working-class districts (around 1890?)
than in the slums?-Because people went hungry so that they could afford the
high rents. And Peladan's observation: the nineteenth century forced everyone to
secure lodgings for himself, even at the cost offood and clothing. [EI 2,1 ]
Is it true, as Paul \r\b:tJleim maintains in his article "Die neue Siegesallee" (Di(
'Uiu Weltbiihn(, 34, no. 8, p. 240), that Haussmann spared Parisians the misery of
large blocks of Bats? (EI 2,2]
Haussmann who, faced with the city plan of Paris, takes up Rastignac's cry of "A
deux maintenant! "
!lOllS [EI 2,3]
'''The new boulevarl18 !Jave intr(Hluced light and air inlo unwholesome districts,
11111 have done so h y wiping oul , along their way, almost aU the courtyards and
ga.·dens-w!Jich moreover lJave beell ruled oul by the progressive rise in real
estate prices. " Victor Fournel , Paris nOlwcau et ParisfutlLr (Paris. 1868), p. 224
(" Conclusion"). [E12,4J
The oltl Paris hewails the monotony of the new streets; whereupon the new Paris
I"I:SPOlld 8:
Why allihese reproaches? .
Thanks 10 the straight line, the eue of travel il arfords,
One avoids the shock of many a vehicle.
And , if one's eyes are good , one Jikewise avoids
The fools, the borrowers, the bailiffs, the bores:
Lasl hut nOlleast, down the whole length of the avenue,
Each pll8serby now avoids the others, or nods from afar.
M. Bartlu':lelllY, Le VieliX Paris e t Ie nouvea" (Paris, 1861), PI'. 5-6. [EI2a,I J
The old Pa ris: " The rent devours all , and they go without meat." M. Barthelemy,
l...e Vieux Paris et Ie nouvealt (Paris, 1861 ), p. 8. [E12a,2]
Victor Fournel, in his Paris nouveau et Paris fuwr (Paris, 1868). pa rticularly in
the section "Un ch apitre des mines de Paris moderne," gives an idea of the scale
011 which Haussmann engineered d estruction in Paris. " Modern Paris is a parvenu
that goes back no furth er in time than its own beginnings, and that razes the old
palaces and old churches to build in their place beautiful white hou8e8 with stucco
ornaments and p asteboard 8tatue8. In the previous century, to write the annals of
the mo numents of Paris was to write the allnals of Pa ris itself, from its origins up
through each of its epochs; soon , however, it will be ... mer ely to write the annals
of the last twent y yea rs of our OWD existence" (pp. 293-294). [E 12a,3)
Fournel, in his eminent demonstration of Haussmann's misdeeds: " From the Fau­
bourg Saint-Germain to the Faubourg Saint-Honore, from the Latin Quarter to
the en virons of the Palais-Royal, from the Faubourg Saint-Denis to the Chaussee
d 'Antin , from the Boulevard des ItaLiens to the Boulevard du Temple, it seemed ,
in each case, th at you were passing from one continent to another. It all made for
so many distinct small cities within the capital city-a city of study, a city of
COlllmer ce, a city of luxury, a city of refuge , a city of movement and of popular
pleasures-aU of them n onetheless Linked to one another by a h08t of gradations
a nd transitions. And this is what is being obliterated . . . b y the construction
ever ywhere of the same geollletrical and rectilinear street , with its unvarying mile­
la ug per spective a nd its continuous rows of houses that are alwa ys the same
house." Victor Fournel , Paris 1I0uvet!lt et Paris futlLr, PI'. 220-22 1 ("'Con­
clusion "). [E 12a,4)
" They ... transplant the Boulevard d es haliells in its entirety to the Montagne
Sainte-Genevieve--with about as much utility and profit as a hothouse flower in
the forest- and they create Rues d e RivoH in the ancient city center, which has no
need of them. Eventually this cradle of the capital , having been demolished , will
comprise at most a barracks, a church , a hospita l, and a palace." Victor Fournel,
Pari$ nOlweal~ et Puris futur (Paris, 1868), p. 223. The last thought echoes a
stanza from Hugo's "A l' Arc de Triolllphe. " [E13, I)
Haussmann's work is accomplished today, as the Spanish war makes clear, by
quite other means. [E13,2]
Tempora ry tenants under Haussmann : " The industrial nomads among the Dew
ground-floor Parisians fall into three principal categories: commercial photogra­
phers; d ealers in bric-a.-brac who run buaar s and cheap shops; and exhibitors of
curiosities, particularly of female giants. Up to now, these interestin g personages
have numbered among those who have profited the most from the transformation
of Paris." Victor Fournel, Paris nouveau et Parisfllwr (Paris, 1868), pp. 129-130
("Promenade pittoresque a. travers Ie nouveau Paris") . [E t 3,31
" The covered market of u s Hailes, b y universal consent, constitutes the most
irre proachable construction of the past dozen years.... It manifests one of those
logical harmonies which satisfy the mind b y the obviousness of its signification. "
Victor Fournel, Paris nouveau et Pa ri.tflttur, p. 213. [E 13,4]
Alread y Tissot invites speculation : " The cit y of Paris is supposed to make a series
of loans totaling hundreds of millions of franc s and , at the same time, purchase the
better part of a qltarti.er in order to r ebuild it in a manner conforming to the r e­
quirt ments of taste, hygiene, and ease of communication. Here is matter
for speculation ." Anll':dee de Tissot , Paris et wndres compare.t (Paris, 1830),
pp.46-47. [E 13,51
In Le Paue, Ie present , l'a venir de la Repltblique (Pa ris, 1850), p. 3 1 (cited in
<Jean> Cassou, Quarante-huit (Paris, 1939>, PI'. 174-175), Lamartllie already
speaks of the " nomadic, indecisive, and dissolute city dweller!! who are corrupted
b y their idJeness in public places and who go whichever way the wind of fa ctional­
ism blows, heeding the voice of hip! who shouts the loudest ." [E13a,l ]
Stahl on the Parisian tenement houses: " It was already [in the Middle Ages] an
overpopulated metropolis that was squeezed within the tight belt of a walled for·
tification. For the mass of people, there were neither single-fa mily houses nor
separately owned houses nor even modest cottages. Buildings of lIIany stories were
erec ted on the n arrowest of lots, generally allowing only two, often only one, front
window (though elsewher e three-window houses wer e the rule). These buildings
usually remained wholly unado rned , and when they did not simply come to a stop
al Ihe top, I.llere was al mosl II single gahle affixed ther e .. .. On tile roofs. the Paris of the pas t three centuries . For Haun mann took over not only the form of
siluation was stra uge enough . wi th unllssuming superstructu res and IIIlIlIsardes the ave nue alld boulevarll but also the form of the house from the imperial capital
nestled ncxt to Ihe chimney flues. whicll were placed ext remely close to one an­ laid out hy Louis xrv. That is why his Itreets can perform the function of making
other." Sta hl SI'CS, in the freedom of the roofi ng structures-a freedom to which the city into a conspicuous unity. No. he has not destroyed Paris; ~at he r, he h u
mode rn a rchitects ill Pa ris Likewise ad here--"a fa ntastic and thoroughl y Gothic brought it to completion .... This must be acknowledged even .... lIen yo u realize
element :' Fritz Sta hl . P(lris (Berlin (1929»), pp. 79--80. [E 13a,2] how much beaut y was sacrificed .... Uau1I8mann was alsuredly a fanatic-but his
work could be accomplis hed onl y by a fana tic." Fritz Stahl, Pam: Eille Stadt au
" Ever ywhere ... the peculiar chimneys serve only to heighten the disorder of KURstwerl..· (Berlin). pp . 173- 174. [E14a]
these for ms [the mansa rdes]. T his is . .. a trait common to aU Parisian houses.
£" el\ tile oldest of them have that high waU from which the tops of the chimney
flues extend .... We are fa r relllo"ed here from the Roman style , which has been
taken to be the foundation of Parisia n a rchitecture. We are in fact lIearer ill!
opposite, the Gothic, to which the chimneys clearly allude . .. . If we want to call
this more loosely a " nortllern s tyle." then we can see that a second .. . northern
element is present to mitigate the Roma n character of the streets. This is none
other than die modern boulevards and a venues .. . • which are planted , for the
IllOst pa rt. with tn.'C8; . .. a nd rows of trees. of cour se , are a feature of the north­
ern city. " Fritz Stahl , P(lris (Berlin), pp. 2 1- 22. [E13a,3]

In Ilaris, die modern house has " developed gradually out of the preexisting one.
T his could happell hecallse die preexisting one was already a lar ge townhouse of
the type cr eated here .. . in the seventeentll century 0 11 tile Place Ven<lome. where
today the residential palaces of former times have come to harbo r husine88 e&ta b~
lis hments of ever y kind- without having s uffered die leas t altera tion to their
fa ..adea." Fritz Sta hl , Paris (Berlin), p . 18 . (E14]

A plea for Ha uu mann : " It is well k nown that . . . the nineteenth century enti rely
lost , together with other fundamental concepts of art. the concept of the city u ...
a unified whole. Henceforth there was no longer an y city p lanning. New huildinp
....ere introduced into the old network of str eets without a "Ian. and they were
expallded without a pla n .... What ca n properly be called tile a rchitectural his­
tory of a city ... ....as in this way everywllere terminated . Paris is the only excep­
tion , a lld as s uch it was greeted ...;th incomprehension and disapp roval"
(pp. 13-14 ). '''I'hrt.'C gellcratiolls failed to "lIders tood what city pl anning is . We
know ....hat it is, but in our case this knowledge generall y brings only regret for
missell oppOl·ltlllities . .. . These considerations make itl'ossible to a pprociate the
only cit y plan " er or genius in the modern ....orld- a mall , moreover, who indirectl y
created nil tire Alllcrican metropolises" (pp. 168-169). " It is solely intilis per spec­
tive. then . thllt HaU8Sllll.l llll 'S great thoroughfares take 011 thei r reo lllleaning. With
them, Ihe nl'W cily . . . intervenes ill the old and, in a certai n sellse, draws 0 11 the
01(1, ....ithout otllt:r wise violating il.8 cha racter. Thus , these tlloroughrarcs lIIay be
soillt o Inlve. along ....ith their utility. all aesthetic effect , s uch th otl.he old cit y and
the new a rc IIot left ~ hllillin g opposite each other, as is the cose ever ywhere else,
but a re drawn togclhcr into one. The moment yo u come out of some ancient lane
onto one of Haun mann 's avenues, yo u ' re ill contact ...;th this ne ....er Paris-the

F Frallcc. and ",;t!1 it the upholstered style become8 dominant." 1\1al[ Yon Doehn, Die
[Iron Construction1
Each epoch dreams the one to foIlO\....
- Michelet, ~A,"l:nirl AV(:llirl" (Europt, 73, p. 6)
Dialectica1 deduction of iron construction: it is contrasted both with Greek con­
struction in stone (raftered ceiling) and with medieval construction in stone
(vaulted ceiling). "Another an, in which another static principle establishes a tom:
even more magnificent than that of the other two, will struggle from the womb of
time to be born. . . . A new and unprecedented ceiling system, one that will
naturally bring in its wake a whole new realm of art forms, can ... make its
appearance only after some particular material-fonnerly neglected, if not un­
known, as a basic principle in that application-begins to be accepted. Such a
material is ... iron. which our cenrury has already staned to employ in this
sense. In proportion as its static properties are tested and made known, iron is
destined to serve, in the architecture of the future, as the basis for the system of
ceiling construction ; and with respect to statics, it is destined to advance this
system as far beyond the Hellenic and the medieval as the system of the arch
advanced the Middle Ages beyond the monolithic stone-lintel system of antiq­
uity.... If the static principle of force is thus borrowed from vaulted construc­
tions and put to work for an en tirely new and unprecedented system, then. with
regard to the art forms of the new system, the fonnal principle of the Hellenic
mode must lind acceptance." <um hu'ndvtjiihrig(1l Ceburl.stag 1W.rl BfMtticilerJ
(Berlin, 1906), pp. 42, 44--46. (The principle of H ellenic architecrure and Ger­
manic architecrure as carried over into the architecrure of our time.) (FI ,I)
G lass before its time, premarure iron. 10 the arcades, both the most brittle and the
strongest materials suffered breakage ; in a cenain sense, they \\-"ere dea?""e~d.
Around the middle o f the past cenrury, it was not yet known how to build with
glass and iron. Hence, the light that fell from above, through tlle panes between
the iron supports, was dirty and sad. (Fl ,2]
"The mid- 1830s see the appearance or the first iron rUrnilUre. in the rorm or
bedsteads, chair8, small tallle8, j(lrrlinii~refj; a nd it i8 highl y cllIJrllcteriiitic or the
CPOcll that this rurniture was prererred beca use it could be mllde to imitill c per-
reedy a ny type or wood. Shortl y arter 1840, rull y padded rurnitu re appears in
Mocle illl X IX. j(l/ir/lllflderl , vol. 2 (Munich , 19(7), p . 131 .
The two great advances in technology-gas' and cast iron-go together. "Aside
[FI .3)
from the great quantity of lights maintained by the merchants, these galleries are
illuminated in the evening by thirty-four jets of hydrogen gas mounted on cast­
iron volutes on the pilasters." The q uote is probably referring to the Galerie de
l'Opera. J. A. Dulaure, Histoire de ParU . .. depuis 1821 jUJqu'jz nrujourJ, vol. 2
« Paris, 1835), p. 29). [F I,4)
'"'The stagecoach gallops up to the quay, by the Seine. A bolt of lightning Rashes
over the Pont d'Austeriitz. The pencil comes to rest." Karl Gutzkow, Briefi aUJ
Paris, vol. 2 <i..eipzig, 1842), p. 234. The Austerlitz Bridge was one o f the first
iron structures in Paris. With the lightning Bash above, it becomes an emblem of
the dawning technological age. Close by, the stagecoach with its team of black
horses, whose hoofs strike romantic sparks. And the pencil o f the Genna.n author
who sketches them: a splendid vignette in the style o f Grandville.
[F1,51
" In reality, we know of no beautiful thea ters, no beautiful rail road 8tation8 , DO
bea utiful exhibition halls, no beautiful casinos-that is to 8ay, no ooautiful hou8es
of industry or of frivolity." Maurice Talmeyr, UI Cite du suns (Paris. 1908),
p. 277. (Fl,6]
Mugic of Cllst iron : " l:Iahblle z was able then to cOllvince him8elf that the ring
a round this planet was nothing other than a circular balcony on ",·h.ich the inhabi­
tants or Saturn strolled in the evening to get a brea th or fresh air." Grandville. Un
(llIIre lII,omle (Pari8 (844» , p . 139. 0 Ha8hish 0 [Fl ,7]
10 mentionin g factories built in the style of resid ential houses, and o ther things o f
this kind, we must take into account the following parallel from the history of
architecture: "I said earlier that in the period of 'sensibility: temples were erected
to friendship and tenderness; as taste subsequently rumed to the classical style, a
host of temples o r temple·like buildings immediately sprang up in gardens, in
parkS, on hills. And these were d edicated no t only to the Graces or to Apollo and
the M uses; fann buildings. tOO, including bams and stables, were built in the
style of temples." J acob Falke. CeJchichte deJ modmun GeJchmaclu (Leipzig, 1866).
pp. 373-374. lllcre are thus masks of architecture, and in such masquerade the
arcllitecture of Berlin around 1800 appears on Sundays, like a ghost at a costume
ball. [Fla,l ]
"Every tradesman imitates the materials and methods of others. and r.hink.s he
has accomplished a miracle of taste when he brings out porcelain cups resenl­
bling the work o f a cooper, glasses resembling porcelains, gold jewelry like leather
thongs, iron tables with the look of rattan, and so on. Into this arena rushes the
confectioner as we11-quite forgetting his proper domain, and the touchstone of
his taSte- aspiring to be a sculptor and architect.n Jacob Falke, Gescnichte des
motkmen Gmnmadf.J, p. 380. This perplexity derived in pan from the superabun·
dance of technical processes and new materials that had suddenly become avail·
able. The effort to assimilate them more thoroughly led to mistakes and failures.
On the other hand, these vain attempts are the most authentic proof that techno·
logical production, at the beginning, was in the grip of dreams. (Not architecture
alone but all technology is, at certain stages, evidence of a collective dream.)
[Fla,2]
" With iron construction- a s«ondary genre, it is true--a new art was born. The
east-side railroad station designed by Duquesnay, the Gare de l'Est, was in this
regard worthy of archit«ts' attention. The use of iron greatly increased in that
period , thanks to the new combinations to which it lent itself. Two quite differ ent
but equally remarkable works in this genre deserve to be mentioned fi rs t : the
Bihliotheque Sainte-Genevieve and the cental marketplace, Les H alles. The latter
is ... a veritable archetype: reproduced several times in Paris and other cities, it
proceeded. as the Gothic cathedral had done, to appear aU over France.... Nota­
ble improvements can be observed in the details. The monumental lead-work bas
become rich and elegant ; the railings, candelabras, and mosaic flooring all testify
to an often successful (Iuest for beaut y. Technological advances have made it possi­
ble to s beathe cast iron with copper, a process which must not be abused. Ad­
vances in luxury have led . even more successfully, to the replacemeDl of cast iron
by bronze , something which has turned the streetlamps in certain public places
into objets d'art. " 0 Gas 0 Note to this passage: "In 1848, .5,763 tons of iron en­
tered Paris; in 1854, 11 ,77 1; in 1862 , 41 ,666; in 1867. 61,.572." E. Levasseur,
Hut oire des classes ouvneres et de l'indw trie en France de 1789 a 1870, vol. 2
(Paris, 1904), pp . .531-.532. [Fl a,3}
" Henri Labrouste, an artist whose talents a re sober and severe. s uccessfull y in­
augurated the ornamental u se of iron in the COllstruction of the Bihliothet(ue
Sainte-Genevieve and the Bibliotheque Nationale." Levasseur, llutoire des
classes ouvrreres, p. 197. [Fla,4]
First constr uction of Les Halles in 18.51 , long after the p roje<:t had heen approved
by Napoleon in 181 1. It met with general disfavor. This stone structure was known
as ie/ort de la HaUe . " It was a n unfortunate attempt which will not be repeated.
... A mode of construction better suited to the end proposed will now he sougbt .
The glassed sections of the Gare d e l' Ouest amI the memory of the Crystal Palace,
which bad housed the world exhibition at London in 18.51, were no doubt respon­
sihle for the idea of using glalili and cast iron almost exclusively. Today we ca n see
the justification for turning 10 such lightweight materiab. which , beller than an y
others, fulfill ed t.he conditiolls laid down for these estahlishmcnts. Work on Les
Hailes h as not let up since 1851, yet lhey are still not finished." Maxime Du Camp ,
Pari.! (Paris, 1875), yol. 2. I'p. l21 - 122. [Fla,S)
Plan for a train station intemled to repla~:e the Ga re Saint-Lazare ..Corner of Place
de la Madeleine li nd Rue Tronchet. " According to the report, the rails-supported
by ' elegant cast-iron arclu:s rising twent y feet above the ground , and having a
length of 61.5 meters'- would have crossed the Rue Saint-Lazare, the Rue Saint_
Ni co la ~, the Ruedes Mathurin..., and the Rue CasteUane , each of which would have
had its own station ." 0 FUineur. Railroad sta tion near (?) the streets 0 " ... Merely
by looking at thcm , we ca n see how little these plans actua lly anticipated the futu re
of the railroads. Although d cscribed as ' monumental ,' the fa~ade of this train
station (which , fortunately, was never built) is of unus ually small dimensions; it
would 1I0t even serve to accommodate one of those shops tha t nowadays extend
along the corners of certain intersections. It is a sort of Italian ate building, three
stories high , with each story Il avingeight wi ndows; the mai n ent ra nce is marked by
a stairway of twenty-four steps leading to a semicircuJar IJOrch wide enough for
five or six persons to pass through side b y side. " Du Camp , Pa ru, vol. I , pp. 238­
ill ~ij
The Gare de l'Ouest (today?) presents " the double aspect of a factory in operation
and a ministry." Ou Camp , Paru , vol. I , p. 241. "With yo ur back to the three
tunnels that pass under the Boulevanl des BatignoUes, yo u call take in the whole of
the trai n station . You see that it almost bas the sh ape of an immense mandolin: the
rails would form the strings, and the signal posts, pl aced at every crossing of the
tracks, would form the pegs." 011 Camp, Paris, vol. I , p . 2.50. (F2,2]
"Charo n . . . r uined by the installation of a wire footbrid ge ovcr thc Styx. " Grand­
ville, Un alllre moncle (Paris, 1844), p. 138. (F2 ,3]
The first act of Offenbach 's Vie parisiennc takes place in a railroad station . "The
iudustrial U10vemellt seems to run in the hlood of this generat ion- to such an
extcnt that. fo r example, Flaehat has b uilt his house on a plot of land where, on
either side , trains arc always whistling by. " Sigfried Gie<lion , Ballen in Fmnkreich
(Leipzig and Berlin <1928» . p. 13. Eugenc Flacha t (1802-1873), builder of rail­
roads, designer. [1-'2 ,4)
On the Calerie d 'O.-leans in the Pa lais- Hoyal (1829- 183 1): "Even Fontainc, one of
IIH~ origina tors of the Empi re ~t y le, is cOIl Ycrted ill la ter years to the new material.
III 183.5-1836. moreover, he replaced the wooden flooring of the Galeric des
Dutailles in VerSililles wit h an iron assemhl y.- These galleries , like thosc in the
Palais- Hoyal, were subsequently perfected in Italy. For U 8 , tlIC Y lire a point of
depilrt urc fo r new urchitectural!)I"oblellls: traill stations, and the like." Sigfricd
Cicdioll , Bnllen ill J.' rallkreich , p. 2 1. [F2 ,5]
"The complicatt.."'! construction (out of iron and copper ) of the Corn Exchange in
1811 was the work of the archite<:t BeUange and the tlngin~r Brunet. It is the first
tillle. 10 our knowledge, that architect and engineer are no longer united in one
person . .. Hittorff, the builder of the Care tlu Nord , got hill insight into iron
construction frolll BeUangc.- Naturally, il is a matter more of all application of
iron than a eonSlruction in iron. TeeilltiqutlS of wood construction were simply
transposed to iron. " Sigfricd Giedioll , Hauen in Fnwkreich. p. 20. [F2,6)
Apropos of Veugny's covered market built in 1824 near the Madeleine: "The slen­
derness of the delicate cast-iron columns brings to mind Pompeian wall paintings.
'The construction , in iron and cast iron, of tbe new market near Ihe Madeleine i,
one of the most graceful achievements in this genre. One cannot imagine anything
more elegant or in better taste .. . .' Eck , 7raile." Sigfried Giedion , Hauen in
Frankreich , p. 21. [F2,7)
"The most important step toward industrialization: mechanical prefabrication of
specific forms (sections) out of wrought iron or steel. The field s interpenetrate: ...
in 1832, railroad workers began lIot with buildillg components but with rails. Here
is the point of deparlure for sectiollal iron , which is the basis of iron construction.
[Note 10 this passage: The new methods of construction penetrate slowly into
industry. Double-T iroll was used in flooring for the first time in Paris in 1845,
when the masolls were oul on strike and the price of woo<l had risen due to in­
creased construction and larger spans. ]" Ciedion , Hauen in Frankreich, p. 26.
(F2 ,8)
The first structures made of iron served transitory purposes: covered markets.
railroad stations, exhibitions. Iron is thus immediately allied with functional
moments in the life of the economy. What was once functional and transitory,
however, begins today, at an altered-tempo, to seem fonnal and stable. (F2 ,9)
" Les Hailes consiSI of two groups of pavilions joined to each other by covered
lancs. It is a somewhat timid iroll structure that avoids the generous spans of
Iloreau alld Flachal and obviously keeps to the model of the greenhouse."
Giedioll , Hauen if! Franl.;reich . p. 28. (F2a,l)
On the Gare tlu Nord: " Here they have entirely avoided Ihat abUlltlanee of space
whit:h is fount! in wailing rooms, cutrywa ys, and rcstaurants arolllld 1880, and
which led 10 the problem of the railroad Slatioll as exaggerate,1 baroque palace."
Gicdioll , Huuen ill Frtlllkreicli , p. 31. [F2a,2)
""Vherever the n.ineteenth century feels itself to be unobserved, it grows bold."
Giedion, Baum in Frallkreich, p. 33. In fact, this sentence holds good in the
general fonn that it has here : the anonymous art of the illustrations in family
mag-.wncs and children's books, for example, is proof of the poinl. [F2a,3)
Railroad stations <Balmhi!fe>used to be known as Eisrnhahnhi!fe.3 [F2a,4)
There is talk of renewing art by beginning with fonns . But arc nOt fonns the true
mystery of nature, which reserves to itself the right to remunera.te- precisely
through them- the accurate, the objective, the logical solution to a problem posed
in purely objective temu? When the wheel was invented, enabling continuous
forward motion over the ground, wouldn't someone there have been able to say,
with a certain justification, "And now, into the bargain, it's round- it's in theform
ofa whed'!" Are not all great conquests in the field offomu ultimately a matter of
technical discoveries? Only now are we beginning to guess what fonus-and
they will be determinative for OUT epoch-lie hidden in machines. "To what
extent the old fonns of the instruments of production influenced their new forms
from the outset is shown, . .. perhaps more strikingly than in any other way, by
the attempts, before the invention of the present locomotive, to construct a loco­
motive that actually had two feet, which, after the fashion of a horse, it raised
alternately from the ground. It is only after considerable development of the
science of mechanics, and accumulated practical experience, that the fonn of a
machine becomes settled entirely in accordance with mechanical principles, and
emancipated from the traditional fonn of the tool that gave rise to it." (In this
sense, for example, the supports and the load, in architecrure, are also "fonus.")
Passage is from Marx, Kapital, vol. 1 (Hamburg, 1922), p. 347n. ~ [F2a,5)
1brough the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, architecture is linked with the plastic arts.
"That was a disaster for architecture. In the Baroque age, this lllLity had been
perfect and self-evident. In the course of the nineteenth century, however, it
became untenable." Sigfried Giedion, Bauen in Frank reich <Leipzig and Berlin,
1928>, p. 16. This not only provides a very important perspective on the Ba­
roque ; it also indicates that architecture was historically the earliest field to out·
grow ~e concept of art, or, beuer, that it tolerated least well being contemplated
as "art"-a category which the nineteenth century, to a previously unimagined
extent but with hardly more justification at bottom, imposed on the creations of
intellecrual productivity. (F3, I)
The dusty fata morgana of the winter garden., the dreary perspective of the train
statiqn, with the small altar of happiness at the intersection of the tracks- it all
~olders under spurious constructions, glass before its time, premature iron. For
m. the first third of the previous cenrury, no one as yet understood how to build
WIth glass and iron. That problem, however, has long since been solved by
hangars and silos. Now, it is the same with the human material on the inside of
~e arcades as with the materials of their construction. PinlPS are the iron bear­
Illgs of this street, and its glass breakables are the whores. (F3.2)
"The new ' a rchitecture' <Baurn) has ils origin in the momenl uf industry's fOI'mu­
tion, aroulld 1830-the moment of mutation from Ille craftsmunly to the iudustrial
production process ." Gicdion , Huuell ill Fr(JIlkreich , p. 2. [F3.3)
"Railroad ttacks," with the ~culiar and unmistakable dream world that attaches
[Q them, are a very impressive c~xample of just how great the natural symbolic
pO\\-'C r of technological ilmovation can ~ . In this regard, it is illuminating to learn
of the bitter polemic waged against iron rails in the 18305. In A Treatise in
Elementary Locomotion, for example, A. Gordon argued that the steam carriage (as
it was called then) should run on lanes of granite. It was deemed impossible to
produce enough iron for even the very small num~r of railway lines being
plrumed at that time. [F3,4]
It must be kept in mind that the magnificent urban views opened up by new
constructions in iron-Gicdion, in his &urn in Frankreich (illustrations 61--63),
gives excellent examples with the Pont Transbordeur in Marseilles-for a long
rime were evident on1y to "'()rkers and engineers. 0 Marxism 0 For in those days
who besides the engineer and the proletarian had climbed the steps that alone
made it possible to recognize what was new and decisive about these structures :
the feeling of space? [F3,5]
In 1791 , the term ingenieur began to be used in France for tho5e officers skilled in
the arl!! of fortifi ca tion and siege. "At the same time, and in the same counlry, the
opposition between ' conlltruction ' and ' a rchitet:ture' began to make itseLffeit; and
before 10llg it figured in personal attacks. This antitlicllis had been entirely un­
knuwn in the pallt . .. . 811t in the innumer able aeflthetic treatises which after the
storms of the Revolution guided French a rt back into regular channels, ... the
COllSlrllctCItr5 stood opposed to the decorlltellr~. and with this tbe furth er question
arose: Di.lnot the illg{micllrs, as the allies of the former, n~ellsa rily occupy with
them, socially Sileaking, a distinct camp?" A. G. Meyer, Eisenbaltten (Esslingen ,
1907). p. 3. [F3.6]
" The teelllli.,ue of slune a rchit ~ ture is stereolomYi Ihat of wood is tectonics. What
does iron construction have in COllllllon with the one or the other?" Alfred Gott·
hol.1 Meyer, Eisenballte" (Esslingen , 1907), p. 5. " In stone we feel the natural
s pirit of the mall. Iron is, for us, only artificially cOlllpressed durability and
tcnacity" (p. 9). '" Iron has a tensile strength forty times greater than that of stone
and ten timcs greater tillm that of wOOlI. although it ~ net weight is only four tinles
that of stone ami onl y eightl.imes that of wood . In compariso n widl a stone mass of
the same .Iimensiolls . therefore . an iro n body I)(lSSes8CS. with onl y four time!! the
weight . a load limit forty times higller" (p . 11). [F3 ,1)
"T hi ~ muteda l, ill it s fi rst humlred ycu rs. has already undergone eSHenlial trans·
for m alion ~--t; a s liron , wrought iroll, ingol iron_ o dia l tOtlay the engineer has al
his .Iislmlial a IlIIillling ma lerial completel y different from that of some fifty years
11gO•••• In Ihe pcrsl"-"Clive of historical rcfl ~tioll , thc;;c are ' fermcnlil' of a dill<iui.
d illg instuhility. No otll('r hllilding Illah:r illl offers a nything rClllotely similllr. We
~ tu nol Iwn' at the bcginning of a ,Ie... clopment thut ill !lure to procee,1 ut a furiou s
pUC,' •.•. Tile . . . comlit.iollll or t.he IlIl1lcrial . . . are ...olutili:t.t:cl in ' IimitlC811
poilllibiJitics.'·· A. G. Meyer, Eisenballtell, p. 11. tron as revolutionary building
material! [F3a,l ]
Meanwhile, how it looked in the vulgar consciousness is indicated by the crass
yet typic.1.l utterance of a contemporary journalist, according to whom posterity
will one day have to confess, "In the nineteenth century, ancient Greek architec·
ture once again blossomed in its classical purity." Europa, 2 (Stuttgart and
Leipzig, 1837), p. 207. [F3a,2]
Railroad stationt at "ahodcs of art." " If Wicrtz bacl had a t his disposal ... the
puhlic mOlluments of modern ci ...ilization- r ailway IItalions, legislative chambers,
unh'enilY lectllre halls, marketplaces, town hallt - .. . who can say wbat bright
and dra matic lIew worlds he would have traced upon his canvas!" A . J . Wiertz,
Ocuvre5iitleruircs (paris, 1870), pp. 525-526. (F3a,3]
The teclUlica1 absolutism that is fundamental to iron construction-and funda·
mental merely on account of the material itself-becomes apparent to anyone
who recognizes the extent to which it contrasts with traditional conceptions of
the value and utility of building materials. "Iron inspired a certain distrust just
~cause it was not imnunediately furnished by nature, but instead had to be
artificially prepared as a building material. 1bis distrust is on1y a specific applica·
tion of that general sentinlent of the Renaissance to which Leon Battista Alberti
(De re tudjficatona [Paris, 15121, fol. xliv) gives expression at one point with the
words: 'Nanl est quidcm cujusquis corporis pars indissolubilior, quae a natura
conoeta et counita est, quam quae hominum manu et ane conjuncta atque,
compacta est' <For there is, in each thing, a part that is the work and the assem·
blage of nature, and that is more indissoluble than that which is produced and
assembled by the hand of man with his arb." A G. Meyer, Eisrnhauten (Esslin·
gen, ! 907), p. 14. 1",,')
It is WOM considering- and it appears that the answer to this question would be
in the negative-whether, at an earlier period, technical necessities in architecture
(bUt also in the other arts) detcnnined the fonus, the style, as thoroughly as they
do today, when such teclUlological derivation secms actually to become the
signature of everything now produced. With iron as a material, this is .already
clearly the case, and ~rhaps for the first time. Indeed, the "basic forms in which
iron appears as a building material are ... .already themselves, as distinct synthe·
ses, partly new. And their distinctiveness, in large measure, is the produa and
expression of the natural properties of the building material, since such properties
have been technically and scientifically developed and exploited precisely for
theM forms. The systema tic indusuial process which convertS raw material intO
immediately available building material begins, with iron, at a much earlier stage
than wilh previously existing building materials. Between matter ruld material, in
lhis case, lherc is a relationship quite different fro m that between stone and
ashlar, clay ruld tile, timber and beam : with iron, building material and structural
 form are, as it were, more homogeneous." A. C. Meyer, Eisenhautm (Esslingen,
1907), p. 23. [F3.,5]

