Holy Time Travel, Batman!

 Yet more fun with research! Just hours after I put up my last post, I scored a Guide to Paris written DURING THE TIME BENJAMIN JANUARY WAS LIVING THERE - 1829, smack in the middle of the "Bourbon Restoration." Just glancing through it, it contains LOTS of useful, mundane details, like what rooms rented for, and how much you'd have to pay for a haircut, and what cafes were in operation in the Palais Royale (not to mention who were the good actors, and who were the lousy ones, in every theater in town). (And an exhaustive catalog of EVERY WORK OF ART IN THE LOUVRE). (This guy was thorough).


I love this kind of stuff! Most of my old Baedeker Guides date from the early 1900s, so this was a real find! (And it's a PoD reprint, so it was cheap). One of the things that delights me about this is that it gives a contemporary table of British and French money, which will make future Ben January books which involve Paris MUCH easier - I'm ALWAYS trying to track down how much things cost in 1820s francs. (Getting a conversion from US dollars to Victorian pounds is usually pretty simple, so this is an easy stepping-stone).

Combined with my huge map of pre-Haussmann Paris, this is really useful.

AND, it included something that's going to make it into my next lecture on Napoleon: the fact that when Napoleon was getting ready to invade Britain (using the money he got from Thomas Jefferson - completely unconstitutionally - for the Louisiana Territory), he spent part of that money having a monument designed AND BEGAN CONSTRUCTION ON IT in Boulogne, commemorating his conquest of England, before he even began the invasion. The foundations and scaffolding were still standing in 1829. (It was later re-purposed as a monument to Napoleon's ARMY, after the Emperor himself went to take his little vacation in the South Atlantic. For awhile it had a royal globe, royal crown, and fleur-de-lys put on it by the Bourbons, and when THEY were thrown out of power - for the second time - in 1830, the crown was discreetly removed and the fleur-des-lys replaced by stars.)

And, of course, Napoleon changed his mind and the invasion never took place.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sample Post

Image
     A girl once went to the fair to hire herself for servant. At last a funny-looking old gentleman engaged her, and took her home to his house. When she got there, he told her that he had something to teach her, for that in his house he had his own names for things.      He said to her, "What will you call me?"    " Master or mister, or whatever you please, sir," says she.      He said, "You must call me master of all masters . And what would you call this?" he said pointing to his bed.      "Bed or couch, or whatever you please, sir."     " No, that's my barnacle . And what do you call these?" said he, pointing to his pantaloons.     "Breeches or trousers, or whatever you please, sir."     "You must call them squibs and crackers . And what would you call her?" he said pointing to the cat.     "Cat or kit, or whatever you please, sir."     "You must call her white-faced simminy . "     &quo
Read more

The Iron Princess

Image
  The Iron Princess - my first fantasy novel in 16 years - will be available February 28: pre-order on Amazon is available now. It's a story I've worked on, on and off, for almost ten years, and I'm delighted that it's finally going to see print. As I think I've said before, it involves Princess Clyaris - Clea, known to her friends and followers as the Iron Princess (in contrast to her older sister, the Golden Princess) - and her complicated battle against not only otherworld monstrosities, but her own family. Like Queen Elizabeth I, she has to pick her way around the debris of her father's matrimonial chaos while trying to figure out who is responsible for the appearance of these deadly - and rapidly multiplying - creatures, when it may in fact be Dear Old Dad... or somebody who's using him as a pawn. The fact that she has to blackmail the most evil wizard in the world into working for her doesn't help matters. Fingers crossed!
Read more

An Evening in the Park

Image
My apologies, yet again, for the long delay between posts. On top of it being a very stressful semester (since February) the past two weeks have been - not good. Once the final mopping-up is done all will be well. A welcome high spot was a twilight picnic with friends at the Old Zoo Meadow in Griffith Park, to see the Independent Shakespeare Company do "Julius Caesar." It's not my favorite of Shakespeare's plays, but I always enjoy the ISC (who are in a different union than the Screen Actors Guild, and they came out and announced their solidarity with SAG and the Writers before the show). The production was wonderful - in many ways very Shakespearean, because it was all done on a single stage with nothing but four or five cubes for props; all done with words, and sound effects, and lighting, and sheer excellent, creative direction. (The costumes had a vaguely Klingon vibe that was very effective). I had a couple of minor quibbles with some of the choices made in the p
Read more