! 1840-1844: " The construction of fortifications, inspired by Thiers. .. Thiers,

!!
who thought that railroads would never work, had gates constructed in Pam at
the very moment when railroad stations were needed." Dubech and d 'Espezel,
Hi!toire de Poris (Paris, 1926). p. 386. [F3a,6]

• "From the fifteenth century onward, this nearly colorless glass, in the form of
window panes, rules over the house as well. The whole development of interior
space obeys the command: 'More lightl'5_1n seventeenth-century Holland, this
development leads to window openings that, even in houses of the middle class,
ordinarily take up almost half the wall... . 1The abundance of light occasioned
by this practice must have ... soon become disagreeable. Within the room,
curtains offered a relief that was quickly to become, through the overzealous art
of the upholsterer, a disaster... . 1 The development of space by means of glass
and iron had come to a standstill. 1Suddenly, however, it gained new strength
from a perfectly inconspicuous source. 1Once again, this source was a 'house,'
one designed to 'shdter the needy; but it was a house neither for mortals nor for
divinities, neither for hearth fires nor for inanimate goods; it was, rather, a house
for plants. 1The origin of all present-day architecture in iron and glass is the
greenhouse." A. G. Meyer, Eismbautm, p. 55. oLight in the Arcades 0 Mirrors 0
The arcade is the hallmark of the world Proust depicts. Curious that, like this
world, it should be bound in its origin to the existence of plants. [F4,1]

On the Crystal Palace of 1851: "Of all the great things about this work, the great­
est, in every sense of the word, i8 the vaulted central hall .... Now, here too, at
fir8t , it was not a space-articlilating auhitect who did the talking but a-gar­
dener.... Thi8 is literally true: the main reason for the elevation of the central
hall was the presence, in this set!tion of Hyde Park, of magnificent elm trees, which
neither the Londoners nor Paxton himself wished to see felled. Incorporating them
into his giant glaBB house, as he had done earlier with the exotic plants at
Chatsworth, Paxton alm08t unconsciously-but nonetheless fundamentaUy--en­
hanced the architet!tural value of his construction." A. G. Meyer, Ei!enoouten
(EBBlingen . 1907), p. 62. (F4.2]

In opposition to the engineers and builders, <Charles-Fran~ois) Viel . as architet!t,

publishes his extremely violent, comprehensive polemic against static calculation,
Interior of the Crystal Palace, London, from a photograph by William Henry Fox Talbot. See
under the title De l'[mpltiuo.nce de, mathemo.rique5 pour o.,ultrer la ,olidite de, F4.2.
batiment5 <On the UseleBBneu of Mathematics for Assuring the Stability of Build­
ingS) (Paris, 1805). [F4.3]

The following holds good for the arcades, particularly as iron strucntres: "Their
mOSt essential component ... is the roof. Even the etymology of the word 'hall'G
points to this. It is a covered, not an enclosed space; the side walls are, so to
 speak, 'concealt:d.''' This last point pertains in a spc:cial sense: to tht: arcad~,
whose walls ha~ o nly s~ndari1y tht: function of partitioning tht: hall ; primarily,
thq- s~ as walls or fa~des fo r tht: commucial spaces within tht:m. Tht: pas·
sage is from A. G . Mt:yer, Eisrobauten, p. 69. [F4,4)
The arcade as iron construction stands o n the ~rge of horizontal oc:tension.
TItat is a decisive condition for its "old-fashioned" appearance. It displays, in this
.. regard, a hybrid character, ·anaIogous in certain respeas to that of the Baroque
church-"the vaulted 'hall' that compreht:nds tht: chapels only as an ex~nsion of
its own proper space, which is wider than ever before. Nevertheless, an attraction
'from on high' is also at work in this: Baroqut: hall-an upward·tending ecstasy,
such as jubilates from tht: frescoes on tht: ceiling. So long as ecclesiastical spaces
aim to be more than spaces for gathering, so long as they strive to safeguard the
idea of the t:tt:mal, they will be satisfied with nothing l~s than an overarching
unity, in which tht: vertical tendency outweighs tht: horizontal." A. G. Meyer,
EiJarbauten, p. 74. On the o ther hand, it may be said that something sacral, a
vestige of the nave, still attaches to this row of commodities that is the arcadt:.
From a functional point of view, the arcadt: already occupi~ the field of horizon­
tal amplitude; architecturally, however, it still stands within the conceptual field of
the old " haII ~ [F',51
The Galerie des Machines, built in 1889.1 was torn down in 1910 " out of a rti. tic
. adism.'" [F4,6)
Historical extension of the horizontal: " From the palaces of the Italian High Ren­
ail8ance, the chateaux of tlle French kings take the 'gaUery,' which-as in the case
of the ' CaUery of AIKlllo' at the Louvre and the 'Gallery of Mirrors' at Versailles-­
becomes the emblem of majesty itself.... I Its new triumphal advance in the nine­
teenth century begins under the sign of the purely utilitarian structure, with those
haUs known as warehouses and market8, workshops and fa ctories; the problem of
railroad stations and , abo!e all, of exhibitions leads it back to art . And every­
wher e the demand for continuous horizontal extension i.e .0 great that the stone
arch and the wooden ceiling can have only very limited applications.... In Gothic
structures, the wall. tllrn into the ceiling, whereas in iron halls of the type ...
represented hy the Galler y of Machines in Paris, the ceiling slides over the walls
without interruption .'" A. G. Meyer, Eisenbauten. PI). 74-75. [F4a,l]
Never bcfore was the criterion of the "minimal" so important. And that includes
the mininlal e1cment of quantity: the "little," the "few." These are dimcnsions
that wcre well established in tedmological and architectural constructions long
before literature made bold to adapt them . Fundamentally, it is a question of
the earliest manifestation of the principlt: of montage. On building the Eiffel
Tower: "Thus, the plastic shaping power abdicates here in favor of a colossal
span of spiritual cnergy, which channels the inorganic material energy into the
sma llest, most efficicnt fonns and conjoins these fonus in the most clfeetive
manner.... Each of the twelve thousand metal fittings, each of the two and a half
million rivets, is machinw to the millimt:ter.... On this work site, one hears no
chisel-blow liberating fonn from stone; here thought reigns over musclt: power,
which it transmits via cranes and secure scaffolding." A. G. Meyer, Eisenbaulm,
p. 93. 0 Precursors 0 [F4a,2)
" Haussmann was incapable of having what could be called a policy 0 11 railroad
stations .... Despite a directive from the emperor, who justly baptized Ie. Bare.
' the !lew gateways of Paris ,' the continued development of the railroads surprised
everyone, surpaning aU expectations .... The habit of a certain empi.rici. m was
not easily overcome." Dubech and d ' Espezel, Histoire de Paris (Paris. 1926),
p.419. (F4a,3)
Eiffel Tower. "Greeted at first by a storm of protest , it has remained (Iuite ugly,
though it proved useful for r ese.rc.h on wirelen te.legraphy.... It has been said
that this world exhibition marked the triumph of iron construction . It wouJd be
truer to say that it ma rked itB bankruptcy. " Dubech and d ' Espezel, Histoire de
Paris , pp. 461-462. [F4a,4)
"Around 1878. it was thought that salvation lay in iron construction . Its ' yea rning
for verticality' (aa Salomon Reinach put it), the predominance of empty spaces
over filled spaces, and the lightness of ita visible frame raised hopes that a style was
emerging in which the essence of the Gothic gewus wouJd be r evived and rejuve­
nated by a new spirit and new materials. But when engineer s erected the Galerie
des Machines and the Eiffel Tower in 1889, people d e8l)aired of the art of iron.
Perhaps too soon. " Dubech and d ' Espezel, Histoire de Pari. , p . 464. [F4a,5]
Reranger : " Hia sole reproach to the regime of Louis Pbilil>pe was that it put the
republic to grow in a hothouse.'" Franz Diederich , " Victor Hup;o,'" Die De lle Zeit.
20, no. 1 (Stuttgart, 1901), p . 648. [F4a,6)
" The patlt that leads from the Empire form of the firu locomotive to the fin ­
ished objeetive and fun ctional form or today marks an evolution ." Joseph Aug.
Lux , " Maschineniisthetik," Die neue Zeit, 27, no. 2 (Stuttgart, 19(9), p . 439.
[F4a,7)
"Those endowed with an especiaUy fin e artistic conscience have hurled down ,
from the alta r of art , curse after curse on the building engineers. It suffices to
mention Ruskin ." A. G. Meyer, Ei.enb(JIuen (Esslingen, 1907), p . 3. [F5,I)
Concerning the artistic idea of Empire. On Daumier : " He d isplayed the grea test
enthusiasm for muscular excitation•. Tirele88ly his pencil exalts tbe t~ nsio n and
movement of muscles .... But tilt: public of which he dreamed was pro portioned
differently from Ihis ignoble ... 80ciely of shopkeepers. He yearnetl for a sodal
milieu that would have provided . like that of ancient G rt!Cce, a base frum which
lJe<>ple eould rllille thcm ~dve~ . as frolll a Il.e destal , in vigorou~ beauty.... A gro­
tei>llue Ili.'l lorlioll mu! 1 ... re! lIh whe n Ihe bourgeoi! ie i~ viewed from the a ngle of
s tich idcu llJ. O:lUmicr's ca ricatu re! wc re thus the a lmost involuntary conSC<luence
of II lofly UJll hitiofi Iha l fuilt.~1 in its aim of a tttlncmcni with Ihe milldle-da lJs pub­
lic.... In 1835. unullcllIp t 0 11 t he life of the king'! prel;cllied a n ... opportunit y to
I'urluil ... Ihe bo ldlles~ of the press, which had heen puhlicly blamed for the deed .
Politicill caricature lH!C:a me iml)oH ible .... Hence, t he drawings of lawyers done
i.1I this pe riod are ... by far the most passionate and anima ted. T he courtroom is
the only pillee where pil e h t.~1 battles can stiLi be waged ill a U their fury, and lawyers
:1I'e the o nl y lJe<>ple in whom a n emphatica lly muscular rhe toric and u profession­
uLl y Ilruma tic pose ha"e made for an elaborate ph y@iognomy of the body." Fritz
Th. Schu he, "'Honore Da umie r,'" Die neue Zeit. 32, 11 0. I (Stutt~rt <1913» ,
pp.833-835 . {F5,2J
The miscarriage of Ba1tard's design for Les Halles, built in 1853, is due to the
same unfortunate combination of masonry and ironwork as in the original proj­
ect for the London exhibition hall of 1851, the 'work of the Frenchman Horeau.
Parisians referred to Ba1tard's structure, which was subsequently tom down, as Ie
fort dt: fa Hallt:. {F5,3)
0 11 the CrYiOta l Palacl', Wilh Ihe elms ill its midst : " Under these ~ass arches,
tha nks to awnings, "clltilutors, and ~s hillg fountain s, visilors revel in a delicious
coolncss. In tile wo rds of o ne o bserve r : ' You might think you were under the
billows of sOllie fa bulous ri vcr, in the crystal palace of a fairy or naiad. ,.' A. Demy,
EUrJi IliJtorillue u ur les expoJition J univerJeJfes de Paris (Paris, 190 1)~, p . 40.
[F5,4]
"After the closing of the London Exhibition in 1851, people in England won·
dered what was to become of the Crystal Palace. Although a clause inserted in
the deed of concession for the grounds required ... the demolition ... of the
building, public opinion was unanimous in asking for the abrogation of this
clause.... -The newspapers "''ere full of proposals of all kinds, many of which
were distinctly eccentric. A doctor wanted to rum the place into a hospital;
another suggested a bathing establishment. .. . One person had the idea of mak·
ing it a gigantic library. An Englishman with a violent passion for Bowers insisted
on seeing tJle whole palace become a garden." The Crystal Palace was acquired
by Francis Fuller and transferred to Sydenham. A. S. de Doncourt, Uj ExpositioTl.l
Imiuemll(j (LiUe and Paris d889~), p. 77. Compare F6a,1. The Bourse could
rr:p mmt anything; the Crystal Palace could be ujr:d for anything. IF5a, l )
" FIIl'lIillln' making in lulllliar iro ll ... rivals furnilure making ill wooIl, 111111evell
;;uqJa u I's il . Jo' uruitu re of s lIc h iron. willI hllkell-o n color, .. . ellllllleicil wilh Row­
.:rl; ur wi tll plllterll l; imil ul.ing 111O~c of inluid woo.1. is clcgllllt and nicely turned .
like the tOI)S of Boucher's gates." Edollartl Fo ucaud. Pliris inventeur: Physiologic
de l'indllslriejrall{rJise (Puris, 1844), pp. 92- 93. (F5a,2)
The s<luUI'c opposite Ihe Cu re du No rll wall known in 1860 as the Place de
Rouba;'.:. {F5a,3]
In eugravings of the l)eriod. IlOrse& a re pranc ing across railroad statio n espla­
IHldell, and s lugccoachcs roll by ill douds of d us!. {F5a,4)
Cu ption for a wOOilcul reprcsenting a catafalque in the Care du Nord: " Last
re.sl)Ct!ts puid to Meyerbecr in Paris at the su re de chemin de fer du Nord."
[F5a,5J
Fllctories wit h gulleries illside and winding irOIl staircases. Ea rl y prOSI)Ct!tu8e8 and
illus trations s how productio n rooms and dis play rooms, whic h are often under the
same roof, fondly represented in cross-sectio n like do Li houses. Thus a prospectus
of 1865 for the foo twear coml)any Pinet. ot infreque ntl y one sees ateliers , like
t.hose of photographers, with sliding s hades in front of the skylight. Cabinet des
[ stu mpes. {F5a,6)
The Eiffcl To"'"er : " It is c harllcte ristic of this most famous COll8lructio ll of the
e poch that , for a ll its gigantic stature, ... it nevertheless feels like a knickknack ,
which . . . !!pcaks for the fllct t.hat the secolld*ra te artistic scnsibility of the era
co uld think , ill gener a l, only within the fnun ework of genre and t he technillue of
filigree." Egon Friedell , Killturseschichte der Nellzeit, vol. 3 (Munich , 1931),
p .363. {F5a,7]
" Micllel C hc vulier sets d own his dreams of the ne w te mple in a poem:
1 would have YOIl see my temille, the Lord God lIIid.
The culumn& of the temple
Were strong beams;
Of hollow cast·iron ooillmns
Wu 'llf: organ of this new temple.
The framework wu of irOll, of molded steel .
Of cupper ami of hronze.
The arc hitect had "luced il ul,on Ihe col LImn s
Like a Blringed instrlllllent Ill)On a wOOIlwind .
From ll,e lempl.· "an'e. moreo\'cr. a l each mOlllC1i1 of t he day.
The BOUlids of a new harmony.
The sten,I"r ~ Ili re rose lip like II lightning rod;
[t reac he<11O l.h" doUlls,
 arts-a view which is, unhappily, deeply rooted in him and deeply
pondered."
Victor H ugo, Oeullm £ompleltJ, novels, vol. 3 (Paris, 1880), p. 5.'
[F6,3j

Before the decision to build the Pa1ais de l'Industrle'Q was made,

a plan had
existed to roof over a section of the Champ s-E1ys tes-alo ng with its trees-i
n the
maJUler of the Crystal Palace.
[F6,4j

Vidor Hugo, in Not re-Dame de Pari8, on the Bourse: " If it be the

rule that the
arehiteeture of a buildin g 8hould be adapted to itl fun ction , ...
we can hardly
wonder enough at a mOllum ent which might equaUy weU be a king'l
palace, a house
of eommOIlS, a lown haU, a coUege, a riding school , a ll academy,
a warebo Ule, a
law (Jourt , a mu,eum . a b arracks , a lepulcher, a temple, or a theater
. For the
present , it is a stock exchange .... It is a Slock exchan ge in Frallce
just as it would
have been a temple in Creece .. .. We h ave the colonn ade encircli
ng the monu·
ment , beneath which, on day! of high religiou! solemni ty, the theory
of stockbr o­
La Uwe-tite-oman~> flU fA Fureur dujour (picrure Puu1e Mania, or They're kers and jobber! can be majestically expoun ded. These, for sure,
AIl the Rage These are ver y stately
Days). See F6,2. monum ents. If we add to them man y fine streets, as am using and
diverse a8 the
Rue de Ri voLi , then I do not despair but that one d ay a balloon 's-eye
view of Paris
will offer us that wealth of lines, ... that di versity of aspect , that
80mehow . _ .
To ~k there electric rorce; unexpec ted beauty, which ch aracter izes a checke rboard ." Victor
Hugo, Oeuvre ,
Storms have charged iI with vitality and ten,ion. completel, novels, vol. 3 (Par is, 1880), PI). 206-20 7 (NOIre- Dame de Po
rn)."
[F6a,lj
Atthe topofth e minareu
The telegrap h was wavin&i u ann' ,
Bringing rrom all paru
Good newl to the J.e<lple....
Henry- Rene D'Allemagne, 1£$ Saint-S imanieru, 1827-1837 (Paris.
1930), p. 308.
[F6,1 ]

The "Chinese puzzle," which comes into fashion during the Empire
, reve~ the
century's awakening sense for construction. The problems ~t. appear,
m the
puzzJes of the period, as hatched portions of a landscape, a buildmg,
Of a fi~re
are a first presentiment of the cubist principle in the plastic am.
(fa ve~y:
whethe r, in an allegorical representation in the Cabine t des Estampes,
the bram­
teaser undoes the kaleidoscope or vice versa.)
[F6,2j

"Paris a vol d'oiseau" (A Bird's-Eye View of Paris_ Nom-Dame ck Paris, vol.

I,
book 3-conc ludes its overview of the architectura..l history of the city
with an
ironic characterization of the present day, which culminates in a descrip
tion of the
architec tural insignificance of the Stock Exchange. The importa nce of
~e chap­
ter is underlined by a note added to the definitive edition of 1832,
which says:
"The author ... enlarges, in one of these chapters, upon the CUITeIll decade
nce of TIle Paris Stock Exchang e, mid-nin c:tc:enth century. Counesy or the
architecture and the now (in his view) almost inevitable demise of this Paris Stock. Exdmng e.
king of the 'keF", ,­

The: PalaU de: I'lndustrie: at the: world exhibition of 1855. Sc:c F6a,2.
Palaia de l' lndualrie: "'One ia atruck b y the elegance and lightnel8 of the iron
framework ; yet the engineer, ... Monsieur Barrault , has ShOWD more skill than
taste. As for the domed gla" roof, ... it is awkwardly placed , and the idea evoked
... is ... that of a lar~e cloche: industry in a h othowe.... On each side of the
entrancc have been placed two superb locomotivell with their tender .... Thii la81
arrangement Ilrcliumably occasioned by the distrib ution of priZCII which clollCd the
u hibition 0 11 November 15, 1855. Louil Enault, " Le Palail de 1' lndU81rie," in
Pari.! et k. Pari.!iem e'll X IX' sieck (Paris, 1856), pp. 313, 315. [F6a,2]
From C ha r l es· Fra n \~ois Viel , De 1'lmplliJlance des mathemaliques pour aSl ll rer to
.olidite des beifimenlS (11aris, 1805): Viel dislinguishell ordOl.na tlce <planning. lay·
out) from COlIstrllCfiOIi alltl faults the younger architects ahove a U for insufficient
knowledge of lhe former. Ultimately responsible is " the new direction lhat public
inl lruction in this uri has taken . in the wake of our political temlJelts" (p o 9). " At
for the gt.'ollleter s who practice architectu re, their building8--8!:! rega rds iuvention
Hlld cOlllltrUf'lioll- prOVe the nullilY of mathematics where ordonna nce alld struc·
tural stahility are concerll(...I" (p o 10). " T he mathematiciant ... claim to have ...
reco nciled boldnCII8 with stability. It is only IlDder the aegis of algebra that these
tWO wor dll can meet" h). 25; it remains to be determined whether t.his last selltence
is meallt iconica lly, or whether it distinguishes between algebra alld mathematics).
T he a uthor criticizell the POlit dll Louvre a nll the Pont de la Cite (both bridgell
from 1803) in accorda nce with the principles of Leon BaUista Alberti. [F6a,3j
According to Yael , the fi rs t bridges to be built on a constructive basis would have
been undertaken a round 1730 . (F7,I ]
III 1855, the Hotel du Louvre was constructed at a rapid tempo, so as to he in p lace
fo r the opelling of the world exhibition . " For the firs t time , the entrepreneura u!!ed
elt:(;tric light 0 11 the site, in order to double the day's labor ; some unexpected
delays occurred ; the city wall just co min~ out of the famou ll carpentera' str:ike,
which put an end to wood·frame structures in Paris. Consequently, the Hotel du
Louvre ponesses the rare distinction of having wedded , in its d esign, the wood
paneling of old b ouses to the iron flooring of modern buildings." V" G. d ' Avenel,
" Le Mecanisme de la vie moderne," part I , " leI G rands Magasins," Revue <hs
deux mondes (July 15, 1894). p. 340. (F7,2)
" In the beginning, railroad cart look like stagccoachell, autohuses like omnibuses,
electric lights like gas chandeliers, and the last like petroleum lamplI." Leon
Pier re·Quint, "Significatioll du cinema ," L 'Art cinematographique, 2 (Parill,
1927), p . 7. [F7,3]
Apropos of the Empire style of Schinkel: "The building that brings out the 10-­
cation , the substructu re that emhodiell the true seat of invention, . . . these
things r esemble-a vehicle. T hey convey architectural ideals, which only in thia
sort of way call stiU he ' practiced.·., Carl Unfert, " Vom Ursprung grosser
Baugedanken ," Prankfu rter Zeituns . J anuary 9, 1936. [F7,4)
On the 'world exhibition of 1889: " We can say of thii festivity that it ball been
celebrated, above aU, to the glory of iron .... Having undertaken to give readert
of Le Corresponda nt a rough idea of industry in connection witb the Exposition du
Champ d e Mars . we have chOllen for our thenle ' Metal Structurell and Railroadt. ,,,
Alliert de Lapparellt , Le Si~le dufer (Paris, 1890), pp . vii- viii. [F7,5]
0 11 the Cr ystal Palace: "The architect , Paxton, and the contractors, Messrs. Fox
alltl Helid e Cl~oll , had systematicaUy resolved not to use parts with large dimCII·
siolls. The heaviellt were hollow cast· irOIl girders, eight meters long, nOlle of which
weigh ed more than a 1011 ••.. Their chicf meril was that they were ecollomical....
Moreover, the execution of the pl an was remarkahly rapill, sillce all the partl were
IJf a sorl that the fa ctories I;ould ullliertake to deliver quickly." Albert de Lappar­
ent , Le Sieck dufer ( P8ri ~. 1890). p. 59. [F7,6]
Lappaccllt divides iron structures inlU two du ues : iroll structures with Slone
facings and true iron ~ tru ctu res. He IIlaCCII the followillg example among lhe flr'llt
-
"Labrouste . . . • in 1868•... gave 10 the puhlic the readi ng room of the
1I0 rt .
8lbliotheque Nationale.... It is difficuh to imagine anything more satillfyin g or
more harmonious than this great chantlle r of 1, 156 '((U IUe meter" with its nine
fretted CUIH>liUl, incorporating a relles of iron lattice Ilnd resting 011 sixteen light
cast-iron colunlPs, twelve of which are lIel agai ns t the walls , while (our, cOlllpletely
•
free-standing, rise from the floor on pedestals of the same metal." Albert de La,)­
parenl, Le Swck diller (Pans. 1890), Pil . 56-57. [F7a,1]

The engineer Alexis BarrawI , who with Viel built the Palace of Industry in 1855.
W88 a brother of Emile Barrauh . (F7a,2)

In 1779, the first call-iron bridge (that of Coalhrookdale). In 1788, iu builderl!

was awarded the Gold Medal of the English Society of Am. " Since it was in 1790,
furthermore, that the architec:t Louis completed the wrought-iron framework for
the Theitre Frall~ais in Paris, we may say that the centenary of metal construction
coincides almost exactly with that of the French Revolution ." A. de Lapparent, Le
Siecle dufer{Paris, 1890), pp. 11- 12. [F7a,3)

Paria, in IS22: a " w(H){jwork 8trike." (F'7a,4]

On the 8ubjec:t of the Chinese punic, a lithograph : The Triumph of the Kaleido­
scope, or the Demue ofthe Chinese Game. A reclining Chine8e man with a brain­
teaser 8pread out on the ground before him. On his s houlder, a female figure bas
planted her foot. In one hand, Ihe carriea a kaleidoscope; in the other, a paper or
a IcroU with kaleidoscope patterns. Cabinet del Estampes (da ted ISIS). [F7a,5]
"The head turn8 a nd the heart tighten8 when , for the first time, we vi8it tholc fairy
hall8 where pollihed iron and dazzling copper seem to move and think by them­
selves, while pale and feeble man i8 only the humble servant oftho8e 81eeI9antt ."
J . Michelet, Le Peuple (Paris, 1846), p. 82. The author in no way fears that me­
chanical production wiU gain the upper hand over human beings. The individual­
i8m of the cons umer I!eeID.8 to him to spea k against tillS: each " man now ... wantl
to be himseH. Consequentl y, he will often care leal for products fa bricated by
cianCI, without any individuality thai speaks to his own" (ibill ., p . 78).13 (F'7a,6]
" Viollct-Ie-Duc ( ISI4-1879) s hows that the a rchitectl of the Middle Agel were also
engineers and r ellOurceful inventors." Amedee Ozenfant . " La Peinture murale,"
Encyclopedicfr(JlI~ai",c. vol. 16. Art! Cl lilleralllres da/II ta sociere COlltcmpo­
rainc, part I , p . 70. coluUlII 3. (F8,I]
Protest against the Eierel Tower: "We come. as writers . paillleu. sculluors, archi­
tects , . .. in the lIa lne of French art and Frellch history, hoth of which are thrcllt­
cned , ... to protest agains t tilt: cons truction. in the very heart of our capital , of
the usclell and JUon ~ trou~ Eiffel Tower . . . . Its barharOUI ma s~ ol'erwIJdms
Notre-Dame, the Sainte-Cha pellc, the Tower of Sllint-Jllcques. AJI our monuments
Le 1"riQ1//pht du !J.aliidoscOPtJ ou Le 1"omhtau du}eu chinois (The
Triumph of the Kaleidoscope, or The Demise of the Chinese
Game), 1818. Counesy of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris.
See F7a,5.
are dehased, our architectu re diminis hed." Cited in Louis CherollDet . " lei Troil
Grand -meres de I'eltpositioll ," Vcmiredi, April 30, 1937. (F8,2]
Supposedly then: were trees within Mill ard's " 1.la nnony H all ," on the Boulevard
MOntmartre. (F8,3J
" It was in 1783. in tile COllstruction of the Theatre Fram;nis, that iron was em­
" Io)'cd for the firs t lime on a large scale, by the architect Lollil. Never perhaps.
hus a work so audacious heen attempted. ~rhen , in 1900 , the theater wa s rehuilt in
the aftermat h of a fire, it was with a weight of iron one hund red times greater tban
that which the architect Louis hUll IUletl for the same tru8swork . COllstruction ill
irou has providell a ~ u ccellS ion of buildings, of which the great reading room of the
Bihliothalue Nationale !ly LabrOUl tc was tile first , and olle of the most success­
ful. . .. But iron retluires costly maintenance . ... The world exhibition of 1889
lIIar ked the triulllph of exposed ironwork .. . ; at the exhibition of 1900, nearl y all
the iron frallles were covered ",;th plasterwork." L 'Ell c)'clolH!diefr(l/l {a i~e, vol.
16, 16-68, pp . 6-7 (Auguste Perret, " Les Resoins collectiCs et r architecture").
[Fa., ]
G
T he " triulllpl, of exposed iro nwork " ill the age of the gellre: " It may be . .. the ... [Exhibitions, Advertising, Grandville1
c ntllU s i a~ 1II for lIIachilie techllology a nd the faith in the superior durabilit y of its
matcrials that explains why the altribute ' iro n ' is used ... whenever ... power
and ncccssity are supposed to be manifest. Iron a re the laws of nature, and iron is Yes, when all the world from Paris to China
the 'str idc of the worker battalion '; the ... union of the German empire is suppos­ Pays heed to your doctrinc, 0 divine Saint-Simon,
The glorious Golden Age will be reborn.
cilly made of iron, aud so is ... the ch ancellor himself." Dolf Sternberger, Pano­
Rivers will Bow with dlocolate and tea,
ra mo (Hamhurg, 1938) , p. 3 1. [F8,S)
Sheep roasled whole will frisk on the plain,
And saut~ed pike will swim in the Seine.
T he iron balcony. " In its most rigor ous form , the house has a uniform fa{ade .... Fricasseed spinach will grow on the ground,
Ar ticulation results only from doors and windows. In France, the win dow is, Garnished with aushed fried croutons;
withoul exception, even ill the poorest house, a porte{enetre, a ' Fre nch window' The trees will bring forth apple compoles,
0IHllung to the fl oor .. . . T his makes a railing llocessar Yi in the poor er houses it is And farmers will harvesl boots and coats.
a plain iron bar, but ill the wealthier houses it is of wrought iron .... At a cerlain It will SIIOW wine, it will rain chickens,
stage , the railing becomes all ornament. ... It furth er COlltributes to the articula­ And ducks cooked with turnips will fall from the sky.
tion of the fa ..ade by ... accenting the lower line of the window. And it fulfills both - Ferdinand Langit and Emile Va.nderburch, Lluis-Bronu tl It Saint-
fun ctions without b rea king the pla ne of the fa ..ade. For the great architectural Simtmien: Parodit tk Louis Xl (Th~(re du Palais-Royal, Febnwy 27,
1832), cited in Thtodore Muree, L'Histqjf( par It IMom, 1789- 1851
mass of the modern house, with its insistent lateral extension, this articulation
(Pam, 1865), voJ. 3, p. 191
could not possibly suffice. T he ar chitects' building-sense demanded that the ever
stronger horizont al tendency of the house ... he given exp ression.... And they Music such as one gets to hear all the pianofones of Sa tum's
discovered the means for this ill the traditional iron grille. Across the entire length ring.
of the building fro nt, on olle or two stories, they set a b alcony provided with an
- Hector Berlioz, A traun-J chants, authorized German edition pre·
iron grating of this type, which, being black, stands out very distinctly and makes pared by Richard FbhJ (Ldpl.ig, 1864), p. 104 ("Beethoven im Ring
a vigorolls impression. These h aiconies, .. . up to the most recent period of build­ da Salum~)
ing, ""cl·e kept very na rrow; a nd if throngh them the severity of the surface is
overcome, what call he called the relicf of the fa ..ade remains nonetheless quite
fla t , over coming the effec t of the wall as little as docs the scul pted or namentation,
likewise kept fl at . In the case of adjoin in g houses, these balcony railillg8 fu se )¥ith
one a nother alltl cousolid ate the impression of a walletl streeti and this effect is
heightened by the fac t th at , wherever the upper stories a re used fo r commercial
From a European perspective, things looked this way: In all areas of production,
pu r poses, the proprietors put "I' ... not sign hoa nls but matched giltled letters in
f~m the Middle Ages lIntil the beginning of the nineteenth century, the develop­
roman 81yle, ""hich, when well spaced across the ironwork , a ppear purely decor a­
ment of technology proceed ed at a much slower rate than the develop mCflt of art.
tive." Fri tz Stahl , Pa ris (Berlin ( 1929)), pp . 18-19. [F8a)
Art could take its time in variollsly assimilating the technological modes of
operation. But the transfomlation o f things that set in around 1800 d ictated the
tempo to an, and the m ore breathtaking this tempo becam e, the morc readily the
dominion of fashion overspread all fields . Fmally, we arrive at the present state of
things: th e possihiliry now arises that an will no longer find time to adapt some­
how to teclmological processes. TIle ad vertisement is the ruse by whicll the
dream forces itself on industry. [G 1,1)

Wit.hin the frames of the p ictures that hung on dining room walls, the advent of
whiskey advcrusem ents, of Van H outen cocoa, of Amieux canned food is h er­
alded. Naturally, one ean say that the bourgeois comfort of the dining room has
survived longest in small cafes and other such places ; but perhaps one can also
say that the space of the cafe, wit.hin which every square meter and every hour
are paid for more punctually than in apamnent houses, evolved out of the latter.
The apartment from which a caU was made is a pictuTe puzzle (Vixierbild> with
the caption: Where is the capital hiding? [G I ,2)
Grandville's ,\-'Orks are the sibylline books of pu6iicili. Everything that, with him,
has its preliminary foml as joke, or satire, attains its true unfolding as adver·
tisement. [GI ,3)
HamlLilI of a Pa ri!!ian textiles denier from the 1830s: " Ladies nnd Gentlemen: I I
ask you to cas' an indulgent eye on the following observation!!; my de8ire to con­
tribute to you r eterna l salvation impels me to address you. Allow me to di r ect yo ur
attention to the stud y of the Holy Scripture8, as weU as to the extremely moderate
prices which I have bl..'t:n the first to introduce into the field of ho!!.ier y, cotton
gootls. and rc.lated products. No. 13, Rue Pave-Saint-Sauveur." Eduard Kroloff,
Schilclerllllgell all..!' Pelr;, (Hamburg, 1839), vol. 2, pp. 50-51. [G I ,4)
Superposition a nd adver tising: " In the Palai8-Ro yal, not long ago , between the
columJl ~ 011 the upper story, I hapl.ene.1 to see a life-sized oil painting repre­
8t:llljng, in very li\'e1y colors, a French general in fuU -d reu uniform. I take out my
spectacles to examiJle more cl08ely the historical subject of the picture. and my
general is sitting in an armchair holding out a bare foot: the podiatrist , kneeling
before him , excises the corns ." J . F. Reichnrt.h , Vertraute Briefe all.! Paris (Ham­
burg. 1805), vol. I, p. 178. [GI ,S)
In 1861 , the first lithographic poster suddenly appeared on walls hcre and there
around London. It showed the back of a woman in white who was thickly
wrapped in a shawl and who, in all haste, had just reached the top of a Sight of
stairs, where, her head half turned and a finger upon her lips, she is ever so
slightly opening a heavy door, through which one glimpses the starry sky. In this
way Wtlkie Collins advertised his latest book, one of the greatest detective novels
ever writtcn : The Woman in White. See Talmeyr, iA. Citt du Jang (Paris, 1901),
pp.263-264. IGI .61
It is significant that Jugcndstil failed in interior design, and soon aftcrward ill
architecture too, whereas in the street, with the poster, it often found vcry suc·
cessful solutions. TIus is fully confim lcd in Behne's disceming critique: "By no
mcans was Jugclldstil ridiculous in its original intentions. It was lookin.g for
renewal because it clcarly recognizcd the peculiar contradictions arising bctween
imitation Renaissance art and new methods of production deternlined by the
machine. But it gr.ldually became ridiculous because it believed that it could
resolve the enonnOliS objective tensions fonnally, 011 paper, in the studio." 0 In·
terior 0 Adolf Behne, NeUf!J Wohnen-Neua &uen (Leipzig, 1927), p. 15. Of
course in the end, the law according to which an action brings about an opposite
reactio~l holds true for Jugendstil. 111(:: genuine liberation from an cpoch, that is,
has the structure of awakening in this respect as well: it is entirely ruled by
cunning. Only with cunning, not without it, can we work free of thc re.a1n~ of
dream. But there is also a false liberation ; its sign is violence. From the beguuung,
it condemned Jugcndstil to failure. 0 Dream Structure 0 [G t ,7)
I1fficnnost, decisive significance of the advertisement: "Good posters exist ...
only in the domain of trifles, of industry, or of revolutio~ ." Ma~ce Talmeyr, ~
Citi du Jang (Paris, 1901), p. 2n. The sanle thought With which the bourgeoIS
here detects the tendency of advertising in its early period: "In short, the moral of
the postcr has nothing to do with its art, and its art nothing to do with the moral,
and this defines the character of the poster" (ibid., p. 275). [GI ,S)
J ust as certain modes of presentation- genre scenes and the like-be~, in the
coursc of the nineteenth ccntury, to "cross over" into advertising, so also mto the
realm of the obscene. The Nazarene style and the Makart style have their black
and their <olored lithographic cousins in the field of obscene graphics. I saw a
plate that, at first glance, could have passed as something like Siegfried's bath in
dragon blood: green sylvan solitude, crimson mantle of the hcro, naked .flesh, a
sheet of water-it was the most complicated embrace of three human bodies, and
it looked like the frontispiece of an inexpensive book for young people. This is
the language of color characteristic of the posters that fl ourished in the arcades.
When we hear that portraits of famous cancan dancers like Rigolette and
Fricheue would have hung there, we have to imagine them colored like this.
Falser colors are possible in the arcades; that combs are red and green surprises
no one. Snow White's stepmother had such things, and when thc comb did not
do its work, the beautiful apple was there to help out-half red, half poison­
green, like cheap combs. Everywhere gloves play a staffing role, colored ones,
but above all the long black variety on which SO many, follo\ving Yvette Guilbert,
have placed their hopes for happiness, and which will bring some, let us hope, to
Margo Lion. And laid out on a side table in a tavern, stockings make for an
cthereal meat counter. [Gla,t]
The writings of lhc Surrealists treat words like trade names, and their texts are: at
bottom, a fornl of prospectus for entcrprises not yct off the ground . Nesung
today in trade nanles arc figments such as those carlier lhought to be hidden in
the cache of "poctic" vocables. [Gla,2)
In 1867 , a wallpapcr tlcalcl· pul up his p0 8 tcr~ 011 the collllllll ~ ofbritlges . [Gl a,3)
Many years ago, on the streetcar, I saw a poster that, if thi.ngs had their due in this
world, would have found its admirers, historians, exegetes, and copyists ju~t as
surely as any great poem or painting. And, in fact, it was both at the sallle wne.
 As is sometimes the case with very deep, unexpected impressions, however, the
shock was too violent: the impression, if I may say so, struck with such force that
it broke through the bottom of my consciousness and for years lay irrecoverable
somewhere in the darkness. I knew only that it had to do with "Bullrich Salt" and
that the ongina] watthouse for this seasoning was a small cellar on Flotrn't:ll
Strc:~t, w~ere for years I had circumvented the temptation to get out at this point
and mqwn:= about the poster. There I traveled on a colorless Sunday afternoon in
that northern Moabit, a part of town that had already once appeared to me as
though built by ghostly hands for just this time of day. lbat was when, four years
~go, I had come to Uitzow Sbttt to pay customs duty, according to the weight of
Its enameled blocks of houses, on a china porcelain city which I had had sent
from Rome. There wen: omens then along the way to signal the approach of a
momentous afternoon. And, in fact, it ended with the story of the discovery of an
arcade, a story that is too herfinisd, to be told just now in this Parisian space of
remembrance. Prior to this incident, however, I stood with my twO beautiful
companions in front of a miserable cafe, whose window display was enlivened by
an arrangement of signboards. On one of these was the legend "Bullrich Sale" It
contained nothing else besides the words; but around these written characters
there was suddenly and effortlessly configured that desert landscape of the
poster. I had it once more. Here is what it looked like. In the foreground, a
horse-drawn wagon was advancing across the desen. It was loaded with sacks
bearing the words uBullrich Salt." One of these sacks had a hole, from which salt
had already trickled a good distance on the ground. In the background of the
desen landscape, two posts held a large sign with the words "Is the Best." But
what about the trace of salt down the desen trail? It fonned letters, and these
letters fonned a word, the word "Bullrich Salt." Was not the preestablished
hannony of a Leibniz mere child's play compared to this tightly orchestrated
predestination in the desen? And didn't that poster furnish an in1.3ge for things
that no one in this mortal life has yet experienced? An image of the everyday in
Utopia? (Cl a,4)
"The store known as La Chaussee d~ntin had recently atulouuced its new
inventory of yard goods. Over two million meters of barege, over five million of
grenadine and poplin, and over three million of other fabrics- altogelher about
eleven million meters of textiles. Le lInlama"e now remarked, after recolllllend·
ing La C haussee d'Antin to its female readers as the 'foremost house of fashion in
the world,' and also the 'most dependable' : 'The entire French railway system
comprises barely ten thousand kilometers of tracks- that is, only ten million
meters.1llis OTle store, therefore, with its stock of tcxtiles, could virtually stretch a
tent over all the railroad tracks of France, "which, especially in the heat of
summer, would be very pleasant.'" 'Tbree or four other establishments of this
kind publish similar figures , so that, with all these materials combined, one could
place not on.ly Paris ... but the whole dipar/emm / of the Seine under a massive
canopy, ' which likewise would be welcome in rainy weather.' But we calU10t help
asking: How are stores supposed to find room to stock this gigantic quantity of
goods? The answer is very simple and, what is more, very logical : each firm is
always larger than the others.
"You hear it said: 'La Ville de Paris, the largest store in the capital,' 'Les Villes
de France, the largest store in the Empire; 'La Chaussee d'Antin, the largest store
in Europe,' 'Le Coin de Rue, the largest store in the 'A-'Orld.'-'In the world' : that
is to say, on the enure earth there is none larger; you'd think that would be the
limit. But no: Les Magasins du LoUVTe have not been named, and they bear the
tille 'The largest Stores in ~e.unive~.' The. universe! Including Sirius appar_
ently, and n1.3ybe even the disappeanng twUl stars' of which Alexander von
Humboldt speaks in his Kosmos. "I
H ere we see the cOtulection between capitalism's evolving commercial adver­
tising and the work of Grandville.
.Adolf Ebeling,) Lehauk Bilder aUJ dm modnnm Paris, 4 voIs. (Cologne, 1863­
1866), vol. 2, pp. 292- 294. [G"l)
"Now then, you princes and sovereign states, resolve to pool your riches, your
resources, your energies in order to ignite, as we do our gas jets, long-extinct
volcanoes [whose craters, though filled with snow, are spewing torrents of inBam­
mabie hydrogen]; high cylindrical towers would be necessary to conduct the hot
springs of Europe into the air, from which-so long as care is taken to avoid any
premature contact with cooling waters-they will tumble down in cascades [and
~ereby wann th.e atmosphere]. Artificial concave mirrors, arranged in a semi­
circle on mountaIntops to reflect the rays of the sun, would suitably augment the
tendency of these springs to heat the air." F. v. Brandenburg, VIC/oria! EiN neue
Well! Freudaloller AUJrufin Baugdaral!£ daRarifurIJmn PIaN/m, hmmtim ariftkr
~n UTU hewonnlm niirdlickn Halhl1ugel tiN fatale 'TemperaJur-Yeriindnung hinsidzt.
lien tkr Ymnehnmg tkr almosphiiriscnen mime eingetrdm isl,' 2nd expanded ed.
(Berlin, 1835) <pp. 4-5>. 0 Gas 0
1l:tis fanatasy of an insane mind effectively constitutes, under the influence of
the new invention, an advertisement for gas lighting-an advertisement in the
comic-cosmic style of Grandville. In general, the close cOtulection between adver­
tising and lhe cosmic awaits analysis. (G2,2)
~bitions. "~ regions and indeed, retrospectively, all times. From farming and
m.mmg, from mdustry and from the machines that were displayed in operation,
to raw materials and processed materials, to art and the applied arts. In all these
we see a peculiar demand for premature synthesis, of a kind that is characteristic
of the nineteenth century in other areas as """eU: think of the total work of art.
~P:nt from indubitably utilitarian motives, the century wanted to generate a
VlSlon of the human cosmos, as launched in a new movement." Sigfried Giedion,
Bauen in FraTlR reich <Leipzig and Berlin, 1928), p. 37. But these "p~mature syn­
theses" also bespeak a persistent endeavor to close up the space of existence and
of development. To p~vent the "airing'Out of the classes." (C2,3)
Apropoll of the exhibition of 1867 , organized according to IItatilltieai principlell:
"To take a turn ahout thill place. circula r like the equator, ill literally to travel
aro ulul the world , for all mltions have come here; enemies are coexisting in peace.
just as, at the origin of things, the divine 8pirit Wil l hovering over the or" of tile
waters, so now it Ilovers over this or" of iron." L 'Exposition UlI.jV/u·selle cle 1867
illUMree: PubliClJtion internfltiollale alltorisee IJa r lu commission iml~riale. vol.
2. 1).322 (cited in Giedioll , <Ba/lt1l in FranAreidr,>p. 41 ). (C2,4)
In connl..-.:tion with t.he exhibition of 1867. O n Offenhach. " For the past ten years,
this verve of the comic author and this joyous illSI)iration of t.he composer have
bee.n vying with each other for fanta stic and serendipitous dfects; but only in
1867, the year of the Universal Exposition, did they alt ain the height of hila rity,
the ultimate expression of their exubera nce. 3 The success of this theater company,
alread y so great, hecame d eliriou&--something or which our petty victoriee of
today ca n fu rnish 110 idea. Pa ris, that summer, euffered sunstroke." From the
SIHlech berore the Academic Fra n-;:aise by Henri Laved an, December 3] , 1899 (on
the election of Meilhac). [C2a, I)
Advertising is emancipated in Jugendstil. J ugendstil posters are "large, always
figurative, refined in their colors but not gaudy; they show balls, night clubs,
movie theaters. TIley are made for a frothy life-a life with which the sensual
rurves ofJ ugendstil are '....e11 matched." Fran/rfurter <e£/ung, signed F. L. On an
exhibition o f posters in Mannheim in 192Z 0 Dream Consciousness 0 [G2a,2)
The first London exhibition bring! together industries rrom a round the world .
Following this, the South Kensington museum is founded. Second world exhibition
in 1862, Iike"" i8e in Loudon. With the Munich exhibition or 1875 , the German
Renaissance style comes into fa shion . (G2a,3)
Wiertz on the occa8ion of a world exhibition: " What 8trikes one at first is not at aU
the things people are making today Lut the thing! they will be making in the futu re.
I The hUlnan spirit begills to accustom itself to the power of matter." A. j . Wiertz,
Oeu vres fiueraires (Paris, 1870), p. 374. (C2a,4)
Talmeyr caUs the poster " the art or Gomorrah." La Cite dll sang (Paris, 19( 1),
p. 286. 0 jugelld8til 0 (G2a,5)
Industrial exhibitions as secret blueprint for museums. Art: industrial products
projected into the past. [G2a,6)
J oseph Nash paimed a series of watercolors for the king of England showing the
Crystal Palace, the edifice built expressly for London's industrial exhibition in
1851. The first world exhibition and the first monumental structure in glass and
iron! From these watercolors, o ne sees with amazement how th e exhibitors took
pains to decorate the colossal interior in an oricntal·fairy·taIe sty le, and how­
alongside:: the assonment of goods that filled the arcaded walks- bronze monu'
ments, marble statues, and bubbling fo untains populated the giant halls. 0 Iron
oInterior 0 IG2a,7)
The design for the CryStal Palace is by J oseph Paxton, chief gardener to the duke
of Devonshire, for whom h e had built a conselVatory (greenhouse) o f glass and
iron at C hatsworth H o use. His design provided for fireproofing, p lenry of light,
and the possibility of speedy and inexpensive assembly, and it p revailed over
those of the London Building Committee, whose competition was held in vai.n.~
[G2a,8j
" Yes, long live the bl..'Cr of Vicnna! Is it native to this lanti that produces it? In
truth , I do 1I0t know. But or one thing, there can be no doubt: it is a refined and
comfortin g brew. It is not like the beer of Str88bourg ... or Bavaria.... It is
divine beer, ... clear as the thought of a poet, light as a 8wallow in flight , robust
alld alcohol-charged as the pcll of a German philosopher. It is digested like the
purest wa ter, and it refreshes like ambrosia. " Advertisement for Fa nt a Beer of
Vienna . No.4, Rue Halevy, near the Nouvel Opera, 'ew Year 's 1866. Almanach
indiealellr parisien (Paris, 1866), p. 13. [G2a,9)
" Another new word : to recto",e (advertisement). W"t11 it make a rortune?" Nad ar,
Quandj'etais photographe (Paris <190(h), I)' 309. IG2a,l Oj
Between the February Revolution and the june Insurrection: " All the waUs were
co\'ered with revolutionar y postere which, some years later, Alfred Oelvau re­
printed in two thick volumes under the title Les Murailles revoiutionnaires, so
that tod ay we can still get some idea of this remarkable poster litera ture. There
was scarcely a palace or a church on which these notices could not be seen. Never
before was such a multitude of placa rds on view in any cit y. Even the government
made use of this medium to publish its decr ees and I)roclamations, while thou·
sa nds of.other people resorted to tlffiches in order to a ir thcir views publicly on all
IJOssihle q uestions. As the time ror the opening or the National Assembly drew
near, the la nguage of the posters grew ",i ider and more passionate .... T he num­
ber of public crier s increased every day; t1lOusands and thousands of Parisians,
who had nothing else to do, became news vendors." Sigmund Englander.
Cescllich'e der frcmzosischen Arbeiter·AS$ociationen (Hamburg, 18M), vol. 2 ,
pp.279-280. IG3,I)
"A short merry piece that is customurily jl l'e8cntcd hcre before the pufonnance of
a !lew play: U flrkflllj" flffach eur dla rlet:luin the Bill-Sticken. In one {Iuite funn y
alld c1larmillg scene . a pOSler ror the comedy is st uck 0 11 Columbine's house." j . F.
Heicha nlt , Ver/rflute Briefe fillS Paris (H amllllrg. 1805). vol. 1, p. '1S7. (G3,2)
" These tlaye. a gootlma ny houses in Paris apIH:a r 10 be decoralec.1 i.n the style or
Harlequin', costume; 1 mean a patchwork of la rge green, yellow, [a word illegible]
and pink pieces of paper. The bill-stickers wrangle over the wall8 a nti come to
hlows over Q streetcorncr. Tile beSI of il is Illal aU Illese poslers cover one anolher
up alleaSI len timCll a d ay"· Etluard Kroloff, SciJiJIlerlHl8fm (illS Paris ( Ha mhurg,
1839), vol. 2, p. 57. [G3,3)
" I' au l Sirlludin , born in 1814, has In.:cn active in tile theater since 1835; he has
supplemented this acti vity wi th practical efforu in the fi eld of confectionery. The
re"u!ti of these efforts beckon no ieu teillptingiy from tile large dis plQy window in
the Rue de la Paix than the sugar almonds, bonbolls, hone y cakes, a nd sweet
crackc r8 offered to the public ill the form of olle-act dramatic ~ k ct c h es at the
Palais-Royal. " Rudolf Gottschall, " 0 88 Theater und OramQd es Second Empire,"
in U,uere Zei, ; Deutsche Revue-iUolla ,uch rif, Z Uni COIJ vers(j,ioIJslexicolJ
(Leipzig, 1867), p . 933 . IG3,4]
From COPPt.'e', speech to the Academie Frall-.:aise (" Response to Heredia," May
30, 1895) , it can be inferred that a s tra nge sort of writtell image could foml erly be
seell in Pa ris: "'Calligraphic masterpiec:es which , in the old days, were exhibited 011
every strootcorner, alll.l in which we could admire the po rtrait of Beranger or 'The
Taking of the Bastille' in the form of pa ra phs" <p . 46). [G3 ,S)
Lc: Charivari of 1836 has an illustration showing a poster mat covers half a
housefrollt. The windows are left uncovued, except for one, it seems. Out of
that a man is leaning while cutting away the obstructing piece of paper.
IG3,']
" EIi8enCe d ' Amazilly. fragrallce and antiseptic; h ygie nic toiletries from DUIJra t
alld Coml)any." " If we have named our essence after the d aughter of a cacique , it
is only to indicate t.hat the vegetal ingredients to which this distillation owes its
surprising effectivene88 come from the same torrid climate as she does. The term
'antiseptic' belongs to the lexicon of science, and we use it only to point out that,
apa rt from the iucollll'a rable benefits Ollr product offers to ladit.'fI. it possesses
hygienic vi rtues calcula ted to will the confidence of aU those wilJilig to be convinced
of its salutary action . For if our lotion, Ilulike the wa ter s of tbe .' ountain of Youth .
has no power to wash away the acculIlulated yea r s, a t least it docs ha ve, in addi­
tion to other merits, the inestimable IIdvantage (we believe) of r estoring to the full
extent of its former radiance the lost majesty of tha i consummate entit y, that
mas terpiece of Creation which , with the elegallce, purity, and grace of its forms,
makes up the lovelier half of huma nit y. Without the providential Stll){.'r vt.'ntion of
our discovery, this mos t brilliant ami delicate ornament- rese mbling, in lhe ten­
der charms of its mys terious structul·e, a fragile blossom Ihat v.'ilts althe first hanl
rain- would enjoy, at belt , hut a fu giti ve sple ndor, aft er the falling of which it
mmt 111.'t.'ds languish lIIuler the ruinous cloud of illness. the fa tiguing dClllamls of
nursing. or the 110 Ic!! injurioU!! clllbruce uf the pitiless corset. Develope!l , a btlvc
aU, in ti m intereSIS of Indics, our Essellce i1'Amazill y ulIswcrs ttl the mO$t e)(acling
ami IIIOs t intimate re{luiremelits of their toilelle. It unih:~, th ullk! to a happ y
infusion, all that is necessary to revive, fos ter, ami enhance nat ural all ract.iolls,
".·ithout the slightcst detriment ." <Citetl in > Cha rles SimOIllI , f'nris de 1800 ii. 1900
( Pa ris. 1900), vol. 2, p . 5 10 (" Une Reclll llle lie parfulII("ur C II 1857'"). ~ [G3a, I)
"Gravely, 11u- sandwich-nllill hears his duuble burdcll , light li S it is. A yo ung lad y
whose ,·utlilltlity is only tcmporary smiles 1.1 1 the walking poster, yet wis hes to read
it C\'en as s he smiles. The Il a ppy author of her a bdo minal salience likewise bears a
hurtlt'li of his own ." <The hushand has his wife 0 11 his r ight arm and a large box
under his Icfl. Along wi th four other people, they arc clustered around a sand _
wich-lIIl1 11 H.'t!n from the bac k .> Te)(t IIccompllllyiug a lithograph entitled
" L' Homme-affiche s ur la P lace des Victoircs," from Nou veaux Tableallx de Paris.
tcxt to pi ute 63 (the lithogra phs a re h y Ma rlel]. This hook is a sort of l:Iogarth ad
US IIIII Dell1l1ini. [G3a.2]
Beginning of Alfred Oelva u's prefa ce to Les Alurailles reuo/ut.iollflClires: " These
revolutionary placards-at the bottom of which we set our obscure name-form
an immense and unique compositio n , one \'Iithou t precedent , we believe, in the
history of hooks. They are a collective work . The author is Monsieur Everyone-­
Mein Herr Omnes, as Luther says." Les Murailles revolu';ollflUires de 1848, 16th
ed. ( Puris <1852» , vol . I , p . I . [G3a,3]
"'When , in 1798, under the Direc::tory, the idea ofpuhlic exhihitions was inaugu­
ra ted on the Champ d e Mars, there were 110 exhibitors, of whom twent y-five wer e
awanlcd med als." Patais ele J'ln dlUltrie (distributed by H . P ion). [G4,1]
" Begillning in 180 I , the products of newl y emerging industries were exhibited in
the courl yard of the Lollne." Lucien Oubech and Pierre d ' Espezel, lIistoire de
Pari$ (1'"oIris, 1926), p . 335. [G4,2}
"E\'ery five yea rs-in 1834, 1839, and 1844--t he products of industry are exhib­
ited in Marign y S(lua re." Oubech and d'EslH!zel , His,oire de Paris , p . 389.
IG4,3]
"T he fi r8t e)(hibition dilies hack to ] 798; set up 0 11 the Chump de Mars, it was ...
3n e)( hihilion of Ihe products of French indus tr y a nd was conceived h y Frllm;ois d e
Neufehiiteau . There were three national exhihitions under the .: mpire (in 180 1,
1802. "01 1111 1806), the first two in the eourl ya rd of the Lo uvre, the third at the
Im'alide8. There were th ree du ring the Hesloration (in 18 19, 1823. und 1827), aU
allhe l.Qu vrc ; three during the July Monurch y (in 1834. 1839 , allli 1844), on the
Place {Ie la COllcorde a nd tlw C ll a mps- E l y~s; a nd olle UllIler the Second Re puh­
lic. in 1849. Tllen . followinr; the example of EngIallll, \\'hich h ad orga nized 1111
illlrr natiollal exhibition in 185 1, IrnlJC!riul .' ra nce held world exhih itions on the
Champ {Ie Mars ill 1855 11 1111 1867. The firs t saw the hirlh of the Pulais de J' lndus­
trie. d cmolished tluring the Itepublic; the second WII S u delirious festi v.ll.l marki ng
the high point of the Second Em pire. In 1l178, a new exhibition was orga nized 10
attCllt 10 rebirth after d efeal; il was held on the Champ de Mars in It temporary
palace erected b y Formige. It is characteristic of these enormous fai rs to be
ephemeral, ye t eac h of them has It-ft its trace ill Paris. T ile exhi.bilion of 1878 was
re~(>o n s ible for the Trocadero. tha t eccentric p alace cllIPI}Cd down 011 I.he tOI) or
Chaillol hy Davio ud anti Bourdais. and also for the root b ridge at Passy, buih to
n:l'lace the Pont d'iena , which WIl S no longer usable. T he cxhihition of 1889 left
l}Chilld the Galerie de. Machines, which was e" entually torn down , ahhough the
Eifre! Tower stiU sta nds." Dubech and d 'Espezel , lIiMoire de I'uri, (I"ris, 1926),
p. 46 1. [G4.4]
'''Europe is off to view the mer chandise,' said Renan--contemptuously-of the
1855 exhibition. " Paul Morand , 1900 (Paris, 193 1), p . 71 . (G4,5]
"'This yea r h as been lost for propagandll ,' says a socialist ora tor a t the congress of
1900." Paul Morand , 1900 (Paris, 193 1), p . 129. [G4 ,6]
" In 1798, a univer sal exposition of industry was an nounced ; it was to take place
... on Ihe Champ de Mars. The Directory had charged the minisler or the interior,
Fra n ~ois de Ne ufchateau . with orga nizing a national resti val to commemorate the
founding of the Republic. The minister had confern:d with several people, who
proposed holding contests and games, Uke grea s y~ po l c climbing. One person s ug~
gested I.hat a great ma rket be set up after the fas hioll of country fairs , but on a
larger scale. Finally, it was prol)Osed that all exhibition of paintings be included.
These last two suggestio ns ga ve Fran~o i s de Neufchateau the idea of presenting an
exhibition of industry in celebration of the n ational festival. Thus. the first indus­
trial exposition is born from the wish to amuse the working classes, and it become.
for them a festival of emancipation . . . . The increasingly popular char ac ter of
industry starts to become evident. ... Silk fab ri u are replaced by woolens, and
sa tin aud lace by materials more in keeping with the domestic req uirements of the
Third Estate: woolen bonnets and corduroys .... Cha ptal, the spokesman for this
ex hibition , calls the industrial sta te by its name for the fir~ t time." Sigmund
Engl iinder, Ce$chichte der fmn: o$i$chen Arbeiter-Anociutioflefl (Hamburg,
1864), vol. I , pp . 51- 53 . [G4,7]
" In celebrating the centenary of the great Revolution, the French bou rgeoisie has,
as it ....ere, intentionally set out to demonstrate to the proletariat ad OCUW$ the
economic possibility and nec::essity of a social up rising. The world exhibition has
givcn the proletaria t an excelleut idea of the unprtM:edented level of deveiolHuelit
which the means of production ha ve reached ill all civili7.cd la nds-a development
far exc!!eding the boldest utopia n fanta sies of the centur y preceding this one....
The exhibition has furth er demollstrated that modern d ev elo pnu~ nt of Ihe forces of
production must of neccssity lead to industrial crises that , givcn tile a na rch y c u r~
rcntl y reigning in production . will onl y grow more acute ....itll the passage of time,
and hence more destructive to IIle course or the world ecollomy." G. Plckhanov.
" Wie die Bourgeoisie ihrer Revolution get.lenkt ," Oie lIeue Zei, . 9, 11 0 . I (Stu ttga rt ,
1891). p. 138. [G4a.I J
" Despite all Ihe posturing with which TeutOllic arroga nce trie. to represenl the
capit al or the HeidI as the brighlest beacon of civilization , Berlin has not yet been
able to mount a worl,1 exhibition . . To tr y 10 excuse this d eplorable fa ct by
claiming thai world exhibitions have had their da y alld now ar e nothing but gaudy
aud gr audiose vanit y fairs . and so forth , is a crau evasion . We have no wi,lh to
,Ieny the tlrawbacks of ....orld exhibitions ... ; nevertlleless, in ever y case they
relUaili incomparably more I)()",·erful le' ·ers of human culture than tbe countless
barracks a UlI chu r ches with ....hicb Berli n has bl.'f:n inundated at such great C08t.
The rccurre nt initintives 10 establish a world exhibitioll ha ve found ered, lirst of
nil , on the Inck of energy ... arflicting the bourgeoisie. a nd , 8tM:ond , on the poorly
disguised resentment with which an absolutist-feudal m.ilitarism looks on anything
that could thr eaten its-alas!---still germinating rOOI8. " (Anonymous,) " Kl a8S~
cllkiimpfe." Die ' leue Zeit , 12, no. 2 (Stuttga rt . 1894), p . 257. (G4a,2)
Ou the occasion or tile world exhibition of 1867 , Victor Hugo issued a manUealo to
the l)flOples of Europe. (G4a,3)
Cbevalier ....as Ii disciple of Enfantin. Editor of Le Globe. IG",' I
Ap ropos of Holand tie la Platier e's Encycwpedie methodique: " Turning to les
mam ifuctllre" ... Roland writes: ' Industry is born of need .... ' It might appea r
from this that the term is beillg used in the classical sense of indwtria. What
follows provides clarification : ' Sut this fecund a nd l}Crverse riverhead, of irregu~
lar a nd retrogressive disl)()sition , eventually came down from the uplands to flood
the fi elds, and soon nothing could satisfy the need which overspread the la od . ' ...
What is significant is his ready employment of the word indwtne, more than thirty
years before the work of Chaptal. " Henri Ha user, Le, Debuu du capitawme
(Paris, 193 1), pp . 315-3 16. (G4a,5)
" With price tag affixed , the commodity comcs on the ma rket . Its material quaUty
alUl individu alit y are merely an incentive for buying and selling; for the social
measure orils value. such qualily is of no importance whatsoever. T he commodity
has become all abstraction . Once escaped frOnl tile ha nd of the producer and
di vesled or its real particularit y, it cesse. to be a product and 10 be ruled over by
human beings. It has acquired a ' g1IOStly objecti vity' and leads a life of its 0101'0 . 'A
commodi ty appears, a t first sight , to be a tri vial anti easily understood thing. Our
anal ysis 8110ws thut . in reality, it is a vexetl a nd complicated thing, abounding in
lIIetapll )'sieal suhtleties a nd theological niceties. ' Cut ofr from the will of man , it
aligns itself in II mys ter ious hierar chy, develops or declines exchangeability, alld,
ill acco rdance with itl! own peculiar la ws, performs as lin actor on a phantom stage.
1/1 the la ngullge or the commodities excha nge, cotton 'soa rs, ' copper 'slunlps,'
corn ' is acth'c: coa l ' is sluggish .' wheat 'is on the road to recovery.' and petro­
leum ' ,lis pla y a healthy treud .' T hings have gaine(1 autollomy, and Ihey take on
human features .... T ile commodity has been tra nsformed into an idol that . al~
though the prod uci or human hallds, disposes over the llumall. Marx sl)C.aks of the
fetish cha racter of the commodit y. ' This feli sh charac ter of t.he comnu)dity world
has its origin iJl the pt,'c uli ar social character of the la bor th at produces cUlllmod.i_
Li e~ . . .. It is onl y tile I'articnla r social relation between pcuple I.hut here au nmes,
in the eyes of these IItltIJlle, the phantasmaguriclll form of a rel atiun between
things. t· ... 0 110 Riihle. Kurl Ma rx (H ellerllu ( 1928) , PI" 384-385. [C 5, 1]
"According to offi cial es timates, a total of a bunt 750 workers. chosen by their
comrades or else nam ed by the entreprene urs themselves. visited London's world
e ~hibiti o n in 1862 .... Tbe offi cial char ac ter of this delegation , and the manner in
which it was cons titu ted , naturally inspired little confidence in the revolu tiouary
and re publica u emigres from Fra nce. This circums ta nce perhaps explains wh y the
idea of an organized re<:elltion for this deputation originated with the edi to rs of an
organ dedicated to the eool)tlra ti ve movement ... . At the urging of the editorial
starr of Th e Working Ma n , a committee was formed to prepa re a welcome for the
French workers .... Those named to p articipate iucluded ... J . Morton Peto, . ..
and J oseph Paxton . . .. Tbe interests of industry were put foremost , .. . a nd the
need for an agreement between workers and entrepreneurs , as the sole meam of
bettering the difficult condition of the worker s, was strongl y underlined ... . We
cannot ... rega rd this gathering as the birthplace . .. of the International Work­
ingmen's Association . That is a legend . . . . The truth is simply that this visit
acquired , through its indirect consequences, momentous iml,ortance as a key step
on the way to a n understanding between English and French workers."
D. Rja zanov. " Zur Ceschichte del' er sten Internationale," in M(lrx -Ens elsA rchiv.
vol. I <Fr ankfurt a m Main , 1928>, pp. 157, 159-160. [G5.2)
"Alread y, for the fi rs t wo rld exhibition in 185 1, some of the workers proposed by
the ent repreneurs were sent to London at the state's expense. There was 0 18 0 ,
however , an independent delegation d isp atched to London on the initiati ve of
Biamlui (the econonlisl) and Emile de Girardin . . .. This delegation submitted a
gener al report in which , to be sure, we find no trace of the attempt to establish a
permanent liaison with Englis h worken, but in which the need for peaceful rela­
lions between England and France is s tressed . . . . In 1855, t.he second world
exhibition took place, Ihis time in Paris. Delegations of workers from the ca pital,
as well as from the provinces. wer e now totally bar red . It was fea red that they
....ou.ld gi ve wo rkers 1111 opportunit y for organizing. " O. Rj aza nov, " Zur Geschichte
der crs ten Intcfn lllionale," in lIIa rx-E,lsels Archiv• ...-d. Rjazanov, vol. I (Frank­
furt lun Mllin). I'p . 150- 15 1. [G5a, J)
The subtleties of Grandville aptly express what Marx calls the "tllcological nice­
ties't7 of the commodity. [G5a ,2]
" T he sense of taste iHa ca rriage with four wlu,·cb . wbich are: ( I) Gas tronomy; (2)
Cuisine; (3) COlilpa ny: (4) Culture." FrUin <Fuu r icr 's) l\'O Il IJf!.lIU Monde inc/us /riel
e/ socie/(jire ( 1829), ci ted in K Puisson , Fourier ( Pa riil, 1932) . p . 130. (G5a,3)
Cormection o f the 6rst world exhibitio n in London in 185 1 with the idea of free
trad e. [G5a,4)
"The world exhibitions ha ve lost Illllch of their origin al ch aracter. The enthusiasm
th at, in 185 1, was felt in tllc mos t dis pa rate circles h as subsided , and in its 1)lace
has come a kind of cool calculation . In 185 1, ....e were living in the er a of free
trade . . . . For some decades now. we have ....itnessed the s pread of protection_
ism . ... Particip ation in the exhibition ~o m es ... a sort of r epresenta tion . _ . ;
and ....hereas in 1850 the ruling tenet Wall that the gove rnment Deed not concern
itself in this affair, the situa tion today is so far advanced that the government of
each country can be considera l a verita ble entrep rene ur." Julius Lessing, Da,
halbe Jahrhundert del' WellulIssreliuns en ( Be rlin , 1900), pp. 29-30. {G5a,S)
In London, in 185 1, " a ppea red . . . the first cast-steel cannon by Knipp . Soon
therea ft er, tbe Prussian minis ter of war pl aced an order for more tha n 200 exem­
plars of this model. " Julius Lessing, Das halbe Jahrhunder"l der" Weltau,uleUun_
Sen (Berlin , 1900), p . II . [C 5a,6)
" From the same sphere of thought tilat engendered the great idea of free trade
a rose . . . Ihe notion that no one would come aWIlY empt y- handed- r ather, the
contrar y- fro m an exhibitioll at which he had s taked his best so as to be able to
take home the best that other people had to offer.. . This bold conception , in
which the idea for the exhibition originated , wall put into action . Within eight
months. ever ything was finis hed . 'An a bsolute wonder lilat h as become a pa rt of
history. ' At the foundation of the entire underta king, remarka bly enough, re8U
the principle that such a work must be backed not by the s ta te but b y the free
activity of its citizens ... . Origi n aUy, two private contrac tors, the Munday broth­
er s, offer ed to build , at their own ris k , a p alace costing a million ma rks. But
gr ander proportions wer e resolved on , and the necessary fund s for guara nteein ~
the enterp rise, totaling man y millions, we re lI ubscrihed in short order. The Veat
new thought found a great new form . The engineer Paxton built the Cr ystal Pal­
ace. In every l a ~d r ang out the news of something fa bulous and unp re<:ede nted: a
palace of glass and iron was going to be built , one Ihat would co,'er e.ighteen acres.
No t long before this , Pax ton had cons tructed a vaulted roof of glass and iron for
one .o f the greenhouses at Kew, in which luxuriant palm8 were growing, and thi,
ac hievement gave him the courage to ta ke on the new task . Chosen as a site for the
exhibition wIIs the flllest pa rk in London, Hyde Park , which offered ill the middle
!I wide open meadow, tra ve rsed !llong its s horter !I ~ ill by a ll avenue of splendid
elms . But anxious onlookCI's 800 n raised II cr y of ala rm lest these trees be sacrificed
for the sa ke of a whim . ' Theil I shall roof o,'cr tile trees ,' was PalC tou's answer, and
lIe p roceedCllto Ilesigu the transe pt. which , wit.h its semicyliudrical vault eleva ted
11 2 feet a bove tile ground , . . . accollunodated the whole ruw of elms. It is in the
highest degree remar ka ble and significan t that this Great Exhibition of Londoll­
oorll of mode rn cOllccptions of stea m " owcr. electricity. ami photogra phy. and
modern conceptio ns of free trade--should lit t.he same time have a fford ed the
decisive impetus, within thit period u a whole, for the r evolution in artistic forms.
To build a palace out of glus and iron teemed to the world , in thOle days, a
fa ntastic inspiration for a temporary piece of a rchitecture. We see now that it was
the fi rst great ad vance on the road to a wholly new wor ld of forms .... The con­
structive style, as opposed to the historical style, has become the watchword of the
nlOd ern movement. When did this idea make it. triumphal entry into the world? In
the year 185 1, with the Cr ysta l Palace in London. At firs t , peolJle thought it impo.­
sihle that a Iialace of colossal proportions could be built from glBlSand iron. In the
puhBcations of the d ay, we find the idea of assembling iron componen ts. so fanlil­
iur to us now, represented UII something extraordinary. England can boast of hav­
ing accomplillhed this quite novel tu k in the space of eight months, ulling iu
existing factories, without any additional capacity. Qne points out triumpbantly
that .. . in the . ixteenth century a small glned window wall still a lux ury item,
whereas tod ay a building covering eighteen acres can be constructed entirely out
of glass. To a man like Lothar Bucher, the mea ning of thill new IItructure was clear:
it was the undisguised architectural expression of the transver&e strength of slen­
der iron components. But the fantastic charm which the edifice exerted on aU lOuls
went weU beyond such a ch aracterization, however crucial for the program of the
future; and in this regar d , the preser vation of the magnificent row of trees for the
central transept was of capital importance. Into this space were transported all the
horticultural glories which the rich conservatories of E ngland had been able to
cultivate. Lightly 1)lumed palms from the tropics mingled with the leafy cr own. of
the five-hundred-year-old elms; and within thit enchanted forest the d ecoraton
arranged masterpieces of plan ic art, slatuary, large bronzes, and specimens of
other artworks. At the center stood an imposing crystal fountain. To the right and
to the left r an galleries in which visitors p assed from one n ational exhibit to the
other. Over all, it seemed a wonderland , ap pealing more to the i.magination than to
the inteUecl . 'It is with sober economy of phrase that I term the prospect incompa­
r ably fairy-like. This space is a summer night'. dream in the midnight SIlO '
Exterior of the Crystal Palace, London. See G6; G6a, l.
(Lolhar Bucher ). Such sentiments were registered throughout the world . I myself
recaU, from my childhood, how the new. of the Crystal Palace r eached us in
Ger man y, and how pictures of il were hl10g in the middle-class p arlors of distant
disproportion here between the period of gestation and the duration of the enter­
provincial towns. It seemed then that the world we knew from old fairy taie8--0f
the princess in the glau coffin , of queens and elves dwelling in cr ystal houBelJ-had prise." Maurice I'ecard , Les Expositions internationales au point de vue ecoRO­
mit/lie er social, particuli.e rement en France (Paris, 1901), p. 23 . [G6a,3)
come to life ..., and these inlpressions have persisted through the decades. The
great tra nBeI)t of the palace and part of the pavilions were transferred to Syden­
ham, where the building sta nds today;' ther e I saw it in 1862 , with feelin gs of awe A bookseller 's poster apl»ear s in Le. Mura ille. revolurionnaires de 18 /18 with the
and the sheerest delight. It has taken four d eca des. numer ous fires, a nd many following expl anatory rema rk : " We offer this affiche, a8 la ter we shaU offer others
depredations 10 r uin this magic. although even today it is still not completely unrelated to the elections or to the political events oflbe day. We offer it because it
vanished." Julius Lessing. Das halbe Jahrhunderl de r WeltulusuJlwl8en (Berlin, lells why a nd how certain manufacturer s profit from certain occasions." .' rom the
19(0), pp . 6- 10. [G6 ; G6a,I) Iwster : " Reatl this imlw rtallt notice against Swindlers. MOlisieur AJexandre
Pier re, wishing 10 stop t he d aily abuses created by the gelleral ignor ance of the
Organizing the New York exhibition of 1853 fell to Phineas Barnum. [G6a,2) Argot and J a rgoll of swindlers and dangerous men, haa made good use of the
unhappy time he was forced to spend with them as a victim of the fall en Govern­
" I..e Play has calculated tha t the number of years rccluired 10 pre pare a world ment ; now r estored to liberty by our noble Republic, he haa juSI published the
exhibition equals the number of months it ru ns .... There ia obviously a ahocking fruit of those l ad studiell he was able to make in prison . He is not afr aid to descend
inlo Ihe midsl of these horrible places, and even inlO the Lions' Den , if by these
means ... he ca n she{1 liglu on Ihe principal words of thcir con vc rsatiolls , and
thus make il possible 10 avoid tile mil!fort unes arltl ab uses thai result from nOI
knowin g these wo rds, which until now were intelligible onl y to swindlers .... On
sale from public ve ndors a nd from the Autlror." Le. Mltraille. riwollllionnaire5 de
1848 (Paris ( 1852), vol. I , p . 320. [G7, 1]
If the commodity was a fetish, then Grandville was the tribaJ sorcerer. IG',' I
mond Empire: "The government 's candidates ... wer e able to print their p roela­
mations on white pape r, a color reserved exclusivel y for official publications."
A. Malet a nd P. Grillet , XI X' .iecle (Paris, 1919) , I)' 27 1. [G7,3]
InJugendstil we see, for the first time, the integration of the human body into
advertising. DJugendstil 0 [G7,4}
Worker delegations at the world exhibition of 1867 . At the tOI) of the agenda is the
demand for the ab rogation of Article 1781 of the Civil Code, which reads: '"The
employer's word shaD be taken as true in his statement of wages apportioned , of
salary paid for the year ended , and of accounts given for the current yea r"
(I'. 140).-"T he delegations of worken at the exhibitions of London and Paris in
1862 and in 1867 gave a direction to the 80cial movement of the Second Empi re,
and even, we may say, to that of the sccond half of the nineteenth century. . . .
T heir reports were compared to the rec:ord8 of the Estates General ; the former
we re the signal for a 80cial evolution , just as the latter, in 1789, had been the cause
of a political and cconomic revolution" (I" 207).-{Thi8 comparison comes from
1'tUchel Chevalier. ] Demand for a ten -bour workday (I" 12 1).- " Four hundred
thousand free tickets were distributed to the workers of Paris and vario us
cieparlement• . A barracks with more than 30 ,()(M) beds was pu t at the disposal of
the visiting workers" (p . 84). Henr y Fougere, Le. Deiegalion$ Qu vriere. aax expo­
. itions univer.elle. (Montlut-on , 1905). [G7,5}
Gatherings of worker delegations of 1867 at the " training ground of the Passage
Raoul ." Fougere, p. 85. [G7a,l ]
"The exhihition Ilad long since closed , hut the delegate8 continued their discus­
sions, and the pa rliamen t of workers kept llOlding sessions in the Passage Haoul. "
Henry Jo'ougere, Le. DeUgation. oll vriereJ (lUX exp o.ition. IIniller.elle. 50118 Ie
lIcco/ld empire (Montlu ~o n , 1905), 1'1" 86-87 . Altogetiler, the sessions lasted from
July 21. 1867, until Jul y 14 , 1869. [G7a ,2}
Internation al Assoeiation of Workers. '''The A88ociation . . . {IIIICS from 1862,
fro m the lime of the world exhi bition in LOllllon. It was there that English and
French wo rkers first met , to holll discussions a llli Sirek mutu il l cnligiltclllnent. '
Statcment made by M. Tolain on March 6, 1868 •... during the flrlH suit IJrought
b y the government aga inst the International AS8ociation of Workers." Ilcnry
Fougerc, 1A!5 lJeUgo tiOJu Ollvrierc. tlll.;c eX/Jo, itio" . IlII ivencllCJ '011$ Ie "ecotld
empire (Montlu\'on , 1905), p. 75. T hc fi nll great lIIt:eting in London drafted a
(Ieclarat ion of sympath y for the liberal ion of the Polcs. [G7a,3]
In till: three or four reports by the wo rker delegations who took part in the world
exhihitioll of 1867, therc are dema uds for the abolition of standing armies anti for
geller al disar ma lllelll . Delcgations of porcelain painters, pillno repairmen , shoe­
lIIa ken, and mec:h anics. See Fougere. PI'. 163- 164. [G7a,4]
1867. " Whoever visited the Chaml) de Mars for the first time got a sillJ,·ular impres­
sion. Arri ving hy the central a\'enue , he saw at first ... onl y iron and smoke ... .
This initial impression exerted SUell an illfluence on the visitor that , iglloring the
tempting diversions offered by the arcade, he would hasten toward the movement
IIntlnoise that attracted him . At every poiut ... where the machines were monlen­
ta ril y still , he could hear the strai ns of steam-powered organs and t.hc symphonies
of brass instru ments." A . S. de Doncourt , Les Exposilion$ ILniver.elle. (Lille and
I)uris <1889) , PI'. 1 I 1- 11 2. [G7a,5)
T heatrical works pertaining to the world exhil)ition of 1855: Paris trop petit ,
Augu st 4 , 1855, Tlu!itre du Luxembourg; Paul Meurice, Pu ri. , July 21 , Porte­
Saint-Martin ; Theodore Barriere a nd Paul {Ie Koek , L 'lIisloire de Paris and Le.
Grand. Siecle5. Sep tember 29; Le. Mode. de l'exp o.ition ; Dzim boom boom: Re­
vue de l 'exhibition; Seb as tien Rheal, La Vision de f'awtw . 011 L 'E:cpositiotl uni­
verselle de 1855. In Adolp he De.my, Eu ai hi810rique . ur Ie. expo. i, ioru
univer.elle5 de Puris (Paris, 1907), p . 90. [C7a,6]
London 's world exhibition of 1862: " No trace remained of the edifying impre88ion
made by the exhibition of 185 1. ... Nevertheless, this exhihition h ad some note­
worth y result8.... T he greatest surprise ... callie from China . Up to this time,
Europe had seen nothing of Chinese art except ... tile ordinary I)()rcelains sold OD
the IUllr·ket . Hui 1I 0W the Anglo-Chinese war had taken place ... , and the SUlIlmer
Palace h ad ht.'Cn burnell to the ground , SUPI)()u."d ly a8 punis hme nl . ~ In truth ,
however, the English had succeeded even more d UIll thei r a llies , the French , in
carrying awa y a large portion of tllt~ treasures alllassed in that palnce, and these
treas ures we re 8ubsequentl y put 0 11 exhihit in London i.1I 1862. For the sake of
Iliscretion , il was wo men r ather than men ... who actcd as exh ibitors." Julius
LeS5ing, Da . 'Ultbe jalrrlllmtIerl tier Welltll1881ellllflge n (Ber lin, 1900), p. 16.
IG8,II
Lessing (Do. II(JII..e }trllrllunrlert der Wei,all.stelluflgc n [Berlin. 1900]. p . " )
IHJillIJi up the difference Iw twet:1l the ...·orld ex hibi tion;; a lld the fairs. " or the latter,
tile IIlcr'cha nts brought IIlCir whole stock of gootl ~ alo ng with thclII . Thc world
exhibitiolls pre8UPI)()Se a considcra ble d evelopmcnt of conllllercial as well a8 in­
dtl!~trial
credit- that is to@ay,crt:tlit 011 the part of the customcrs. as wdla8 0 11 Ihe
part or the firm s taking their ordet"8. (G8,2]
" You Iid iheratel y had to close yo ur eyes in order not to realize Iha llhe fair 0 11 the
Champ de Ma rs in 1798. that Ihe s upe rh porticoes of tlu: courtyard of tile l..ouvre
alld t.he courtyard of Ihe In Vlllidcs cOlis tructetl in the rollowing years, alld . filially,
thaI tlte mcmorable royal ordinance or J anua ry 13, 18 19," have powcrrull y eOIl­
tr ihutcd to the glorious d evelopment or French indus try.... It was rese rved rOr
the king or France to trallsform the magnificent gaUeries or his palace into a ll
immell8C bazaa r, in order that his IH!Opie might contemplate ... thesc ullbioodied
trop hics raised up by the gt:uius or the arts and the geuiu! of l)Cal:e." doseph­
Charlcs. ChcllOu and H .D., Notice s ur l 'exposition des produits de l'indll~ trie et
a
des arts flui a eu lie u DOlWi en 1827 (Douai, 1827), p. 5. [G8,3]
'1l:tree different delegations of workers "'ere sent to London in 185 1; none of
them accomplished anything significant. Two " 'ere official: one represented the
National Assembly, and one the municipality of Paris. The private delegation
was put together with the support of the press, in particular of Emile de Girardin.
The workers themselves played no part in assembling these delegations. [G8,4]
The dimensions of the Crystal Palace, according to A. S. Doncourt , Les Expoli-­
,iolll ilni lJer~e llel ( wile and Paris dB89», p . 12. The long sides measured 560
meters. [G8,5]
On the workers' delegations to the Great Exhibition in London in 1862: " Electoral
offices were being r a pidl y organized when , on the eve of elections, an incident ...
arose to iml)C(le the ol)Crations. The Paris police ... took umbrage at Ihis unp rece­
dented d evelopment , alld the Workers Commission was ordered to cease its ac­
tivities. Con vinced that this meas ure . . . could only be the resuh or a mis­
unders ta nding, members of the Commission took their a plHlal directl y to His
Majesty.... The emperor .. . was, in facl , willillg to authorize the Commisssion to
purs ue its task. T he e1ectiolls ... resulted ill the selection of two hundred dele­
ga tes .... A lH!riod of len Ilays had been gr an ted to each group to accomplish its
mission. Each delegate received , on his departure, the s um of 11 5 fra ncs, a 8flCo'
(llul-class round-trip trai n ticket , lodging, and a meal. as well as a pass to the
exhibition .... This grca t popular movement took place witllOut the slightest inci­
de lll tllllt . coulll Ila vt~ bl."Cli termell regrettahle." RlIpporl s d esdeles"e. del
olwrie r., l}(Jri~ ie ll.f (; l'exposi,ioll de umtirel ell 1862, pllbfie. ]Jur 1(1 Commi~lI i01I
oliliriere ( Puris . 1862- 1864) [I vol.!] , pp. iii- iv. (The Ilocumcnt contains r.rt y­
tllrl."C re pol·ts by Ilclegutions from the dirferent tralle.... ) [GSa, !]
Pari..._ 1855 . " Four locolll o ti vc ~ were gu ardi ng the hall of machines, like those
great IlIIlIs or Nineva ll . or like the s phinxes to bc seen a t the e ntrance to Egylltian
temples. T his hall was a land of iron a nd fire and wa ter ; tllc ca rll were deafellt,.'( I,
the e}'t!s (Iazzlell.... All was in motion . One sa .... wool combed , dotl. twis tcll, yarn
clipped. grain threshed . coal extracted . chocolate refin ed , and on and on . All
exhibitors without exception were allowell lIIotil.it y and steam , contrary to what
went on in Lolllion in 185 1, when onl y the English ex hihitot"8 had had the benefit of
fire and water." A. S. DonCOlirt . Les EXIJW ifion~ unive r~elks (LilJe and Paris
<1 889» . 11 • 53 . [G8a,2]
In 1867 , the " oriental qua rter" was t.he center of atl.raetion . (G8a,3)
Fifteen million \'isitol"8 to the exhibition of 1867. [G8a,4]
In 1855 , for the fi rs t time, merchandise could he ma rked with a price. IG8a,5]
><Le Play had ... under 8l0<K! how neceua ry it wo uld become to find what we caU,
in modern parlance. ' a draw' -lIome ua r a ttraction . He likewise foresa",' that this
nec.e......ity would lead to misnlanagement of the exhihitions, and this is the issue ...
to which l\f. Claudio-J anet addressed himself ill 1889: 'The economist l\f. Frederic
Passy. a worth y man. has for mauy years now, in his speeches to Parliament a nd to
the Aeademie, b,een denouncing the ahuscs of the s treet fai rs. Everything he saya
about the gingerbread fair ... call also IH! said (allowing for differences in magni­
tude) of the great centennial celebra tiOIl . '" A note at this (loint: " The centennial
celebration. in fac t. was 80 s uccessful that the Eiffel Tower, which cost 6 million
francs, had alread y earned , by the ftfth or November, 6,459,581 francs." Ma urice
P~a rd , Le~ Expol itio,,~ internafionClk. au point de vue economique et lociak.
pClrtic ul~re~ nt en Fra nce (Paris , 190 1), I). 29. (G9,l )
The exhibition palace or 1867 011 the Cham p de Mar~o mpared by some to
Rome's Colosscum : " The arrangement conceived b y L..e Play, the head of the exhi­
bition committee, was a most felicitous one. The objects on exhi bit were dis trib­
uted . acco rding to their materials. in eight concentric galleries; twelve aven ues ...
branched out from the center, and the I>rincipal nations occupied the secto rs cut
by those radii. In this way, ... by strolling around the gaUeries, one could ...
survey the s tate of one particula r industry in all the different countries, whereas,
by strolling up the avenuC1l that crossed them , one could ...urvey the sta te of the
different branches of industry in each particula r country." Adolphe Dimy, Euai
historique l ur k l eX]Jo.ilio n~ univer~elkl de Pa ris (Paris, 1907), p. 129.-Cited
here is Theophile Gautier 's article about the palace in Le Moniteur of September
17, 1867: " We have before li S, it seems, u monument created 011 another planet, 011
Jupiter or Saturll , according to a taste we do not recognize ami with a coloration to
which our eyes arc lIot accllstomed ." Ju st berore this: " The grea t azure gulr, with
its hlood-colored rim , prolluces II vcrtiginous erfect a ud unsettles our idcas of
architecture. " . (G9,2]
Hesis tance to the world exhihition of 185 1: "The king or Prussia forbade the royal
prince anti princell ... from traveling to London .... The diplomatic corps re­
fu sed to addreu any word of congratulations to the (Iueell . 'At this mome"t ,'
wrote ... Prince Albert 10 his mother 011 April IS, 185 1, ... ' Ihe opponents of the
Exhihition are hard al work . . . . The foreign er l, they cry, will start a r adical
revolution here; they will kill Vicloria and myself and proclaim a red republic.
MOI·cover, t.he plugue will surely reault from the inAu" of such multitudes a nd wiD
devour tholle wllO h ave not been dri vell away by the high prices on everything. ' ..
Adolphe Dimy, Euo.i hu ,orique Sllr te, expo.irion. Itlliverselle. (Paris, 19(7),
p .38 . [G9,3)
Frall~oi s de Neufchateau on the exhibition of 1798 (in Demy, Euai hutorUiue . ur
tes exposition. univer.elle. ). "'The French ,' he d eclared, .. ' have amazed
EurolJe by the swiftness of their military successes; they should launch a caree r in
commerce and the arts with just the l ame fer vo r '" (p . 14). " This initial expo8ition
. . . is really an initial ca mpaign, a campaign disastrous for English industry"
(p . 18).-Martial characler of the opening procefl8ion : "(1) a contingenl of trum·
peter s; (2) a detachment of cavalry; (3) the first two squads of mace bearers; (4)
the drums; (5) a military marching hand ; (6) a 8quad of infantry; (7) the heralds;
(8) the festival mars hal ; (9) the artis18 regis tered in the exhibition; (10) the jury"
(p . 15).-Neufchateau awards the gold medal to the most heroic anauh on Eng.l.ieb
industry. [G9a,I)
The lIec!ond e"hibition, in Year IX," was supposed to bring together, in the court·
ya rd of the Louvre, works of industry and of the plastic artll. But lhe artilltll
refu sed 10 e"hibit their work alongside thai of manufacturers (Demy, p . 19).
(G9a,2)
Exhibition of 18 19. '""fhe king, on the occallion of the exhibition , conferred the
title of baron on Ternaux and Oberkalllpf. ... The granting of a ristocratic titlea to
industrialistll had provoked Home criticillms. In 1823, no new titles were con­
ferred ." Di my, Eu ai hutorique, p . 24. (G9a,3]
Exhibilioll of 1844. Madame de Girardin 's conunenlS on the event , <in> Vicomte de
l..aunay, uttres paru iennes, vol. 4, p. 66 (cited in Demy, Euai hu torique. p. 27):
.... ' It is a pleasure, ' she remarked, 'strangely a kin to a nightmare.' And IIhe went OD
to enumerate the singularities, of which ther e waa no lack: the fl ayed horlle, the
colo88al het:tlc, Ihe moving jaw, the chronometric Turk who ma rked the hours by
the num ber of his somersaults, and- Iallt but not least- l\1 . and Mme. Pipelel , the
concierges in u. Mystere. cle Paris , 1: ill angelll." (G9a,4)
World exhibition of 1851 : 14,837 ex hibitors; that of 1855: 80,000. [G9a,S)
In 1867, the t: gyptiall e"hiiJit was housed ill a IlUilding whose design Will based on
a n Egyplialll elilple. [G9a,6)
In his 1I0"e! The Fortren , Wall)Ole dellcribeathe precautions Ihat ....ere taken in a
lotlging-house sl)eCially designed 10 ....elcome visitors to the ....orld exhibition of
185 1. These preca utions included continuolls 1)OIice surveillance of the dormito­
ries, the pn:llellce of a cha plain , ami a regular morning visit by a d octor. [G IO, I)
Walpole describes the Crystal Palace, with Ihe g1asll fount ain at its cenler and the
old e1m;;--the laller " looking a lmost like Ihe lions of Ihe forest caught in a net of
glass" (p . 307) . He deKribes the booths decorated with expensive carpets, and
above aU the machines . " There were in Ihe machille· r OOIll the 'self-acling mules,'
the J aCtlua rd lace machines, the envelope machines, the power looms, the model
10comOlivC1l, celltrifugal pumps, the vertical 81eam--e.ngines, aU of Ihe3e ....orking
like mad , while Ihe thousand s ncarby, in their high hats and bonnela. sat patientl y
wailing, passive, unwillillg that Ihe Age of Man on this Plunet was doomed. " Hugh
Walpole, "he Forrren (Hamburg, Parill, a lld Bologna <1933», p. 306.13 (GIO,2)
Delvau speaks of " men who, each evenillg, have their eyes glued 10 the displa y
....indow of I..a BeUe J a rdinere to watch the da y's receilll8 being counted ." Alfred
Delvau , us Heure. paruienne. (Pa ris, 1866). p . 144 ("Huit heures dll soir").
IGIO,']
In a s peet':h to Ihe Senate, on January 31,1868, Michel Chevalier makes aD effort
to save the previous yea r 's Palace of Industry from de3truction . Of the various
posllibilitiell he lays out for lIalvaging the building, the most noteworthy ill that of
using the interior-which , with its circular form , ill ideally lluited 10 such a pur­
pOIle--for practicing troop maneuvers. He also proposes developing the structure
into a lH!rmanent merchandise mart for in1l)Orts. The intention of the opposing
party seemll to have been to keep the Champ de Mars free of all construction- this
for mililary reallons. See Micliel Chevalier. Dilcours .fUr line petition reciamo.nt
conlre ia de$truCliotl du pailli. cle l'Expo.ition IIniversette de 1867 (Paris, 1868).
IGIO,. ]
"T he world exhibitions ... can not fai l to provo ke the mosl exacl comparisons
1H!lween t.he prices a nd the qualities of the same article as produced ill different
countriC1l. fl o .... tlie school of abllolute freedom of trade rejoices then! The world
exhibitiunll contribute ... 10 the reduction , if nottlie a bolition , of cllslom duties. "
Achille de Colusont (?>, lIi3toire de$ exposition. cles proouiu cle t'indlUtrie
frt.in~uue (Paril, 1855), p. 544. [G l Oa, I)
E,·e ry inclu ~ lr)", in u hihil ing itll trophics
In liIi" ha1!aar of Uni llC r8ll1 Jl rogrcu.
See m~ to ha"'l horrowed a fairy's ma gi c wand
To hlc&!I lh e Cr)"S1al Palaer:.
Ric h me n . ""llOlar8. a rli s l ~ . proklarillnll-­
Eac h on.· la hort fo r Ihr: co mmo n I!!OV(I;
'\nd. j oi nin! toget he r like no hle hrolhc r •.
,\11 loa lie at hclt rlthe ha l' l,i netl' of each.
Clairville anti Jules Cordier, Le Pulail de Cris tal, Ol~ IA!~ Paris ie ,,~ ;; Lo ndre~
[Theatre de la Porte-SainI-Mar tin , May 26, 185 1J ( Paris, 185 1), p. 6 . [GlOa,2)
The laS! two tablea ux from Clairville's Pala is de Crillal take place in f ro nl of a nd
illside Ihe Cr ystal Pa lace. T he stage di rections for the (llext to) laSI tableau : ''The
main gallery of the Cr ystal Palace . To the left , d ownstage, a bcd , at the head of
...hich is a la rge dial. At center stage , a 8ma1l ta ble holding small sac ks and pots of
ea rth . To the right , an electrical machine. Toward the rea r, an exhibition of vari­
ous products (b ased 0 11 the descrip tive engraving done in Londoll)" (p . 30).
[CIOn,3]
Ad ver tisement fo r Marquis Chocolates, fro m 1846: " Chocolate from La Ma ison
Marquis, 44 Rue Vivienne, at the Passage des Panoramas.-The time has come
... hen chocolate praline, and all the other va rieties of ch ocolat de fa ntail ie, will he
available . . . fro m the House of l\1a rqu.is in the most varied and gr aceful of
fo rms. . . . We are privileged to be a ble to aDliounce to our readers tha t, oltce
again , a ll assortment of pleasing verses, j udiciously selected fro m a mong the year's
purest , most gracious, and most elevated publications, will accompan y the exqu.i­
site confections of Marquis. Confident in the favora ble advantage that is ou rs
alone, we rejoice to bring together that puissan t name wi th 80 much lovely ve rse."
Cabinet des Estampes. [GlOa,4]
Palace of Industry, 1855: "Six pavilions bonier the b uildi ng on four sides, and 306
ar cades run tb ro ugh the lower story. An enormous glass roof provides light to the
interior. As mater ia ls, onl y stone, iron , a lld zinc have heell used ; building costs
amounted to II millioll francs .... Of p articular interest are two lar ge paintings
on glass at the eastern and western ends of the ma in gallery.... T he figures rep re­
sented 011 tbese a ppear to be life-size, yet ar e no les8 than six meters high ." Acht
Tage in Paris ( Pa ris, Jul y 1855), PI' . 9- 10. The pa intings on glass show fi gures
representing industrial Fra nce and Justice. {GI I ,I]
" I have ... written , together ...ith my collabora tor s on I. 'A telie r, tha t the moment
for economic revolution has come . . . , although we had all agn-ed some time
previously that the workers of Euro pe had acbieved solidarity and that it was
necessa r y now to move 0 11 , before an ything else, to the idea of a political federation
of peoples. " A. Corbon , Le Secret tlu peuple de Pa ris (Paris, 1863), p. 196. Also
p. 242: " In sum , the political attitude of the working class of Paris consis ts uhllost
entirely in t.he pas ~ i o ll ate desire to ser ve the moveme nt of fede ra tion of nationali­
ties ." [C I I,2]
Ni na Lassave, Fieschi 's bdol'ed, was employed . aft cr his execution on Februar y
19, 1836, as a cas hier al Ihe Cafe de la H eJl ai ~s a n ce 0 11 tilt: Place tie la Bourse.
{Gll ,3]
AII.imal s ymholis m ill TonssclleI: the mole. " T he mole is .. . not the emblem of a
single charac ter. II is the emblem of a whole social perioa: the period of industry 's
infancy. the Cyclopean pcriod .... It is the .. . allegor ica l expression of the ah so­
lu te predomin ance of hrule fO I·ce over illtcllt.-eilial force . . . . Man y estima ble
analobtlsts find a marked resembla nce betW(''C1I moles, ... hich II pllll·1I the soil a nd
pierce passages of 6ubielTanean conuuunication , ... and the monopolizers of r ail·
roads and stage I·outes . . . . The extreme ner vo us sen8ibility of tile mole, whic b
fea rs the light . . . , admi rably cha racter izes the obstinate obscu ra ntis m of t.hose
monopolizers of banking and of trallsportation , who also fea l· the light ."
A. Toussenel , I~ 'Esprit des oo' es : Zoologie passiOllllelle-l'tfammiferes de France
(paris, 1884), pp. 469, 473--474.].1 [G ll ,4]
Ani mal symbolis m in Toussellei: the marmot . "The ma l·mot .. . loses its hair at its
work- in allusion to the paillfullabo r of the chimney sweep , who rubs and spoils
his clotbes in his occupation ." A. Toussenel , L 'Esp rit des /Je' es (Pa ris, 1884),
.=" ~ l l~
Plant symbolis m ill Toussend : the vine. " The ViJle loves to gossip ... ; it moun ts
fa milia rl y to the shoulder of plum tree, oBve, or elm, and is intimate with all the
trees." A. Toussellel, L'Esprit (le~ betes ( Paris, 1884), p . 107. [C Il ,6]
Toussenel expounds the theory of the circle and of the parabola with reference
to the different childhood games of the two sexes. This recalls the anthropo­
morphisms of Grandville. "The figures preferred by childhood are invariably
round- the baH, the hoop, the marble; also the fruits which it prefers: the cherry,
the gooseberry, the apple, the jam tart. ... The analogist, who has observed these
games with continued attention, has not failed to remark a characteristic differ­
ence in the choice of amusements, and the favorite exercises, of the children of
the two sexes .... \Vhat then has our observer remarked in the character of the
games of feminine infancy? He has remarked in the character of these games a
decided proclivity toward the ellipse. I I observe among the favorite games of
feminine infancy the shuttlecock and the jump rope.... Both the rope and the
cord describe parabolic or elliptical curves. \Vhy so? \Vhy, at such an early age,
this preference of the minor sex for the elliptical curve, this manifest contempt for
marbles, ball, and top? Because the ellipse is the curve of love, as the circle is that
of f~endship . The ellipse is the figure in which God ... has profiled the form of
His favorite creatures-woman, swan, Arabian horse, dove; the ellipse is the
essentially attractive form .... Astronomers were generally ignorant as to why
the planets describe ellipses and not circumferences around their pivot of attrac­
tion; they now k.now as much about this mystery as I do." A. TousselleJ, L'Espn·,
des biles, pp. 89-91. '6 (Glla,I)
TousselleJ posits a symbolism of curves, according to which the circle represents
friendship; the ellipse, love; the parabola, the sense of family ; the hyperbola,
ambition. In the paragraph concerning the hyperbola, there is a passage closely
related to Grandville: "The hyperbola is the curve of ambition.. . . Admire the
detennined persistence of the ardent asymptote pursuing the hyperbola in head­
long eagem ess: it approaches, always approaches, its goal .. . but never attains
it." A. Toussenel, L'Espn'f des beles (Paris, 1884), p. 92.'1 [Gll a.2]
AJlimal symbolism in Toussenel : the hedgehog. " Gluuollous allli repulsive , it is
also the portrait of the scurvy slave of tile IH:n, trafficking with all subjects, scUing
postmaster's appoiJltments and theater passes, ... and drawing .. from Ilis
sorr y Chr istian conscience pledges and apologies at fixed prices . . .. It is said that
Ihe hedgehog iS lhc only quadruped of France on which the venom of the viper has
no effect. I should have guessed this exception merely from analogy. .. For
ex pl ain . . . how calumny (the vilJer) can stillg the literary blackguard."
A. Toussene!, L 'Esprit des M tes (Paris, 1884). PI" <1, 76, 478 .' ~ [G II a,3)
" Lightning is the kiss of clouds, stormy but faithful. Two lovers who ad ore each
other, and who will tell it in spite of all obstacles, are two clouds animated with
opposite electricities, and swelled wilh tragedy. " A. Toussenel. L 'Esprit des betes:
Zoologie pa ssionnelle-Mammifi~ res de Frallce, 4th ed . (Paris, 1884), pp. 100­
IOI. I ~ [G12 ,l)
The first edition of Toussenel's L 'Esprit des be fes appeared in 1847 . IGl2,' 1
" I have vainly questiolled the archives of antiquit y to fi nd traces of the setter dog.
I have appealed to the memory of the most lucid somnambulists to ascertain the
epocll when this race ap peared. All the information I could procure . . . leads to
this conclusion: the setter dog is a creation of modern times." A. Toussenel, L'Es­
prit des Mtes (Pa ris, 1884), p. 159. :0 [G12,3)
" A beautiful young woman is a true voltaic cell , ... in which the captive fluid i8
retained by the form of surface8 and the isolating virtue of the hair; 80 that wheD
this fluid would escape from its sweet prison, it must make incredible efforl8,
which produce in turn, by inRuence on bodies differently a nimated , fearful rav­
ages of attraction . . .. The history of the human race swarms with examples of
intelligent and learned men, intrepid heroes, ... transfixed merely by a woman's
eye . ... The holy King David proved that he perfectly understood the condensing
pro per ties of polished elliptical surfaces when he took unto himself the yo ung
Abigail. " A. Toussencl, L 'Esprit des befes (Paris. 1884). pp. 101_ 103. 11 {G12,4]
TOllssenei explains the rotation of the earth as the r esultant of a centrifugal force
and a force of attraction. Further on: " T ile star. . begins to wah7. its fre lletie
wa ltz . . .. E\'er ything rustles, stirs, warms up , shines on !lIe sllrface of the globe,
whicll onl y the eveni ng before was entombed in the frigid silence of night . Marvel­
Oil S spectacle for the well-placed observer--change of scene wonderful to behold .
For the revolution took place between two suns und , that very evelling. un ame­
thyst Slu r malle its fir st aplJeara nce in our skies" (p. 45). And , alluding 10 the
volcanism of earlier epochs of the earth ; " We know the effects which the first waltlE
usually h a ~ 011 delica te co n ~titutiulI'; .. .. T he Earth, too. "" as rudely awakened by
its first ordeal. " A. Toussenel , L 'Esprif des befes; Zoologie Pll.SSiOflnelle (Paris,
1884). pp. 44-45. [G12 ,5)
Principle of Toussenel 's zoology; " The rank of the species is ill direct proportion to
its resemblance to the human being. " A. Toussellel, L 'E$pril des beres (Paris,
1884), I)' i. Compar e the epigraph to the work: '''The best thing about lIIall is his
dog. '-Charlet ." [Gl2a,l )
The aeronaut Poitevin, sustained b y great publicity. ulldertook a n " ascent to Ura_
nus" accompanied in the gOlldola of his balloon by yo ung women dressed as
mythological figures. Paris $O U $ la Republique de 1848: Expositioll de la Bib­
fiotheque el des Ira vaux historiques de fa Ville de Pa ris (1909). p. 34. [GI2a,2)
We can speak of a fetishistic autonomy not only with regard to the commodity
but also-as the following passage from Marx indicates-with regard to the
means of production: "If we consider the process of production from the point of
view of the simple labor process, the laborer stands, in relation to the means of
production, ... as the mere means . . . of his own intelligent productive activ­
ity. ... But it is different as soon as we deal with the process of production from
the point of view of the process of surplus-value creation. The means of produc­
tion are at once changed into means for the absorption of the labor of others. It is
now no longer the laborer that employs the means of production, but the means
of production that employ the laborer. Instead of being consumed by him as
material elements of his p roductive activity, they consume him as the ferment
necessary to their own life process . . . . Furnaces and workshops that stand idle
by night, and absorb no living labor, are a 'mere loss' to the capitalist. Hence,
furnaces and workshops constitute lawful claims upon the night labor of the
workpeople.":12 Tl1is observation can be applied to the analysis of Grandville. To
what extent is the hired laborer the "soul" of Grandville's fetishistically animated
objects? [Gl 2a,3)
"Night distributes the steUar essence to the sleeping planlS. Every bird which flies
has the thread of the infinite in its claw. " Victor Hugo, Oeuvres completes (Paris ,
L88I). 1I0vels, vol. 8, 1' .114 (Les Miserables, book 4).23 [G12a,4)
Drumont ca Us Toussenel " one of the greatest prose writers of the century. "
Edoua rd Drumont , Les Heros et les pitre$ (Pa ris ( 1900) , p. 270 ("Toussenel").
[G12a ,5)
Technique of exhibition: " A fUlld umelital rule, Iluickl y lea rnell through observa­
tion , is that 110 object should he placed direet1y on the fl oor, on a level with the
walkways. Pianos, furniture, physical apparatus, and machines are better dis­
played on a pedestal or raised platform . The hest exhibits nlake usc of two q uite
distinct systems: disp lays under glass and open displays. To be sure, some p rod­
ucts , by their very nature or because of their value, have to he protected from
 COlltll~:t with the a ir or the ha nd ; o illen! benefit (rom being left uncovered ." Expo­
- . ilion unilJc rselle de 1867, ci Pm';,, : Album dell in.tluiJalion.J Ie. pllU rerrwrquablu
de l'Exposition de 1862. a Lolldres, publii par lu commiuion impe riale pour
.ervir de renseigrlemc nl UlU eXpO,cHlt, des di ver,e' "(llium (Pari" 1866) <I). 5>.
AJhum of plate. in lar ge folio. widl ve ry interesting illustrations. l ome in color,
sho.....ing-in cr oss-section or longitudinal section , 81 the case Dlay be--the pavil.
iOllt of the world exhibition of 1862. Bibliothi!<lue Nationale. V.644. [G 13,1J
Paris in tile year 2855 : "Our many visitors from Sa turn and Mara have entirely
forgotten , since a rriving her e, the hori:l:Olls of their mother planet! Paris is hence­
forward the capilal of creation ! . . . Where are yo u, Champs-Elysees, favored
theme of newswritenl in 1855? ... Buzzing along this thoroughfa re that is paved
widl 1I01l0w iron and roofed with crys tal are the bees and hornets of fmance! The
capitalists of Ur sa Major are conferring with the stockbrokenl of Mercury! And
coming on the market this very da y are shares in the debris of Vellus half con­
sumed by its own Aames!" Anlene Houssaye, " L.e Paris futur," in Porn et lu
Pari.siem au XIX' .siecie (Paris, 1856), pp. 458-459. IG13,2)
At the time of the establishment , in London , of the General Council of the Workenl
Int er n a tion a l /~ the following rema rk circulated: " The child born in the work­
s hops of Paris was nu rsed in London ." See Charles Benoist , " L.e ' My the' de I.
classe ouvriere," Rellue des deux mOrldes (March I , 1914), p. 104. [GI3,3)
"Seeing that the gala ball is the sole occasion on which men contain themselve8, let
us get used to modeling all our ins titutions on gatherings such as these, wbere the
woman is queen ." A. Toussenel, Le Monde de, oi.seaux, vol. I (Paris, 1853).
p . 134. And: "Man y men are courtcous and gaUant at a ball, doubting not tbat
gallantry is a commandment of God" (ihid. , p. 98). [GI3 ,4)
On Ga briel Engelma nn : " When he published his Euail lithogrophique.s in 1816,
great care was taken to reproduce this medallion as the frontis piece to his book,
..... jth the inscription: 'Awarded to M. G. Engelmann of Mulhouse (Upper Rhine).
Lurge-8cale execution, and refinement , of the art of lithography. Encouragement.
1816. '" Henri Bouchot , 1..« Lithographie ( Paris (1895» , p. <38>. (G13,5)
On the London world exhihition: " Ill making the round li of this enormous exhibi­
tion , the observer soon realizell that . to avoid confusion , . .. it has been necessary
to cluster the different nationalities in a certain number of gro ups, and that the
on ly useful way of establishing these industrial groupings was to do so on the basis
of--oddl y enough- religious beliefs. Each of the great religious divisions of hu­
ma uit y corresponds, in effect •... to a particular mode of existence and of indus­
trilli llctivity. " Michel Chevalier. Du Progre~ ( Paris, 1852), p. 13. [GI 3a, l )
Frum t.he fi nll cha pter of Cnpifnl: " A cOllllllodity ap pears, at first sight. a very
tri vial thing IIlId easi.ly unders tootl. 118 analysis shows that in reality it is a very
(Iueer thing. a bounding ill metaphysicai liubdeties and theologicailliceties. So far
as it is a value in use, there is nothing mys terious abullt it. . . . The form or wood is
altered h y making a ta ble out of it; ncw:rtlleles8, thi ~ table remains wood , an
ordinary material thing. As soon as it stcps forth as cOlllmodity, however, it is
transforlll ed int o alllat crial immaterial thing. It not only s tands with its feet on the
gro und , but . in the fa ce of all other comlllO(lities, it s tands on ita Ilead . and out of
its wOO(len bra in it evolves notions more whimsically than if il had s uddenly begun
10 dauce:-:' Cited in Franz Mehring, " Ka rl Marx und das Gleichnis," in Karl
M(lrx (115 Dellker, Mcn.scll, IIfU/ RevolufiOlliir, ed. Rjazanov (Vienna and Berlin
(1928» , p . 57 (firs t puhlished in Die "eue Zeit, March 13, 1908). (G I3a,2)
Henan compares Ihe world exhibitions to the great C r eek feslivals, the Olympian
games, and the Panathenaea. But in contrast to these, the world exhibitions lack
poclry. " Twice, Europe hilS gOlle off to view the merchalldise and to compare
products and materials; and on returning from this new kind of pilgrimage, no one
has complained of missing anything." Some pages later: " Our century tends to­
ward neither the good nor the bad ; it tends loward the mediocre. Whal s ucceeds in
e,'ery endeavor nowada ys is mediocrity." Ernest Henan , Eu oi.s de morale et de
critique ( Paris. 1859), PI' . 356-357, 373 ("Lu Poesie d e n : xposition"). [G I3a,3)
Has hish villion in the casino at Aix-la-C halH!lIe. '"'The ga llling la ble at Aix-Ia­
Chapelle is nothing s hort of an international congress, where the coins of all king­
doms and all countries are welcome.... A storm of Leopolds . Friedrich Wilhelms,
Queen Victorias, and Napolcons rain down ... on the lable. Looking over this
shining alluvium, J thought I could see ... the effigies of the sovereigns ... irrevo­
cably fade from their respective ecus, guineas, or ducals, to make room for otber
visages entirely unknown 10 me. A great many of these fa ces ... wore grimaces .. .
of vexation , of grOOtI , or of fur y. There were happy ones 100 , but only a few ... .
Soon this phenomenon ... grew dim ami passed away, and anOlher sort of vision,
110 less extraordinary, now loomed before me . . . . The bourgeois effi pes which
had s upplan ted the monarchll began themselves to move about .....ithin the metallic
disks ... that confined them. Before long, they had separaled from the dis ks. They
ap peared in full relief; then their heads burgeone<1 oul into rounded forms. They
had taken 0 11 .•• nol only fa ces but living fl esh . They had all sprung Lilliputian
hodi~s. Ever ything assumed a s halH! ... somehow or olher ; and cr eatures exactl y
like us, except for their siZe, ... began to enliven the gamillg tahle , from which all
currency had vanished . I heard the ring of coins struck by the s teel of the crou­
pier's rake , hut this was all that remained of the old resollance .. . or louis and
tic us, whicll Ilud become men . These poor myrmidons were now laking to their
heels, franti c lit the approach of the murderous rake of the croupier; but escape
.....as impossible ... . Then ... the d .....arfis h s ta kes, ohliged to ad mil defeat, .....ere
ruthlessly cllpture(l hy the fUla l rake, .....llicll gat here(1 them inlo the croupier'!
cl utching halld . The croupier-how horril,IC!-IOok up each smull hod y {Illintil y
hetween his linger s and de'·ou.red il .....ith gusto. I.n Icss thun half Iln hour, I sa .....
some h alf-tlozen of these imprudent LiUipulianli Imrleo.l intu the ahY8ll of this lerri­
 hie 101nb.... 8111 what appallctl me the mosl was thai , on r nising my cyc~ (alto­
gcther by chance) to the ga lJcry surroundiJlg this valley of <Iealh , I nOl iced nOI jusl
all extraordin ary likeness but a complete identit y betwCtln the several kingpins
playing the life-sho:ed game and the miniature humans struggling there 0 11 the ta­
hie.... What ', more, these kingpins ... appeared 10 me ... to collapse in des­
pera tion precisely as their childlike fa csimiles were overta ken by tile fOrlni<lable
rake. They sccmed to sha re ... a Uthe sensa tions of their lillie double; a nd never,
for as long as I live, will I forget the look and the gesture-full of hatred and
despair-which one of those gamblers dire<:ted toward the bank at the ver y mo­
ment that his tiny simulacrum , coralled by the rake, went to satisfy the ra venous
appetite of tile croupier." Felix Morna nd , La Vie des eallX (Paris, 1862), pp . 219­
22 1 ("Aix-Ia-Cbapelle"). (C I4)
It " 'oul? b~ useful to ~ompare the way Grandville portrays machines to the way
Chevalier, III 1852, still speaks of the railroad. H e calculates that tv.·o locomo­
tives, having a total of 400 horsepower, would correspond to 800 acrual horses.
H ow would il be possible to harness them up? How supply the fodder? And, in a
note, he adds: "It must also be kept in mind that horses of flesh and blood have
to rest after a brief journey; so that to furnish the same service as a locomotive,
one must have on hand a very large number of animals." Michel C hevalier
Chemins def": Extrail du dicliontuziT( de l 'tconomi( politiqu( (Paris, 1852), p. 10. '
[C 14a,l ]
The principles informing the exhibition of objects ill t.he Calcrie des MnchinCi of
1867 were derived from Le Play. [G I4a,2]
A divinatory representation of architectural aspects of the later world exhibitions
is found in Gogol's essay "On Present-Day Architecture," which appeared in the
mid-l birties in his collection ATah(JqU(J. "Away with this academicism which
commands that buildings be built all one size and in one stylel A city should
consist of many different styles of building, if we wish it to be pleasing to the eye.
Let as many contrasting styles combine there as possible! Let the solemn Gothic
and the richly embellished Bytantine arise in the same street, alongside colossal
Egyptian halls and elegantly proportioned Greek structures! Let us see there the
slightly concave milk·white cupola, the soaring church steeple, the oriental miter,
the Italianate fl at roof, the steep and heavily ornamented Flemis h roof, dIe quad­
rilateral pyramid, the cylindrical column, the faceted obelisk!"Z6 Nikolai Gogol,
"Sur I~chitecture du temps present," cited in W1adimir \\kidlc, Ul Abdllu
d'AriJti( (paris d936~) , pp. 162- 163 ("L~ gon.ie de I'art") . [GI 4a,3)
f.~o uri e r ref"r8 to the fo lk wis<iumthat for some time h a~ <Iefin ed "Civiliza tion" as
Ie mOllde (I rebollrs <Ihe world cOlltrariwi ~e). (G 14a.4)
Fourier Cel llnOI resist <lcKribing a hunquel held on the bank8 of t.he Euphrllics 10
honor Ihe victors in hOlh a cOmpetilion among l'.Calous dam workcrs (600,000) alld
a contest of paUr y coo k ~ . The 600,000 utMete8 of ind u8try a re furnished with
300,000 boules of c1lumpugnc, whosc co rks, III a signal from the "command
tower," arc 11 11 popped simult a neously. To echo throughollt the " mountains of the
Euphrate8. " Cited in <Armand and > Mauhl<anc, Fourier (Pa ris, 1937», vol. 2,
pp . 178-179. [GI4a,5]
"Poor sw-s! Their role of resplendence is really a role of sacrifice. Creators and
servants of the productive power of the planets, they possess none of their own
and n~ust resign themselves to ~e thank.l~s and monotonous career of providing
torchlight. They have luster wuhout enjoyment; behind them shelter, invisible,
the living crearures. These slavc-queens are nevenheless of the same stuff as their
happy subjectS.... Dazzling flames today, they will one day be dark and cold,
and only as planets can they be reborn to life after the shock that has volati1i.z.ed
the retinue and its queen into a nebula." A. Blanqui, L'EIm/iti paTI~J a;tru (Paris,
1872), pp. 69-70. Compare Goethe: "Euch bedaur' ich, ungliickselge Sterne"
d pity you, unhappy s tars~. :17 [G IS,I)
"The sacristy, the stock exchange, and the harracks-those three musty lairs tbat
together vomit night , miser y, and denth upon the nations. October 1869." Auguste
Blanqui , Critit/lle socinie (Paris, 1885), vol. 2, p. 351 ("f.' ragments et notes").
[G l5,']
"A rich death is 11 closed abyn. " From the fifti es. Auguste Blanqui, Critique so­
ciule (Paris, 1885), vol. 2 , p . 315 (""' ragments et notes"). [CI5,3)
An image d 'Epinal by Sellerie shows the world exhibition of 1855 . [GI 5,' ]
Elements of intoXication at work in the detective novel, whose mechanism is
described by Caillois (in (em u that recall the world of the hashish eater): "The
characters of the childish inlagination and a prevailing artificiality hold sway over
this ~trangely vivid world. Nothing happens here that is not long premeditated ;
nothing co~ponds to appearances. Rather, each thing has been prepared for
use at the nght moment by the omnipotent hero who wields power over it. ~
recognize in all this the Paris of the serial installments of FantOmllJ." Roger Cail­
lois, ~Paris, mythe modeme," Nou udJe R(uu(/ra1lfaiu, 25, no. 284 (May 1, 1937),
p.688. [GI5,5]
" Every day I SLoe passing heneuth Illy will<low II certain ntlluher of Kalmueks,
Osages, Ilidialls, C himIl Ut~n , 111111 uncicllt Crl:eks, alllllorc or less Purisianize(I. "
Charles Baudclllin·, Oeu vres. <",I. and ulinOlate<1 hy Y.-G. l..e Dantec (Paris,
1932),>"01. 2, p . 99 (--5alon de IK46:' section 7, " Dc I'Idca l et du m Oll e l~"). 211
[GI5.6)
Ad" cr tisiJIg IImlt'r tile EIIIJlin', uccording to Fenliruu1<1 Brunot. Ili!ltoire de II I
IU1Ig uefrtllH;uise de$ origi1les ii 1900. vol. 9, La Rewilll.iofl el I'EmpiTe. part 9,
" Les Evellements, les institutions et la langue" (Paris, 1937): " We shall freely
imagine tlull a mall of geniuli conc:eived the idea of ellllhrining, wi thin the banality
uf the vernacular, certain vocahles calculated 10 seduce readers alltl buyer ,., and
Ihat he cho5e Greek 1I0t only beca use il furllishe,. ine:dlllllstihie resources to work
with 11111 also IleCalue, less widely known than Latin. it has the advuntage of being
. . . in co ml'reh ell!~i "'e to a geller ation le,.s l'ersed in the study of allcieot
G n :ece. . . . Only, we know neither who this man wa s, nor wbat his nationality
might he . lIor even whether he existed or not. Let us suppose that ... Greek words
ga ined currency Iiule by little until, one da y, ... the idea ... was horn ... that,
by their own intrinsic virtue, they could serve for advertising... . I myself would
like 10 think tha t .. . several generations and several na tiOIiS went into the making
of that verhal billboard , the Greek monster that entiCefl hy lIurprise. I believe it
wall during the el)(}Ch I' m speaking of that the movement began to take shape....
The age of 'comagenic' ha ir oil had arril'ed ." Pp . 1229- 1230 ("Lea Causes du
triomphe du grec"). [eI5a,l)
"Wh at would a modern Winckelmann say. were he confronted by a product
from China-sometbing strange, bizarre, contorted in forlll , intense in color, and
somelinles so delicate as to be almost evanescent ? It is, nevertheless, an example of
universal beauty. But in order to under stand it , the critic, the spectator, must
effect within himself a mysterious transformatioo ; and by lIIt!ans of a phenomenon
uf the will acting on the imagination, he must learn by himself to particiJlate in the
milieu which has given birth to this strange flowering." Further along, 0 11 the same
page, al)pear " those mysterious f1 0wcn whose deep color enslaves the eye and
talltali:res it with its shape." Ch arles Baudelaire , Oeu vres, <ed. L.e Dantec (Paris,
1932),) vol. 2, PI" 144-145 (" EXIJOsitioli universeUc. 1855").:<! (G15a,2)
" In French poetry before Baudelaire, as ill the poetry of Europe gencraUy, the
style lind accents of the Orient were never more Ihall a faintly puerile a nd fa cti­
tious ga me. With Les Fk ur$ du m(l/, the strange color ill not produced without a
kt.'t;1I sense of escape. Baudelaire ... invites himself to absence .... In making a
journey, he gives us the feel of ... unex plored nature. where the tra l'eler parts
company with himself.... Doubtlcll8 , he leaves the mind and spirit ullchanged ;
but he presents a new vision of his soul. It is tropical, Mrican, black, enslaved.
Here is the t.rue country, an actual Africa, an authentic Indies." Andre Suares,
P refu ce to Charles Baudelaire , Les f'lell rs till mul (P aris, 1933). JlJl. xXl'- xxvii.
IGlO,! ]
Prostitution of space in hashish , where it serves for all that has been:lO IG!',' ]
Grandville's masking of nature with the fashions o f midccntury- nature under·
stood as the cosmos, as well as the wo rld of animals and plan ts-lets history, in
th e guise o f fashion, be derived from the eternal cycle o f nature. \oVhen Grand·
ville presents a new fan as the "fan of Iris," when the Milky Way appears as an
"avenue" illwninated at night by gas lamps, when "the moon (a self.portrait)"
reposes. 011 fashionable ~dvet cushions instead o f on clouds, then history is being
secuJanzed and dra'Nll Into a natural COntext as relentlessly as it was three hun­
d red years earlier with allegory. (G16,3)
The planetary fashions o f Grandville arc: so many parodies, drawn by n ature, of
human history. Grandville's harlequinades rum into Blanqui's plaintive ballads.
IG!',' ]
"The exhibitions li re Ihe only proJlerly modern fe stivals." Herlllann Lotze , Mi­
J,'rokosmos, vol. 3 (Leipzig, 1864), p. ?
IG!',S]
The world exhibitions were training schools in which the masses, barred from
consuming, learned empathy with exchange value. "Look at everything; to uch
nothing." IG 16,6)
The entertainment industry refines and multiplies the varieties of reactive behav.
ior ~~ng the I~asses. In this way, it makes them ripe for the workings of
advem smg. The link between this industry and the world exhibitions is thus well
established . (G16,7)
Proposal for urba n planning in Paris: " It would bC! ad villahle to vary the forms of
the houses and, as ror the districts , to employ different architectur al orders, even
those in no way clallllical--f;uch as tbe Gothic, Turkish, Chinese, Egyptian, Bur­
mese, and so forth ." Anu!dee dC! Tissot, Paris el Lone/res compares (Paris, 1830),
p. 150.-The architecture of futu re exhibitions! (G16a,1)
" As loog as this ullspe"kable COlistructioll [the Palace of Industry] survives, ... I
shall take satisfa ction in renoullcing the title ' man or leiters' . ... Art and ilulus­
try! Yes, it was in fa ct for them alone thai , in 1855, this impossible tangle of
galleries was reserved , this jumble where the poor writer s have not evt:n been
granted six square fee t- the space of a grave! Glory to thee, 0 Sta tioner. , ..
Mount to the Capitol, 0 Publisher .. . ! Triumph , you art ists a lld industrials, you
who ha ve bad the honors a nd the profit of a world exhibition, whereas poor Iitt:r a­
ture. '. . " (Pl' . v-vi). "A world exhibition for the man of leiter s, a Crystal PalacC!
for the author-mollistt:!" Whispe rings of a scurrilous demon whom Babou , accord­
ing to his " Lettre u Cha rles Assdineau," is supposed to h ave encountered one da y
alollg the Champs- Elysees. Hippolyte Bahol! . Les Hire /IS imlOcelils (Pllris, 1858),
p. xiv. [G 16a.2)
Exhihitions. " Such lrunsitory installations, as a rule. have had 110 infiu elll.:e 011 the
configuratiull or ci ties.... It is otherwise ... in Paris. Precillcly in Ihe racl tllUt
here gian t exhibitiolls could he sel up in the middle of town. and thai nearl y always
they would leave hehind a IIl01l1ll1lt:nt well suilt:!1 to 1.lIe city's gent:ral aSIH.'c:t- pre­
cisely in this, one CIHl re<:ognize the blessing of a great origin al layout ami of a
continuing tradition of urball planning. Paris could . .. orlilanize even the m08t
immense exhibition st) as to be ... acceuwle from the Place de la COllcorde. Along
the quays leading west from this squ are, for a distance of kilometers, the curbs
D
have beell set b ac k from t.he ri ve r in ~ u ch a way that vcr y wide lanes a rc olMmed, [The Collector]
which , abundantl y plaliled with rows of trees, make for the loveliest ponihle
cxhillitioll routes. " Fritz Stahl , Paris (Berlin (1929), p. 62. [GI6a,3[
All these old things have a moral value.
- Charles Baudclain: L

I believe ... in my soul: the 1hing.

- Unn Deubel, (kIlVrtJ (Paris, 1929), p. 193

Here was the last refu ge of those infant prodigies that saw the light of day at the
time of the world exhibitions: the briefcase with interior lighting, the meter·long
pocket knife, or the patented umbrella handle with built-in watch and revolver.
And near the degenerate giant creatures, aborted and broken-down m atter. ~
followed the narrow dark corridor to where-between a discount bookstore, in
which d usty tied-up bundles tell of all sorts of failure, and a shop selling only
buttons (mother-of-pearl and the kind that in Pam are called defan/aisie)- tbere
stood a SOrt of salon. On the pale-colored wallpaper full of figures and busts
shone a gas lamp. By its light, an old woman sat reading. They say she has been
there alone for years, ,and collects sets of teeth "in gold, in wax, and broken."
Since that day, moreover, we know where Doctor Miracle gOt the wax out of
which he fashioned Olympia.' 0 Dolls 0 {H l ,l )

"The crowd throngs to the Passage Vivienne, where people never feel conspicu­
ous, and deserts the Passage Colbert, where they feel perhaps too conspicuous.
At a certain point, an altempt was made to entice the crowd back by filling the
rotunda each evening with hannonious music, which emanated invisibly fro m
the ..vindows of a mezzanine. But the crowd came to put its nose in at the door
and did not enter, suspectin g in this novelty a conspiracy against its customs and
ro utine pleasures." Le Livre des (enl-e/-ulI, vol. IO (Paris, 1833), p. 58. Fifteen
years ago, a similar altempt was made- likewise in vain-to boost the (Berlim
departm ent store W. ""=.rtheim. Concerts were given in the great arcade that ran
through it. [1-11.21

Never Inlst what writers say about their own writings. When Zola undertook to
defend his 7h&tse Raquin against hostile critics, he explained that his book was a
scientific study of the temperam ents. H is task had been to show, in an example,
 exaoJy how the sanguine and the nervous temperaments act 011 one another-to
the derrimem of each. But this explanation could satisfy no one. Nor does it
explain the admixture of colportage, the bloodthirstiness, the cinematic goriness
of the aclion. Whidl-by no accident- takes place in an arcade. 3 If this book
really expounds something scientifically, then it"s the death of the Paris arcades,
the decay of a type of architecture. The book's annosphere is saturated with the
poisons of this process: its people drop like flies. [Hl ,3]
In 1893 , tile cot:t1I1t.'S were dri\'ell rrom the arcaJ e!l. [HI.']
Music secms to have settled into these spaces only with their decline, only as the
orchestras themselves began to seem old-fashioned in comparison to the new
mechanical music. So that, in fact, these orchestras wouJd just as soon have taken
refuge there. (Tbe "theatrophone" in the arcades was, in certain respects, the
forerunner of the gramophone.) Nevertheless, there was music that confomled
to the spirit of the arcades-a panoramic music, such as can be heard today only
in old-fashioned genteel concerts like those of the casino orchestra in Monte
Carlo: the panoramic compositions of <Fe1iciem David, for example-Le Dis(rt,
ChriJtoph Colomb, Hmulallum. When, in the 1860s (?), an Arab political delega­
tion came to Paris, the city was very proud to be able to mount a perfonnance of
u
Dis(rt for them in the great Theatre. de l'Opera (?). [Ht ,S)
"Cillooruma!l. The Grantl Globe Celeste: a gigantic sphere rorty-six meters in di- /
allleter, where you can hear the music or Saint-SaclIl!." JuJes Claretie, Ln Vie ii
"nri.t 1900 (Parill, 190 1), p. 61. 0 Diorallla 0 [Ht ,6]
Often these inner spaces harbor an tiquated trades, and even those that are
thoroughly up to date will acquire in them something obsolete. They are the site
of infonnation bureaus and detective agencies, which there, in the gloomy light
of the upper galleries, follow the trail of the past. In hairdressers' windows, you
can see the last women with long hair. TIley have rich.ly undulating masses of
hair, which are "pennanent waves," petrified coiffures. They ought to dedicate
small votive plaques to those who made a special world of these buildings-to
Baudelaire and Odilon Redon, whose very name sounds like an all tOO well­
tumed ringlet. Instead, they have been betrayed and sold, and the head of
Salome made into an omament-u that which dreanlS of the console there below
is not the embalmed head of Anna Czyllak.' And while these things are petrified,
the masonry of the walls above has become brittle. Brittle, tOO, are 0 Mirrors 0
<Sec Rl ,3.> [Hla, l]
f r What is decisive in collecting is thal the object is detached from all its o riginal
functions in o rder to enter into tlle closest conceivable relation to things of the
same kind. TIlis relation is the diametric opposite of any utility, and falls into the
peculiar category of completeness. What is this "completeness"? It is a grand
attempt to overcome the wholly irrational character of the object's mere presence
at hand through its integration into a new, expressly de~d historical system :
the collection. And for the true collector, every single thing in this system be­
comes an encyclopedia of all knowledge of the epoch, the landscape, the indus­
try, and the owner from which it comes. It is the deepest enchantment of the
collector to enclose the particular item within a magic circle, where:, as a last
shudder runs throUgll it (the shudder of being acquired), it tums to stone_ Every­
thing remembered, everything thought, everything conscious becomes socle,
frame, pedestal, seal of his possession. It must not be assumed that the collector,
in panirular, wouJd find anything strange in the topru hyjxrouranios-that place
beyond the heavens which, for PlatO ,~ shelters the unchangeable archetypes of
things. He loses hinlSelf, assuredly. But he has the strength to pull himself up
again by nothing more than a straw; and from out of the sea of fog that envelops
his senses rises the newly acquired piece, like an island.-Collecting is a fonn of
practical memory, and of all the profane manifestations of "nearness" it is the
most binding. Thus, in a certain sense, the smallest act of political reBection
makes for an epoch in the antiques business. ~ construct here: an aJann clock
that rouses the kitsch of the previous century to "assembly." [Hla,2]
Extinct nature : the shell shop in the arcadcs. In "The Pilot's Trials," Strindberg
tells of "an arcade ,vith brighcly lit shops." "Then he went on into the arcade....
Tho-e was every possible kind of shop, but not a souJ to be seen, either behind or
before the counters. After a while he stopped in from of a big window in which
there was a whole display of shells. As the door was open, he went in. From Boor
to ceiling there were rows of shells of every kind, collected from all the seas of the
world. No one was in, but there was a ring of tobacco smoke in the air.... So he
began his walk again, following the blue and white carpet. The passage wasn't
Straight but winding, so that you could never see the end of it; and there were
always fresh shops there, but no people; and the shopkeepers were not to be
seen." The unfathomability of the moribund arcades is a characteristic motif.
Strindberg, Miirchen (Munich and Berlin, 1917), pp. 52-53, 59.' [Hla,3J
One must make one's way through us Fleurs du ma/with a sense for how things
are raised to allegory. The use of uppercase lettering should be followed carefully.
[HJa,4)
At the conclusion of Malihe el mimQire, Bergson develops the idea that perception
is a function of time. If, let us say, ......e were to live vis-a.-vis some things more
calmly and vis-a-vis others more rapidly, according to a different rhythm, there
would be nothing "subsistent" for us, but instead everything would happen right
1-1
before our eyes; everything would strike us. But this is the way things are fOT the
great collector. They strike him. H ow he hinuelf pursues and encounters them,
what cllanges in the eJl5emble of items are effected by a newly supervening
item- aU this shows him his affairs in constant flux. Here, the Paris arcades are
examined as though they were properties in the hand of a collector. (At bottom,
we may say, the collector lives a piece of dream life. For in the dream, tOO, the
rhythm of perception and experience is aJtered in such a way that everything­
even the seemingly most neurraJ-comes to strike us ; everything concerns us. In
order to understand the arcades from the ground up, we sink them intO the
deepest stratum of the dream ; we speak of them as though they had struck us.)
(Hla.5]
"Your understanding of allegory assumes proportions hitherto unknown to you;
I will note, in pass~g, that allegory- long an object of our scorn because of
maladroit painters, but in reality a most Jpin'luaJ an fonn , one of the earliest and
most natural forms of poetry-resumes its legitimate dominion in a mind illumi­
nated by intoxication." Charles Baudelaire, Ul Paradis artfficieb (Paris, 1917),
p. 73.' (On the basis of what follows , it cannot be doubted that Baudelaire indeed
had allegory and not symbol in mind. The passage is taken from the chapter on
hashish.) The collector as allegorist. 0 Hashish 0 [H2, I]
"The publication ~ in 1864>o( L'Uisroirede la societefram;aisependontlo Revola­
tion el SOlU k Directoire opens the era of the curio--and the word 'curio' . hould
1I0t be taken as pejorative. 1.11 those days, the historical curio was called a ' relic. , ..
Hemy de GOllnllollt , Le Deuxiiime Livre des "'(m/lles (Paris, 1924), p. 259. This
passage concerns a work hy Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. (H2 ,2]
The true method o f making things present is to n:present them in our space (not
to n=present ourselves in their space). (!be collector does just this, and so does
lhe anecdote.) Thus represented, the things allow no mediating construction
from out of "large contexts." The same method applies, in essence, to the consid­
eration of great things from the past- the cathedral of Chartres, the temple of
Paestum-when, that is, a favorable prospect presents itself: the method of re­
ceiving the things into OUT space. "'*
don't displace our being into theirs; they
~~-.
Fundamentally a very odd fact- that collector's items as such were produced
industrially. Since when? It would be necessary to investigate the various fash­
ions that governed collecting in the nineteenth century. Characteristic of the
Biedemlcier period (is this also the case in France?) is the mania for cups and
saucers. "Parents, childn:n, friends, relatives, superiors, and subordinates make
lheir feelings known through cups and saucers. The cup is the preferred gift, the
most popular kind of knickknack for a room. Just as Friedrich WlIhclm III filled
his study with pyramids of porcelain cups, the ordinary citizen collccted, in the
cups and sauccrs of his sideboard, the memory of the most important events, the
most precious hours, of his life." Max von Boehn, Die MOlk im XIX. Jahrhun­
(Jut, vol. 2 (Munich, 1907), p. 136. [H2,4]
Possession and having are allied with the tactile, and stand in a certain opposition
to the optical. CoUcctors are beings with tactile instincts. Moreover, with the
receOl tum away from naturalism, the primacy of the optical that was detenni­
nate for the previous century has come to an end. 0 Flftneur OThe Baneur optical,
the collector tactile.' (H2 .5J
Broken-down matter: the elevation of the commodity to the status of allegory.
Allegory and the fetish character of the conullodity. (H2 ,6]
O ne may start from the fact that the true collector detaches the object from its
functionaJ relations. But that is hardly an exhaustive description of this remark­
able mode of behavioT. For isn't this the foundation (to speak with Kant and
Schopenhauer) of that "disinterested" contemplation by virtue of which the col­
lectoT attains to an unequaled view of the object-a view which takes in more,
and other, than that of the profane owner and which we would do best to
compare to the gaze of the great physiognomist? But how his eye comes to rest
on the object is a matter elucidated much mon: sharply through another consid­
eration. It must be kept in mind that, for the collector, the world is present, and
indeed orden=d, in each of his objectS. Ordered, however, according to a surpris­
ing and, for the profane understanding, incomprehensible connection. lbis con­
nection stands to the customary ordering and schcmatization o f things something
as their arrangement in the dictionary stands to a natural arrangement. "'* need
only n:call what importance a particular collector attaches not only to his object
but also to its entire past, whether this concerns the origin and objective charac­
teristics of the thing or the details of its ostensibly extemal history: previous
I owners, price of purchase, ClUTCIlt value, and so on. All of these-the "objective"
data together with the other-come together, for the true collector, in every
single one of his possessions, to foml a whole magic encyclopedia, a world order,
whose outline is the fate of his object. Here, therefore, within this circumscribed
field, we can understand how great physiognomists (and collectors are physiog­
nomists of the world of things) become interpreters of fate . It suffices to observe
JUSt one collector as he handles the items in his showcase. No sooner does he
~
hold them in his hand than he appears inspired by them and seems to look
through them into their distance, like an augur. {It would be interesting to study
~e bibliophile as the only type of collector who has n Ot. completcly withdrawn
his treasures from their functional context.) [H2.7 ; H2a,1]
The great coUector Pachinger, \o\blfskch1's friend, has put together a collection
~Ult;in its array of proscribed and damaged objectS, rivals the Figdor collection
u~ Vienna. H e hardly knows any more how things stand in the \\--add; explains to
~ visitors- alo ngside the most antique implements- the use of pocket handker­
duefs, hand mirrors, and the like. It is related of him lhat, one day, as he was
crossing the Stachus, he stooped to pick something up. Before him lay an o bject
he had been pursuing for weeks : a misprinted streetcar ticket that had been in
circulation for only a few hours. (H2a,2j
An apology for the collector ought not to overlook this invective: "Avarice and
old age, remarks Cui Patin, are aJways in collusion. With individuaJs as with
 societies, the: need to accumulate is one of the signs of approaching death. TIlls is
confinned in the acute stages o f prtparalysis. There is also the mania for collec­
tion, known in neu rology as 'collcctionism,' I From the collection o f hairpins to
the cardboard box bearing the inscription: 'Small bits of string are useless?" us
&pt Pichis (apilaux (Paris, 1929), pp. 26-27 (paul Morand, "L'Avarice"). But .
compare collecting do nc by children ! [H2a,3)
= " I am 1I0t s ure I . hould ha\-,been 8 0 thoroughly possessed by Ihis one . uhjecl . but
(or the heaps of fanta stic things I hall seen huddled together in the curiosity.
dealer 's warehouse. These, crowding 0 11 my mind , in connection with the child ,
and gathering round her. 8 8 it were, brought her condition palpably before me. I
had her image. without any effort of imagination , surrounded and beset by ever y­
thing thai was for eign to il8 nature, and farthest re mo v~1 from the sympathie. of
her sex a nd age. If tJlelle helps to my fancy had all been wanting, and I had been
forced to imagine her in a common chamber, with nothing unusual or uncouth in
its appearance , it is very probable that ( should have been less impressed with her
strange and solitary stale. All it was, she seemed to exist in a kind of allegory."
Charles Dickens, Ocr RlIritiitetlladen (Leipzig, ed. Insel), pp . 18- 19 .9 {H2a,4]
Wiesengrund, in Ill! unpublished essay on The Old Curiosity Shop, b y Dicken. :
" Nell's death is decided in the sentence that reads: ' There were some triJlell
there--poor useless thin p -that she wouJd have liked to take away; but that was
impou ible.' ... Yet Dickens recognized that the posllibility of tra nsition and dia­
lectical rescue was inherent in this world of things, this lost , rejected world ; and he
exprel8ed it , hetter t.hon Romantic nature-worship was ever able to do. ill the
powerful allegory of money with which the depiction o( the industrial city ends:
' ... two old , hattered , smoke-encrusted penny pieces. Who know. but they shone
as brightly in the eyes o( angels , as golden gifts that have been chronicled on
tombs?""O [H2. ,5]
" Most enthusiasts let themselves be guided by chance in forming their collection ,
like bibliophile. in their browsing.... !\t . Thiers has proceeded otherwise: hefore
aue mbling his collection . he (ormed it as a whole in his head; he laid out his plan
in adva nce. and he has slJelit thirt y years executing it . . . . M. Thiers p088esse.
what he wanted to pOlIse.s.... And what was the point? To arrange a round him­
self 8 luinialure of the uni verse--that is, to gather, within an ellvironmellt o( eight y
~ (I uare melers. HOllle and Florence, Pompeii and Venice, Dresden and the Hague,
the Vaticall li nd the Eseorill.l, the British Museum and Ihe Hermitage, the A1II/Hu­
hra lind the Summer ['lI laee .... Anti M. T hiers h as been ahle tu rcalize this VII~ I
pruject with only modcSI expenditures malle each yellr over a thirty-yellr I)C­
riod .... Seeking. ill IHlrtieul lir. lu allurn Ihe wall!! u( his residence with t.he IIIOSI
pn·(,ious sou\'eni u of his voyages. M. Thiers had reduct.. .1 copies made o( the tIIu~ 1
(a lnous paintings .... Allil ~o, Ull enlering his hOlne, you find yo urself illllllctlill.tely
i urroundl:d lIy In ai>terl'it."t:cs creal t...J in haly during the age o( ko X. The wall
racing the wimlow~ i ~ occupietl by Th e W Il' Judg me",. hUlig belween TIIf~ Dispute
of t/ie 1I0ly Sucrulllc"t 811tl l 'lIe ScllOol ofA,/iefili. Titian ', ASIlllmpti() fI adorns the
nUHlld piece, belwt.'1!n 'nle Commullioll ofS11itl' J erome and Tile Trtl1l1lftgllration.
l '/ie Mm/o mlll ofSailll SiXIUll ll1akes a pair with SlIi1ll Cecila , alltl on the pilaster
arc frallIell the Sibyls o( Haphad , IJelwt.'Cu the Spolluli~io aud the pictu re repre­
S(' IILillg Gregory IX Ilelh' l~ring the d ecreta Is to a delegate o( the Consisto ry... .
Thest· copies all beillg ~ Iu ccd in accordance wilh the satlle scale, or nearly so, .. .
the eye discu\'ers ill tllem, with pleasure, Ihe relative propo rtions o( the originals .
Tht'y arc painted in ",·ater culor." Charlell Blanc, Le Ca binet rle M. Thiers (Paris.
ISiI ). PI" 16- 18. {H3,1]
"Casimir Perier sai(1 one (l ay, while viewing the art collection o( an illustrious
cnlliu.sias t . .. ; ' All th cse I)a intill ~ are very pretty- but they're d onnant capi­
tal.· ... Today, ... one could say 10 Casimir Perier ... that ... paintings ... ,
""hen they are indeed authentic, that drawings, when recognizably by the hand o(
II masler, ... sleep a sleep that is resto ra ti ve alld profitable .... The ... sale o(
the curiosities and paintillgs of Monsieur n.... has proven in round figu retl that
works of genius possess a value just as solid as the Orleans <Railroad Co.) and a
little more ~C(! ure than bonded warchouses." Charles Blanc, Le l'resor de la en...
riosite, vol. 2 (Paris, 1858), p . 578. [H3 ,2]
The positiut countertype to the collector-which also, insofar as it entails the
I liberation of things from the drudgery of being useful, represents the conswruna­
tion of the collector-can be deduced from these words of Marx: "Private prop­
erty has m ade us so stupid and inert that an object is ours only when \\'C have it,
when it exists as capital for us, or when ... we use it." Karl Marx, Der historische
Malmalismus, in Die Friihschnj/en, ed. Landshut and Mayer (Lcipzigd932) , vol.
1, p. 299 ("'NationaJo konomie und Philosophie"). 11 (H3a,l]
"All the physical a nd intellectual sell8e8 have been re placed by the simple aliena·
lion o( all these senses, the .cnse or ha ving . ... (On the category of lIa ving , see
1·less in Twenty-One SlIeets)." Karl Man, Der histori.tche Materio lumw
(Leipzig), vol. I, p . 300 (" NationaWkonomie IIlul PlwosoJlhie").I! {H3a,2]
" 1 can , in p ractice. reillte myself humanly to an obj et!t only if the object relates
itsd(. hUJlIanl y 10 ma n." Karl Marx, Der hillfori.sche Ma' eriaiismull (Leipzig), vol.
I. p . 300 (" Nn tionaWkunolnic lIlItl £·hilosophie").'l [H3a ,3]
The cullections of Alt'):lIndre dn SOlllmel'lIni in the holdings o( the l\1usce Clu ny.
[H3a,4]
-n IC quodlibet has somelhing of the genius of both collector and fhincur.
{H3a.5]
Tbe collector actualizes latent archaic represelltations of property. These repre·
sentations lUay in fact be COlm ectcd wilh taboo, as the following remark indio
 cates: "It ... is ... certain that taboo is the primitive foml of propeny. At first
- emotively and 'sincerely; then as a routine legal process, declaring something
taboo would have constituted a title. To appropriate to oneself an object is to
render it sacred and redoubtable to others ; it is to make it 'participate' in oneself....
N. Gutcmmn and H . Lefebvre, In CollJa'ellu lIIJJtifite (Paris, 1936), p. 228.
[H3a,6}
= P-"dssageli liy Marx fro m "NalionaWko llomie und Philosophic": " Private property
hsslIlade 111180 8tupid and inc rt"181 HII obje<:1 ill ours only when we ho ve it. " " AU
the physical and intellectual !ellses ... have been I'cplucetl oy the ~i mpl e aliena.
tioll of all these senses, the sense of having. "I I Ciled in Hugo Fischer, Karl Marx
lind lci" VcrMiltnu zu StUll' lind WirflCh(ifi (Jella , 1932), p . 64. [H3a,7]
The ancestors of Balthazar Clacs were collectors. [H3a,8]
Models for Cousin Pons : Sommcrard, Suuvageot, Jacaze. (H3a,9]
The physiological side of collecting is important. In the analysis of this behavior,
it should not be overlooked that, with the nest-building of birds, collecting ~c­
quires a clear biological function. There is apparently an indication to this effect
in Vasari's treatise on architecture. Pavlov, too, is supposed to have occupied
himself with collecting. [H4 ,J)
Vasari is SUPI)osed to have maintained (in his treutise 011 architecture?) that
the term "grotesque" comes from the grolloc'll ill which collectors hoard their
treasures. [H4,2]
Collecting is a primal phenomenon of study: the srudent collects knowledgt=.
[H',3]
In elucidating the rdauon of medieval man to his affairs, Huizinga occasionally
adduces the literary genre of the " testament": "This literary fonn can be ...
appreciated only by someone who remembers that the people of the Middle Ages
were, in fact, accustomed to dispose of even the meanest [!l of their possessions
through a separate and detailed testament. A poor woman bequeathed her Sun­
day dress and cap to her parish, her bed to her godchild, a fur to her Ilurse, her
everyday dress to a beggar woman, and four pounds tournou (a sum which
constituted her entire fortune), together with an additional d ress and cap, to the
Franciscan friars (Champion, ViI/on, vol. 2, p. 182). Shouldn't we recognize here,
too, a quite trivial manifestation of the sam e cast of mind that sets up every case
of virtue as an eternal example and sees in every Qlstomary practice a divinely
willed ordinance?" J. H uizinga, Hu b;1 de; Mille/a/1m (Munich, 1928), p. 346Y
What strikes one mOSt about this noteworthy passage is that such a relation to
movables would perhaps no longer be possible in an ab'C of standardizcd mass
production. It would follow quitc naturally from th.is (0 ask whether or not the
fomlS of argumentation to which the author alludes, and indeed certain fonus of
Scholastic thought in general (appeal to hereditary authoritary), bdong together
wlth the fornlS of production. The collector develops a similar relationship with
his objects, whicll arc enricllcd through his knowledge of their origin and their
duration in history-a relationship that now seems archaic. [H4,4]
Perhaps the most deeply hidden motive of the person who collects can be de­
scribed this way : he takes up the struggle against dispersion. Right from the start,
the great collector is struck by the confusion, by the scatter, in which the things of
the world are found. It is the sanle spectacle that so preoccupied the men of the
Baroque; in particular, the world image of the allegorist cannOt be explained
apart from the passionate, distraught concern with this spectacle. The allegorist
is, as it were, the polar opposite of the collector. H e has given up the attempt to
elucidate things through research into their properties and relations. He dis·
lodges things from their context and, from the outset, relies on his profundity to
illuminate their meaning. The collector, by contrast, brings together what be­
longs together; by keeping in mind their affinities and their succession in time, he
can eventually furnish infonnation about his objects. Nevertheless-and this is
more imponant than all the differences that may exist between them-in every
collector hides an allegorist, and in every allegorist a collector. As far as the
collector is concerned, his collection is never complete; for let him discover JUSt a
single piece missing, and everything he's collected remains a patchwork, which is
what things art for allegory from the beginning. On the other hand, the allege­
rist-for whom objects represent only keywords in a secret dictionary, which will
make known their meanings to the initiated-precisely the allegorist can never
have enough of things. With him, one thing is so little capable of taking the place
of another that no possible reSection suffices to foresee what meaning his profun­
dity m.ightlay claim to for each one of them. I ' [H4a,1]
Animals (birds, ants), children, and old men as collectors. [H4a,2]
A SOrt of productive disorder is the canon of the mimcire inoo/cnlaire, as it is the
canon of the collector. "And I had already lived long enough so that, for more
than one of the human beings with whom I had come in contact, I found in
antipodal regions of my past memories another being to complete the picrurt ....
In much the sanle way, when an an lover is shown a panel of an altar screen, he
remembers in what church, museum, and private collection the other panels are
dispersed Oikewise, he finally succeeds, by following the catalogues of an sales or
frequenting antique shops, in finding the mate to the object he possesses and
thereby completing the pair, and so can reconstruct in his mind the predella and
the entire altar)." Marcel Proust, Le Temp; retrouui (paris), vol. 2, p. 158. 11 The
~bnoire fIO/ollta ire, on the olher hand, is a registry providing the object with a clas·
slficatory number behind which it disappears. "So now we've been there." ("I've
had an experience.") H ow the scatter of allegorical properties (the patchwork)
relates to this creative disorder is a question calling for further stud y. [HS,I]
I
[The Interior, The Trace]
" In 1830, Romanticism was gaining the upper hand in literature. It now invaded
architecture and placarded house fa-;ades with a fantastic gothicism, OD e aU too
often made of pasteboard . II in1lJO&ed itself on furniture making. ' AU of a l udden ,'
lay. a relwrter on the exhibition of 1834, ' there is boundleu enthusiasm for
strangely shaped furniture . From old chiteaux, from furniture wareliou8e8 and
junk . hops, it has been dragged Ollt to embellish the salons, which in every other
resped are modern. . . . ' Feeling inspired, furniture manufacturers have been
prodigal with their ' ogives 'and machicolations. ' You see beds and armoires bris­
tling with battlements, like thirteenth-century citadels.'" E. Levaueur, <Histoire
a
des claues ouvrieres et de l'indlutrU! en France, de 1789 1870 (Paris, 19(4),)
vol. 2, PI)' 206-207. [1I,1]
Apropos of a medieval annoire, this interesting remark from Behne: "Movables
<furniture> quite clearly developed out of immovables <real estate)." The annoire
is compared to a "medieval fortre5s .Jwt as, in the latter, a tiny dwelling space is
surrounded in ever-widening rings by walls, ramparts, and moats, fanning a
gigantic outwork, so the contents of the drawers and shelves in the armoire are
overwhehned by a mighty outwork." Adolf Behne, N(ueJ Wolmen-N"eueJ Bauen
(Lcip,ig, 1927), pp. 59, 61-62. (ll ,']
The importance of movable property, as compared with immovable property.
Here our task is slightly easier. Easier to blaze a way intO the heart of things
abolished or superseded, in order to decipher the contours of the banal as picture
puuJe-in order to start a concealed William Tell from out of wooded entrails, or
in order to be able to answer the question, "Where is the bride in this picture?"
Picture puzzles, as schemata of dreamwork, were long ago discovered by psycho­
analysis. we, however, with a similar conviction, are less on the trail of the psyche
than on the u-ack of things. we seek the totemic tree of objects within the thicket
of primal history. The very last-the tOpmost- face on the tOtem pole is that of
kitsch. (11 .3]
1"l1e confrontation with furniture in Poe. Snuggle to awake from the collective
dream. [11 ,4]
How the interior defended itself against gaslight: "Almost all new houses have
gas today; it bums in the inner courtyards and on the stairs, though it does not
}'et have free admission to the apartments. It has been allowed into the antecham­
ber and sometimes even into the dining room, but it is not welcome in the
dra\ving room. Why not? It fades the wallpaper. "Ibat is the only reason I have
run across, and it carnes no weight at all." Du Camp, Paro, vol. 5, p. 309.
(II ,S]
Hessel speaks of the "dreamy epoch of bad taste." Yes, this epoch ~wholly_
adapte~the dream, was furnished in dre~ms . TIle alternation in styles­
Gothic, Persian, Renaissance, and so on-signified : that over the interior of the
middle-class dining room spreads a banquet room of Cesare Borgia's, or that OUt
of the boudoir of the mistress a Gothic chapel arises, or that the master's study, in
its iridescence, is transfomled into the chamber of a Persian prince. The photo­
montage that fixes such images for us corresponds to the most primitive percep­
tual tendency of these generations. Only gradually have the images among
which they lived detached themSelves and settled on signs, labels, posters, as the
figures of advertising. [II ,6J
A series of lithographs from 18<-) showed women reclining voluptuously on
ottomans in a draperied, crepuscular boudoir, and these prints bore inscriptions:
On the Banlts 0/the Tagtll, On the Banlu 0/tne Neva, On the Banlts rif the &ine, and
so forth. The Guadalquivir, the Rhone, the Rhine, the AM, the Tamis-all had
their tum. lbat a national costume might have distinguished these female figures
one from another may be safely doubted. It was up to the ligende, the caption
inscribed beneath them, to conjure a fantasy landscape over the represented
interiors. [11 ,7]
To render the image of those salons where the gaze was enveloped in billowing
cu.rtains ~d swollen cushions, where, before the eyes of the guests, full-length
lllJITOrS dISclosed church doors and settees were gondolas upon which gaslight
from a vitreow globe shone down like the moon. [11 ,8]
" We have witnessed tile unprec:edented- marriages bet .....een styles tha t olle would
have belie\'ed eternall y incolllpatible: hats of tile Firs t Empire or the Restoration
worll with Louis XV jackets , Directory~s t y l e gO\O'IIS paired with high-heeled ankJe
boots-IlIHI. still heller, low-wais ted coats wor n over high-waisted ,Irenes." J ohll
G ralld~Cartcrct , I.es Elegonces de ia toiietle (Pa ris), p . )(vi. [II a, I)
Nallle~ of differcnt types (If traveling ear frOIll the curly yea rs of the railroad:
hcrlin (closed uml Olk:n ). diligence, furnis hcll (·ouch. unfurnislled coach . 0 Iron
COIISIructiOIl 0 Il1 a,2]
" This year, too. s pring arrive!1earlier lind more beautiful than ever. so thaI. to teU
lile truth , we could not righ tl y re member the (:X.iSIClice of winter in ti,ese parts. lIor
 whether the fireplace wa ll there for any purpose othe r than supporting on illl
manlel the timepieces and candelabra that are known to ornament eve ry room
here ; for tbe true Paris ian would rather eat one course leu per day than forgo his
' mantelpiece arrangcmenl. ", Lebende Hilder "11$ den! modeN.e n Puru , 4 vo ill.
(Cologne. 1863-1866), vol. 2 , p. 369 (" Ein kaiserliches Famiuenbild") . [lla,3]
1breshold magic. AI the entrance to the skating rink, to the pub, to the tennis
coun, to resort locations: Pt:TUllf:s. The hen that lays the golden praline-eggs, the
machine that stamps our names on nameplates, slot machines, fortunetelling
- devices, and above all weighing devices (the Delphic gn6rhi seau(rm1 of our day)­
these guard the threshold. Oddly. such machines don't Sourish in the city, but
rather are a component of excursion sites, of beer gardens in the suburbs. And
when, in search of a little greenery, one heads for these places on a Sunday
afternoon, one is ruming as well to the mysterious thresholds. Of course, this
same magic prevails more covertly in the interior of the bourgeois dwelling.
Chairs beside an entrance, photogrp.phs Banking a doorway, are fallen housdlold
deities, and the violence they must appease grips our heans even today at each
ringing of the doorbell. Try, though, to withstand the violence. Alone in an
apartment, try not to bend to the insistent ringing. You will find it as difficuk-as
an exorcism. Like all magic substance, this too is once again reduced at some
point to sex-in pornography. Around 1830, Paris amused itself with obscene
lithos that featured sliding doors and windows. These were the Image; dite.s Ii
portu et izfenitU5, by Numa Bassajet. [lIa,4]
Concerning the dreamy and, jf possible. oriental interior: " Everyone here dreams
of instant fortune; everyone alms to have , at one stroke, what in peaceful and
industrious times would cost a lifetime of effort. The creations of the poett are full
of s udden metamorphoses in domestic existence; they all rave about marquises
and princesses, ahout the prodigies of the l'howand and Om! Nights. It is an
opium trallce that has overspread the whole population , and industry is more to
blame for tltis than poetry. Industry was responsible for the swindle in the Stock
Exchange, the exploitation of all things made to serve artificial needs, and the . . .
dividends." Gutzkow, Briefe Ull.! Paris <Leipzig, 1842), vol. I , p. 93. [l1a,5]
While art seeks out the intimate view, . . . industry marches to t.he fore ." Oc·
tave Mirbeau , in Le Fignro (1889). (See E/lcycwpedie d 'architecmre [1889]
p.92.) (lIa,6]
On the cxhibition of 1867. " These high galleries, kilometers ill length, were of an
undeniable grandeur. The noise of machinery fLIled them. And it should IIOt be
forgotten that, when this exhibition hdd its famoll s galas, guests stiU drove up to
the festivitics in a eoach-and-cight. A s was usual with rooms at this period , at­
tempt s were made-through furn iture-like installations-to prettify these twenty­
five-meter-high galleries allli to relieve the austerity of their design. One stood ill
fear of olle's own magnitmle ." Sigfried Giedion , Ballen in f'rtlllkreicli <Leipzig and
Berlin , 1928), p. 43 . [Ila,7]
Under the bourgeoisie, cities as well as pieces of furniture retain the character of
fortifications. "Tdlllow, it was meJortiJied city which constantly paralyzed town
planning." Le Corbusicr, Urbanisme (paris (1925»), p. 249. 2 [I1a,B]
The ancient correspondence betl':een house and cabinet acquires a new variant
through the insertion of glass roundels in cabinet doors. Since when? '\\ere these
also found in France? [Ila,9]
The bourgeois pasha in the imagination of contemporaries: Eugene Sue. He had
a castle in Sologne. There, it was said, he kept a harem filled with women of
color. Mter his death, the legend arose that he had been poisoned by theJesuits.3
[12,1]
Gutzkow reports that the exhibition salons were full of oriental scenes calculated
to arouse enthusiasm for Algier s. [12 ,2]
On the ideal of "distinction." "Eyerything tends toward the 80urish, toward the
curve, toward intricate convolution. MIat the reader does not perhaps gather at
first sight, however, is that this manner of laying and arranging things also incor­
porates a setting apart-one that leads us back to the knight. / The carpet in the
foreground lies at an angle, diagonally. The chairs are likewise arranged at an
angle, diagonally. Now, this could be a coincidence. But if we were to meet with
this propensity to siruate objects at an angle and diagonally in all the dwellings of
all classes and social strata-as, in fact, we do-then it can be no coincidence... .
In the first place, arranging at an angle enforces a distinction-and this, once
more, in a quite literal sense. By the obliquity of its position, me object sets itself
ofT from the ensemble, as the carpet does here .. . . But the deeper explanation for
all this is, again, the unconscious retention of a posture of struggle and defense. I
In order to defend a piece of ground, I place myself expressly on the diagonal,
because then I have a free view on two sides. It is for this reason that the bastions
of a fortification are constructed to form salient angles .... And doesn't the
carpet, in this position, recall such a bastion? . . . IJust as the knight, suspecting
an attack, positions himself crosswise to guard both left and right, so the peace·
loving burgher, several ccnruries later, ordcrs his art objects in such a way that
each one, if only by standing out from all the rest, has a wall and moat surround·
ing il. He is thus truly a Spir:55biirgr:r, a militant philistine." Adolf Behne, Nr:uu
Wohnr:n-Nr:uu Bauro. (Leipzig, 1927), pp. 45-48. In elucidating this point, the
author remarks half-seriously : "The gentlemen who could afford a villa wanted
[0 mark their higher standing. What easier way than by borrowing feudal fonus,
knightly fonns?" (ibid., p. 42). More universal is Lukacs' remark that, from the
perspective of the philosophy of history, it is cha racteristic of the middle classes
that their new opponelU, the proletariat, should have entered the arena at a
mOment when the old adversary, feudalism, was nOt yet vanquished. And they
will never quite have done with feudalism. [12,3]
 Maurice Banes h.u characterized ProUSt as "a Persian poet in a concierge's box."
Could the first person to grapple with the en.igma of the ninclccnth-ccmury
interior be anything else? (!be citation is inJacques-Emile Blanche, M e; M odele;
[Paris, 1929] 1)' (12,' 1
AJlIIOUnCCllll!lIt puhLished in til e ne WSp S IH!f S: " Notice. -Mons ie ur Wie rt:r; offen to
paint a pic ture free of c harge (o r a llY lo ve rs of painting who , p085cssing 8n original
Rubens or Raphael , would Like 10 p lace his work as a pend ant beside the work of
either of these masters." A. J. Wiertz , Oeuvres lilleraires (Paris. 1870), II. 335.
- (12,51
Nineteenth-ccnrury domestic interior. The spacc...disgWgsjlScif::=.puts ~7lik<
~",,"_
~g creature, the costwnes of moo$;. The self-satisfied burgher should know
something of the feeling that the next room might have witnessed the coronation
of Charlemagne as weU as the assassination of Henri Iv, the signing of the Treaty
of Verdun as well as the wedding ~f Otto and Theophano. In the end, things are
mercly mannequins, and even the great moments of world history are onl;:
costumes beneath which they exchange glances of complicity with nOlhingn~
with the petty and the banal. Such nihilism is the innennost core of bourgeois
coziness-a mood that in hashish intoxication concentrates to satamc content·
ment, satanic knowing, satanic calm, indicating preciscly to what extent the
nineteenth-century interior is itself a stimulus to intoxication and dream. 'Ibis
mOO(! involves, furthennore, an aversion to the oPen air, the (so to spe~ ra­
man amlosphere, which throws a nC\v light on the extravagant interior design of
the period. To live in these interiors was to have woven a dense fabric about
oneself, to have secluded oneself within a spider's web, in whose toils world
events hang loosely suspended like so many insect bodies sucked dry. From this
cavern, one does not like to stir.$ [12,6J
During my second experiment with hashish. Staircase in CharlotteJoi:l's srudio.
I said: "A strucrure habitable only by wax figures. I could do so much with it
plastically; Piscator and company can just go pack. \\buld be possible for me to
change the lighting scheme with tiny levers. I can transfonn the Goethe house
into the Covent Garden opera ; can read from it the whole of world history. I see,
in this space, why I collect colportage images. Can see everything in this roolll­
the sons of C harles III and what you will."6 [12a. 1J
" The serra ted collurs alltl puffed sleeyes . , . whk h we re mis takeuly tho ught to be
the gal"li of metlie yu llutlies." Jacob Falke, Ceschichte <les mo<le rllell GesclltlUick s
(Leipzig. 1866). p . 347. {12a,2]
;'Since the giilte ring a rcades ha\'C I-.n c ut thro ugh th.: st n.-ets . tl.e Paillill. ){oya l
has cfftlClivd y lost Ollt . Some wou ld lIay: s iuce the times havc grown more yirtuous.
What we re once IIlIIall Cllbi,le u l}tIrlielliie r. of ill repute haYe now become II moking
rooms in cofft.-e houses. Each corfeehollse hUll II smoking room known li S the di­
Gut zkow. Briefe /lU", I'Cl ri., (Leipzig. 1842 ). vol. I. p . 226. 0 Arcades 0
V /lfI ."
[12a,3]
" T lle great Be rlin intlulltrial e)(hihition ill full of illll)osing Re naissance rooms; eYen
Ihe as htraYIl are in a ntique st yle. the c urta ins haye to be secured with halberds,
alld the bull's-eye r ules in windo w a nd cabine t." 70 J ahre deutsche Mode (1925),
p. i2. [12a,4]
An observation from the year 1837. "In those days, the classical style reigned,
just as the rococo does today. With a stroke of its magic wand, fashion . ..
uansfonned the salon into an atrium, armchairs into curule seats, dresses with
trains in to tumCS, drinking glasses into goblets, shoes intO buskins, and guitars
into lyres." Sophie Gay, Der Salon tier Friiulein Conte! (in Europa: Chrrmilt der
gtbildeten Welt, ed. August !..ewald, vol. 1 [Leipzig and Stuttgart, 1837], p. 358).
Hence the following: "What is the height of embarrassment?" "When you bring
a harp to a party and no one asks you to play it." 'Ibis piece of drollery, which
also illuminates a certain type of interior, probably dates from the Frrst Empire.
[12a,5]
"As to Baudelaire's 'stage properties'-which Wert no doubt modeled on the
fashion in interior decoration of his day-they might provide a useful lesson for
those elegant ladies of the past twenty years, who used to pride thcrnsclves that
nOt a single ' false note' was to be found in their town houses. They \'\'Quld do well
to consider, when they contemplate the alleged purity of style which they have
achieved with such infinite trouble, that a man may be the greatest and most
artistic of writers, yet describe nothing but beds with 'adjustable curtains' ... ,
halls like conservatories ... , beds 6lled with subde scents, sofas deep as tombs,
whatnots loaded with Bowers, lamps burning so briefly ... that the only light
COmes from the coal fire." Marcel Proust, Chrrmiquts (Paris <1927», pp. 224-2257
(the tides of works cited arc: omitted). These remarks are important because they
make it possible to apply to the interior an antinomy fonnu1ated with regard to
museums and town planning-namely, to confront the new style with the mysti­
cal-nihilistic expressive power of the traditional, the "antiquated." Which of these
tv.·o alternatives Proust would have chosen is revealed not only by this passage, it
:.nay be added, but by the whole of his ","'O rk (compare renfirmi-"closed·up,"
musty"). [12a.6J
Desideratum: the derivation of genre painting. What function did it serve in the
rOOms that had need of it? It was the last stage-harbinger of the fact that soon
these spaces \\'Ould no longer, in gener-..tI, welcome pictures. "Genre painting....
Conceived in tllls way, an could not fail to resOrt to the specialtics so suited to the
m~ketpl ace: ead} artist wants to have his own specialty, from the pastiche of the
Middle Ages to microscopic painting, from the routines of the bivouac to Paris
fashions . from horses to dogs. Public taste in this regard docs not discrimi­
 nate.... The same picrure can be copied twenty times lVithout exhausting de­
mand and, as the vogue prescribes, each well-kept drawing room wants to have
onc of these Cashionablefumirhing.r," Wicrtz, CkUUTtJ littiraires <Paris, 1870),
pp. 527- 528. 112a,7]
Against the annature of glass and iron, upholstery offers resistan~ with its
textiles. 113, 1]
One need only srudy with due exactitude the physiognomy of the homes of great
- collectors. Then onc would have the key to the nineteenth-century interior.Just
as in the fonner case: the objects gradually take possession of the residence, so in
the latter it is a piece of furniture: that wou1d n:mevt: and assemble the styJ!.stic
traces of the centuries. 0 W:>rld of Things 0 [13,2)
Why does the glance intO an unknown window always find a family at a meal, or
else a solitary man, seated at a table under a hanging lamp, occupied with some
obscure niggling thing? Such a glance is the germ cell of Kafka's work. [13,3]
The masquerade of styles, as it unfolds across the nineteenth century, resul ts
from the fact that relations of dominance: become obscured. The holders of
- Wiesengrund cites and commcnts on a passage from the D;(lry of a Seducer-a
power in the bourgeoisie no longer necessarily exercise this power in the places
where they live (as renben), and no longer in direct unmediated fonns. The style
of their residences is their false inunediacy. Economic alibi in space. Interior alibi
in time. (13,<J
"The art would be to be able to fed homesick, even though one is at home.
Expertness in the use of illusion is required for this." Kierkegaard, Slimtliche
Werke <properly: Gejilmmelte Werkn, vol. 4 g ena, 19 14), p. 12 <Stage; on Lift';
~J>" This is the fonnula for the interior. [13,5]
" lnwar duess is the histor ical p risou of primordial human n ature. " Wiesengrund­
Adorno , Kierkegaarcl (Tiibingell , 1933), p . 68.9 [13,61
S«ond Empire. " It is tlus epoch tha t sees the birth of the logical specialization ~y
genus and species that &till prevails in moS( homes, and that r eserves oak and sO.lid
walnut for the dining roo m and stud y, gilded wood and lacquer s for the drawlIIg
room , marquetry and veneering for the bed roo m." Louis SOllolet , La Vie
p o ri"iellne " 011..1 Ie Second Empire (Paris . 1929), p . 25 1. [13, 71
" \l(h at d omin ated this co nception of furnishing. in a manner so pro nounced as 10
epilOmi'1.I' the whole . wa ~ tile taste for draped fa hr ics . ample hlll1gings, a nd the art
of hll rmonilliing them 1111 in a visual cnsemble." Louis Sonolet , LAI Vif! lJllri.t ie /l1lf~
$0 11..1 Ie Second Empire ( Puris, 1929). p . 253. [13,8J
" The d ra wing rooms of the Second Empire contai ned ... a piece of fu r nitu re (Iuite
n:ceuti y invented and tod ay completely cxtinct : it was the fllm ell.se. You sat on it
as tride . while leaning lJack on uphoLster.:tl a rlll-rests and enjoying a cigar." Louis
50nolet , LA, Vie parij ie,we $011" If! Second Empire (P:lris, 1929), p. 253. [13,9)
On the ,·ftl igree of chimneys" as "'fata 1II0rga na" of the inter ior : " Whoever raises
his eyes 10 the housetops, with their iron ra ilings tracing the upper edge of the long
gray bouleva rd blocks. discovers the variety and inexh auslibility of the concept
·chimlley.' In all degrees of hc.ight , breadth , lind length , the ~ mokest a ck s rise from
their base in the common stone flu es; they range from simple clay p ipes, oftentimes
half-b roken and stoolH:d with age, a nd those tin p ipes wilh flat plates or pointed
caps, ... to re\'olving chimney cowls a rtfull y lterto ra ted Like visors or ol)Cn 0 11 one
side, with bizarre soot-blackened metal fl aps ... . It is the ... teuder irony of the
one single form hy which Pllris .. . has been able tu prcscr ve tile magic of inti­
macy.. . . 50 it is as if the urbane coexistence, .. that is characteristic of tlus city
were to be met with again UI) ther e Oil the rooft ops." J oachim von 1:Ie.!mersen ,
" Pariser Ka mine," Frankf urter Zeitung. Febr uary 10, 1933. {13,lO)
passage tha t he considers the key to Kierkegaa rd's " en tire oeuvre" : " Environment
and setting still have a great influ ence u pon one; there is something abo ut them
which stamps itself fl""l y a nd deeply in the memory, or r ather upon the whole
souJ , and which is therefore neve r forgotten . However old I may become, it will
always be impossible for me to think of Cordelia amid surroundings differe nt from
this Little room. Wilen I come to visit her, the maid admits me to the ha ll ; Cordelia
herself cOllies in from her r oom , and , just as I open the door to enter the Living
roo m, she opens her door, so that our eyes meet exactly in the doorway. T he living
roo m is small , comforta hle, Linle more tha n a cabinet. Ahhough I ha ve now seen it
from ma ny different viewpoints, the olle dea rest to me is the view fro m the sofa.
She sits there by my side; in front of us stands a round tea table, over which is
draped a rich talll« lolh . O n the ta ble stands a lamp sh al.oo Like a Rower, which
shoots up vigorously to bea r its crown , over which a dcLicately cut paper sh ade
ha ngs dowli so lightly that it is neve r still. T he lamp's form rcminds olle of oriental
lallds; the "lUde 's movement , of mild oriental breezes. T he fl oor is concealed b y a
carpet wo"en froni II cer tain kind of osier, which imnu,..iiately betra ys its foreign
origin . For the moment . J let the lamp become the keynote of my lalU.lscape. I am
sitting the r~ with Iter outstretched 0 11 the fl oor, under the I IIII1 P 'S fl oweri ng. At
other tillles I let the osier rug evo ke thoughl8 of a ship . of 11 11 offi cer 's ea hin- we
sail out into the middle of the grea t I)t;elln . When we sit a t a liista nee from the
window, we gaze directl y in to hea\'cn 's vast horizon .... Cordelia 's 1~lI v i ro nment
lIlust have no foreground . b ut onl y the infi nite boldness of far horizons" (Cesa m ­
melte Sch riften <Jl rOllCrly: Werke (J enn . 19 11 » , \·0J. I , pp. 348-349 [Bith er/Or )).
W·lesengrlUl(l rema rks: " Just as external histor y is "'cRected ' ill illtern ul history,
semhlanee <Sclre;l!) iii in thl) illler ielir s pace . Kierkegnar(1 110 more discerned tim
d emellt of semhlance in all Ilu:rely rdlL'Clcd and refl ecti ng irllras uJ)j ecti ve reaLil y
 than he leel through the semblance of the spatial in the image of the inlerior. But
here lIe is exposed by the mate ria l. . . . The contenls of I.he interior are mer e
decor ation. a lie na ted from IIle purposes the y represent , de prived of their own lise
value, e nge nde red solely by the isolated dwe lling-Ip ace. . . . The self is ove;:=-­
whelmed in its own d o ma in by commodities a nd their historica l eUCRee. T heir
semblunce-character is historically-economicaUy produced by the alienation of
thing from lise value. But in the interior, things do nol remain aUen .... Foreign-=-­
ness transfornlA: iuelf from alienated things into expreuion ; mute things speak 88
', ymhols.' T he ordering of thinge in the dwelling-space is called 'arrangement.'
- Historically illusor y <wJdlichllich JdI~inho.fio objecll a re arranged in it as the aem­
b1anceof unchangeahle n ature. In the interior, archaic images unfold : the image of
the flow er al tilat of organic life; the image of the orient as specificlilly the home­
land of yearning; the image of the sea as that of eternity itself. For the semblance
to which the historical hour condenlllS things is eternal." Theodor Wiesengrund­
Adorno, K~rke8a ard (Tiibingen , 1933), pp. 46-48. 111 {13 a]
The bourgeois who came into ascendancy with Louis Philippe sets store by the
transfonnation of nature into the interior. In 183 9, a ball is held at the Britisll
embassy. Two hundred rose bushes'jll"e ordered. "The garden," so runs.Jgl eye:­
witness account, "was covered by an awning and had the feel of a drawing room .
But what a d rawing room! The fragrant, well-stocked Hower beds had turned
into enonnous jardiniem, the graveled walks had disappeared under sumpruous
carpets, and in place of the cast·iron benches we found sofas covered in damask
and silk; a round table held books and albums. From a distance, the strains of an
orchestra drifted intO this colossal boudoir." (14,11
Fa8 hion j ournals of the IJeriod contained instructions for preserving bouquets.
[14,2]
" Like an odalisque upon a shimmering bronze divan , the pro ud cilY Lies amid
warm , vine-dad hills ill the scrpentine valley of the Seine." Friedrich Engels, " Von
l:taris nach Bern," Die neue Zeit. 17, no. 1 (Stuttga rt , 1899), p. 10. {14,3]
The difficulty in reHecting on dwelling: on the one hand, there is something
age-old-perhaps eternal-to be recognized here, the image of that abode of the
human being in the maternal womb; on the other hand, this motif of prima1
history notwithstanding, we must understand dwelling in its most extreme fonn
as a condition of nineteenth-century existence. The o riginal foml of all d welling
is existence not in the house but in the shell. The shell bears the impressio n of its
occupant. In the most extreme instance, the dwelling becomes a shell. The nine­
teenth century, like no other century, was addicted to dwelling. It conceived the
residence as a receptacle for the person, and it encased him with all hls appurte­
nances so deeply in the d",'elli.ng's interior that o ne might be reminded of the
inside of a compass case, where the instnullent with all its accessories lies embed­
ded in deep, usually violet folds of ~l~t . What didn't the nineteenth c::entury
invent some sort of casing fo r! (\)eket watches, slippers, egg cups, thermometers,
playing cards- and, in lieu of cases, there were jackets, carpets, wrappers, and
covers. The twentieth century, with its porosity and transparency, its tendency
toward the well-lit and airy, has put an end to dwelling in the old ~nse. Set ofT
against the doll ho use in the residence of the master builder Solncss are the
"homes for hwnan being!."11 Jugendstil unsettled the world of the shell in a
radical way. Today this "-arid has disappeared entirely, and dwelling has dimin­
ished : for the living, through hOld rooms; for the dead, through crematoriums.
[14,4]
"To dwell" as a transitive verb-as in the no tion of "indwelt spaces";ll herewith
an indication of the frenetic topicality concealed in habirual behavior. It has to do
with fashioning a shell for oursdves. {14,5]
" From under aU the corlll branches and bushes, they Iwam into view; from under
every table, every ch air; from oul of the drawers of tile old-fa shioned cabinets and
wardrobell that l>lood within Ihis stra nge clubroom- in short , from every hand's­
breadth of hiding which the 8pOt provided to the smallest of fi sh , they suddenl y
came to Life aud showed themselves." Friedrich Cer stiicker, D~ verlunkene Stadt
(Berlin : Neufeld and B enius, 1921), p. 46. {14a, l]
From a review of Eugene Sue's Juiferrant <Wandering J ew>, criticized for various
reasons, including the d enigration of the Jes ui ts and the unmanageable abundance
of cha racters who do nothing bUI al)pear and disappear: "A novel is not a place
one passes through ; it is a place one inhabits." Paulin Limayr ac, " Du Roman
BCtUe! et de nos romanciers," Revue del deux mondel, 11 , no. 3 (Paris, 1845),
p.951. {14a,2]
On literary Empire . Nel)OmuCfme Lemen.:ier brings onto the stage, under allegori­
cal names, the Monar ch y, the Church , the Aristocr acy, the Demagoguel, the Em­
pir e, the Police, Liter ature, and the Coalition of European powers. His artistic
means: " the fantastic ap plied emblematically." His maxim : " Allusions are my
weapolIs; aUegory, my buckler. " NepoDlucime Lenlercier, Suite de la Panhy.
pocriJiade. ou Le Spectacle infernal du dix-neu vieme l iecie (P aris, 1832), PI)' ix ,
vii. {I4a,3]
FrUIn tile " Expose prClimillairc" 10 I..elllcr cier 's uJIllpelie et Daguerre: "A short
prea mble is lu:cessar y 10 introduce my audiellce to tile compositional stra tegy of
this POCIII , whose subject i ~ prnise for the ~liscove ry "lIule h y Ihe i.lIl1 s lriou~ artist
M. Daguel're; this il; a tliscover y of equ al inlerest to the Academy of Science and
the Academy of Finc Arts, for it cOllcerns the stud y of drawing as much ItS the
Slutl y of physics.... On the oceallion of such an homage, I would Like to see a IICW
in velltiOIl in 1)t}Clry ap plied to Ihi ~ cxtrao rtlinary discovery. We know Ihlll ancient
mythulogy . . . explained nalura l plu~nome na by symbolic beings. ac ti ve repre­
selltations of the parlicula r principles cmbtKlied in things .. . . Mot.Iern imitations
 h ave, up 10 !lOW, borrowed only the form s of clauicallH>etry ; I am e ndeavoring to
appropriate for 11 8 I.hc principle and the s ubs tance. The lende llcy of the ve rsifiers
of o ur cenlUry ill 10 retl uce the a rt of the mus~ to practica l a ud trivial rc nlilic8,
easily co mpreilc n8ible by the ave ra ge perso n. This is not progreu hUI decade nce.
The origiJl li1 e nthus ias m of the a nc ienls, by co ntras t , tc utlet! to elevate the 1111ma n
illtc Uigcllce by initiating it into thosc secrets of n at ure reve aled by the elegantl y
ideal fables.... It is 1101 without encouragement that 11ay bare for you the fouD ­
dations of my theory, which I ha ve a pplied ... to Newtonian philosophy in my
A,'an.im/e. T he learned geome te r Lagru uge has been 110 gene rous as 10 voice 8P­
- proval of my a lte rnp! to crea le for o ur modern muses tha t great ra rit y: a theoso­
ph y . . . conforming to acq uired kno wledge.'" Nel)Qmucene I...cmereier, S ur fa
Decouverte ele r ingenieux pe intre du diorama: Seance publiqlle atulllelle de! c inq
academies de jemli 2 rnai 1839 ( Paris, 1839), pp. 21-23. [14a,4)
On the illusionistic painting of the J us te Milieu : 13 ''The pa inter must ... be a good
dramatist , II good cos tumer, a lld a skillful di rec: tor. . . . T he public ... is much
more inte rested in the 8ubject t han in the artistic qualiti es. ' Isn' t the most diffieult
thing the ble lltling of colors?-No, respo nds a connoisseur, it 's gelling t he fis h 's
sca les ri ght . S uch was the idea of a esthetic c reation alllollg professors . la wyers,
d octors ; everywher e one admired the miracle of tromIHl-I' oeil . AllY mi~mally
successful imitatio n wo uld ga rne r praise. '" Gisela Freund , " I..a Pho togra phie du
point d e vue 8ociologi«ue" (ManIl8cript , p . 102). The Iluota tion is from Juletl
Breto n . No! pcintre. du sieck. p . 4 1. [15, 1)
Plush-the material in which traces are left especially easily. [!S.2[
Furthering the fa shio n in knic kkn a cks are the a d va nces in metallurgy, which has
ill! origins in the First Em pire. " During this period , grOUp8 of cupids a nti bacchan­
tes aplleared fo r the first time .... Today, a rt owns a sho p a nd displays the mar­
vels of its creatio ns o n shelve;; of gold or crysta l. whe rea8 in lbme days
ma8terpiet:cs of stat uary, reduced in prec:ise proportio n . we re sold a t a di8coMt .
The 1·hree Cruces of Canova fo und a place in the bo udoir, while the B(l cclwntes
a nd the Falin of Pradie r ha d the honors of the b r idal ch amber." Ed oua rtl Fou­
ca ud , Pm"is inve"teur: Pllysiologie de l'industriejrum. (li!c ( Paris, 1844), pp . 196­
197 . [1S.3[
" The science of tile poste r .. . has a tta ined that r a re tlegrce of llerfcctio ll ul which
s killturn8 into art . And here I a lii IIQt speaking of those extruol·dinury placa rds
. .. un whic h ex pe rts ill c.II lligrap hy . . . underta ke to r epresent Na po leon on
ho rsebac k by all iugcniulis combina tio n of (jIl CS in which the course of his histo r y
is simuh ullcolisly narra ted a nd depicted . No. I s ha ll confllle III YscI£ to ordin ur y
p...stt' rl. JII ~ t sce how fu r these ha ve been aLle to push t he eloquence or t ypQ'
grap h y. the st:tluclions of the vigne tte. t he fu scin a tiol18 of coiur, h y us ing I.hl: 1II08t
va rictl .II.lId br illiant of huell 11.1 iCllli perflfiious s up port to 11m ruses of du: l'u h li8h­
era!" Victo r FOUfnel , Ce qu '1.1 11 lJOil l i tUl S leJ r ues de Priri.s ( Paris . 1858), pp . 293­
294 ("Ellseib'llclI ct uffi chu"). [15,4J
Interio r of Alphouse Karr', apa rtme nt : " 'Ie lives li.ke 11 1.1 Q II C else. These days he'.
the 5ixt h o r seveuth fl oor a bove the Rue Vi vienne. The Rue Vivienne for a n
1.111
artist! His apa rtme nt is hung in blac k ; he has windowpanes of viole t o r white
frosted glass. He has ne ither ta bles lIor c ha in (at mM t, II s ingle c hair for excep­
tional vis itors), a nd he slet:p8 on a dj va n- fully d ressed, I' m toltl. He lives like a
Turk, o n cushio ns. and writes s itting o n the fl()Qr... . Hi8 wa Us are det:o ra ted with
,.ado u.!! old things . . . ; C hinese va8es, de a th-heads, fe ncer 's foils, a nd tob a cco
pipes orname nt e,·e r y corner. For a 8e r vant , he h aa a mulatto whom he outfits in
scarlt:t fro m he a d to toe!' Jules Lecomte, u s Lettre, de Von E ngelsom . cd . AI­
me ras ( Pari.!!, 1925), pp. 63-M. 115,5)
From Da umier 's C roquis pri.! ou S%" (Sketches Made a t the S a lo n>. A solita r y
art-lover indicating a picture 011 which two miser able po plars are represented in a
fl a t la lldscape: " What society could be as degene rate a nd corrupt as ours? . . .
Everyone looks a t pictu res of mo re or less mo nstrous scenes, but no one stops
before an image of beautiful lind pure lIa ture." [I5a,l ]
On the occasioll of a murder case in London which turned on the d iscove ry of a
sack co nta ining the victim 's body parts, together with remnanll! of clothing; from
the latter. the police we re a ble to draw Ct!rtain co nclus ions. "'So many things in a
minuet!' a cele bra ted da ucer u.!!ed to say. So ma n y things in an ove rcoat !-wben
circums tances a nd men ma ke it Sllea k . Yo u will say it', a bit much to expect a
person , each ti me he acqui res a topcoat, to cons ide r tbat one day it may sene him
as a willding sheet . I a dmit tha t my slIPI)Qsitio ns a re not e xactly rose-colored. But,
I re lHlat , . . . the week's e"e nlS have been do leful ." H . de Pe ne, Pori.! intlme
( Paris, 1859), 1' .236 . 115a,2J
Furniture a t the time of the Restor a tion : "sofas, d ivans, o ttomans , love sea ts,
recliners, settees ." J a cques Ro bi(luet . L'A rt et legoul SOIlS la Restouralwn (Paris,
1928). p . 202. [15a.3)
" We h llve a lread y s a id ... Iha t hum a nit y is regressing to the sta te of cave dwelle r,
a nd so all- hut t ha t it is regressing in an est ra nged . maligna nt form . T he savage in
his ca,·c ... fL'tJls ... III ho me t he re .... But the h ase ment a partment of the poor
JUa n is a hostile dwe lling, ' a n IIlic lI . rest ruining power , which gives itself up to him
0111 '1 insofa r as he gives up to it II is hlood a nd swea t .' S uch a (Iwclling can ne ve r feel
like home. II pillce where he miglll a t las t excl a im . ' He re I a m at home!' Ins tead ,
the poor lIlan find l himself in someone d se's ho me. . . someone who d a ily lies in
wai t for him a nd til row. him Ollt if he d ocs no t pay his re nt . He is a lso aware of the
Cont rast i.n «lIl1lh y between hia dwe lling 11111111 hUllla n dwdling-a reside nce ill tha t
other wo rld , the he aven of wealt h ." Ka rl Ma r x. lJe,. hislorische M(Jteriaiismw ,
 ed. Lands hut and Maye r (Leipzig ( 1932) . vol. J. p . 325 ("NationalOkoliomie und
- Philosophic" )." [15a.4J
Valer y 011 Poe. He IImle rlines the Ame rican writer ', incompara ble illSight into t he
conditions and effects of liter ar y work in general: " What distinguishes a trul y
gener al phenomenon i8 its fertilit y. . . . It i8 therefore not surprising that Poe,
posscningllo effective and l ure a method , became Ihe inve ntor of sever al different
litera r y fonns-that he provided the fi rst ... examples of the scientific tale. the
modern cosmogonic poem, the detective novel , the literature of morbid psycho­
- logical 8tates .'· Valer y, " Introd uction" to Baudelair e. LeIJ FLeur. du mal <PariB,
1926), p . xx. I ' [15a,5]
In the following description of a Parisian salon, Gautier gives drastic expression
to the integration of the individual into the interior: "The eye, entranced. is led to
the groups of ladies who. Buttering their fans . listen to the talkers half·reclining.
Their eyes are sparkling like diamonds ; their shou1ders glisten like satin; and
their lips open up like flowers." (Artificial things come forth!) Pari; e/ leJ PariJinu
aux X IX' Jiecie (Paris, 1856), p. iv (Theophile G autier, "Introduction,,). [16,1]
/ ",er e more and more becoming artists or u udents .)" Henri Polles, " L'Art du com­
Balzac's interior decorating in the rather ill-fated property Les J ardies :15 "This
house ... was one of the romances on which M . de Balzac worked hardest
during his life. but he was never able to finish it. ... 'O n these patient walls:as
M . Gotlan has said, 'there were charcoal inscriptions to this effect: "H ere a facing
in Parian marble"; "H ere a cedar stylobate n ; "H ere. a ceiling painted by Eugene
Delaooix"; "H ere a fireplace in cipolin marble ...•.. Alfred Nettement, H islom de
La littiralurt fta nfaUt JOU; Ie gouumzcnmJ de j uilk J (Paris, 1859), vol. 2. pp. 266­
267. (16,21
Develo pment of "The Interio r" chapter : entry of the prop into 6lm. [16,3]
E. R. Curtius cites the foUowing passage from Balzac's Pth"tJ &urgtflu: "The
hideous unbridled speculation that lowers, year by year, the height of the ceilings,
that fits a whole apartment into the space fonnerly occupied by a d rawing room
and declares war on the garden, will not fail to have an influence on Parisian
morals. Soon it will become necessary to live more. o utside the ho use than within
it.n Ernst Roben C urtius, Baluu: (Bonn, 1923), p. 28. Increasing importance of
the streets. for various reasons. [16.4]
~rhaps there. is a connection between the shrinking of residential space and the
elabo rate furnishing of the interio r. Regarding the first, Balzac makes some telling
observations : "Small pictures alone are in demand because large ones can no
longer be hung. Soon it wiU be a fo rmidable problem to house one's library....
O ne can no longer find space for provisions of any son . H ence, o ne buys things
thal are not calrulated to wear well. 'The shirts and the books won't last, so there.
you are. The durability of products is disappearing on all sides!" Ernst Robert
Curtius, & Juu: (Bonn, 1923), pp. 28-29. [16,5]
"S unsets cnt their glowing col o r~ on the walls of di n.ing room a nd drawin g room,
filtering softl y through lovely ha ngingil or intricate high windows with nmllioned
panes. An the furniture is immense, fantastic , stra nge, armed with lock! and
te(:rets like aU ch·i.lized 801l1s. Mir ror s, metals , fabrics , pottery, and works of the
goldsmith 's art playa mute mysterious symphon y for the eye." Cha rlcs Baude­
lai.re, Le Spleen de Paris, ed . R. Simon (Paris), p. 21 (" L' lnvitation all voyage" )Y
Etymology of the word "comfort ." " I.n EngLish, it used to mea n eanJoMtion ('Com­
[16a,I)
rorter ' is the epithet applied to the Holy Spirit). T hen the sense became . instead ,
well-being . Today, in aU languages of the world, the word designates nothing more
than rational convenience. " Wladimir Weidle, Les Abeilks d 'A ristee (Paris
~ 1 936) , p . 115 ("L' Agonie de I' a rt"). [16a,2]
" The artist-midinettes . .. 110 longer occupy rooms; rather, they live in studios.
(More a nd more , you hear ever y place of habitation caUed a 'studio,' as if people
nlerce," Vend redi , Febr ua ry 12 , 1931. [16a,3]
Multiplication of traces through the modem administrative apparatus. Balzac
draws attention to this : "Do your uttnost, hapless Frenchwomen, to re.main
unknown, to weave the very least little romance in the midst of a civilization
which takes note. on public squares, of the hoW' when every hackney cab comes
and goes; which counts every letter and stamps them twice, at the exact time they
are posted and at the time they are deliven=d ; which numbers the houses ... ;
which ere long will have every acre of land, down to the smallest holdings . . . ,
laid down on the broad sheets of a survey- a giant's task, by command of a
giant." Balzac, ModeJ/~ Mignon, LI cited in Regis Messac, U "Dtltch"ue Novel" «I
I'irifluma de Ja ptnJit JcitnJifiqun (Paris, 1929), p. 461. [16a,4)
" Victor Hugo works standing up, and , since he cannot find a suitab le antique to
serve as his desk, he writes 011 a stack of 8tools and la rge books which is covered
....ilb a carpet . It is on the Bible. it is on the Nuremberg Chronicles, that the poet
lea ns a nd sp reads his Ilaper." Louis Ulhach, LeJ Contemporaim (Paris, 1833),
cited ill Uaymond Escholier, Victor Hugo ra COnle par ceux qui I'ollt vu (Paris ,
193 1), p. 352. [17,1]
The Louis Philippe style: "The bto:Uy overspreads everything, even the time­
pieces." [17,2]
There is an apocalyptic interior- a co mplement, as it were., of the bo urgeois
interior at midcentury. It is to be found with Victor H ugo. H e writes of spiritual­
 isoc manifestations: "I have been checked for a moment in my miserable human
alllour.propr~ by a,crual revelation, coming to throw around my little miner's lamp
a streak of lightning and of meteor." In us Contnnp/o6onJ, he writes:
'* liste~
for any sounds in these dismal empty spaces;
Wandenng through the shadows, listen to the breath
"""e
1'bat malta the darkness shudder;
And now and then, lost in unfathomable nights,
'W: sce lit up by mighty lights
The window of etentity.
- (Cited in Claudius Grillet, Vu/or Hugo Jpidle <Lyons and Paris, 1 929 ~, pp. 52,
22.) [17,3J
Lodgings around 1860: " The 8 ,)ilrtmenl . . . was situated on the Rue d ' Anjou . It
was decorated ... with Cll rjH: t 8, door curtains , fringed valances, double draper_
ies, 8 0 thai yOIl would think the Stone Age had been succeeded by an Age of
Hangings." Louise Weiu, Souvenirs d'u"e en/ance republicaine (Paris <1937»,
p. 2 12 . [17,41
The relation of the jugendsti1 interior to its predecessors comes down to the fact
that the bourgeois conceals his alibi in history with a still more remote alj,bi in
natural history (specifically in the realm of plants). [17,5)
Th: eruis, dust covers, sheaths with which the bourgeois household of the pre­
cedmg century encased its utensils were so many measures taken to capture and
preserve traces. [17,6]
On the history of the domestic interio r. The residential character of the rooms in
the early fact.o~es, though disconcerting and inexpedient, adds this homely
touch : that WIthin these spaces o ne can imagine the factory owner as a quaint
figurine in a landscape of machines, drnming not only of his own but of their
future greatness. With the dissociation of the proprietor from the workplace, this
characteristic of factory buildings disappears. Capital alienates the employer, too,
from his means of production, and the dream of their future greatness is finished .
This alienatio n process culminates in the emergence of the private home.
[I7a,l )
" During the first ~l eca d e8 of the nineteenth century, furniture and the objects that
Surrounded liS for lise and pleasure were relatively simple a nd durable , and ac·
t'onle{1 with the need s of both the lower and the u"per stnlla. This resulted ill
people's altaciullcnt. as they grew u" , to the object s of their s urroumlings .... The
differ entiation of objects has broken down this situation in three different
wa y•. . .. Fir;H, Ihe sill.:er quuntil Yof ...cry specifi cally formed objt.:t:ts make II close
.. . relations hip to eaclt of them more djfficuit .... This is expreued ... ill IIIC
hou sewife'. cumplai.nl Iha l Ihe care of the household becomes ceremonial felis h­
is m .... Thi. concurrenl differ entiation has the same effect a8 cOllsC(:uti...e differ ­
clltiation. Changes in fa shion dis rupllhal ... procell of ... assimilalion between
subject and object. . . . [In the third "lace. there is] the multitude of style. thai
confronts us whell we view Ihe object8 I.bal surround us ." Georg Simmel , Philo! o_
pllie tie! Geldes (Leipzig, 19(0). PI>· 491-494. ~~ [17a,2)
On the theory of the trace. To "the Harbor-Master, ... [as] a son of ... deputy­
Nepnm e for the circumambient seas, ... I was, in common with the other sea­
men of the port, merely a subject for officia1 writing, filling up of fonns with all
the artificial superiority of a man of pen and ink to the men who grapple with
realities outside the consecrated walls of officia1 buildings. What ghosts we must
have been to him! Mere symbols to juggle with in books and heavy registers,
without brains and muscles and perplexities; something hardly useful and decid­
edly inferior." j oseph Conrad, Die Schaltm/inie (Berlin <1926» , p. 51.20 (Compare
with the Rousseau passage <cited below>.) [17a,3)
On the theory of the trace. Practice is eliminated from the productive process by
machinery. In the process of administration, something analogous occurs with
heightened organization. Knowledge of human nature, such as the senior em­
ployee could acquire through practice, ceases to be decisive. TIlls can be seen
when one compares Conrad's observations in "The Shadow-Line" with a pas­
sage from u;OmftJJioru. [18, 1)
On the theory of the trace: administration in the eighteenth century. As secretary
to the French embassy in Venice, Rousseau had abolished the tax on passpons
for the French. "As soon as the news got around that I had refonned the passpon
tax, my only applicants were aowds of pretended Frenchmen who claimed in
abominable accents to be either from Provence, Picardy, or Burgundy. As I have
a fairly good ear, I was not easily fooled, and I doubt whether a single Italian
cheated me out of m y ;equin, or a single Frenclunen paid it." jean:Jacques Rous­
seau, u; Confts.sioru, ed. Hilswn (Paris ~193h), vol. 2, p_ 13Z21 {18,2]
Baudelaire, in the introduction to hi. tran81ation of Poe'8 " PhiloliOphy of Furni­
ture," which originaUy appeared in October 1852 in Le Magluin des famiiles :
"'Who among U8, in hi8 idle hou n, has not taken a delicious plea8ure in construct­
ing for himself a model apartment. a dream house. a house of dream8?" Cbarles
Baudelaire, Oeu vres completes, ed . Crepet, Ilistoire! g rotesques et serieuses par
Poe ( Paris, 1937), p . 3(H. {I8,3]