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The New Bibliopolis: French Book Collectors And The Culture Of Print, 1880-1914, Peter Schulman

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

In an age of the Kindle and e-books, how refreshing and meaningful to read Willa Z. Silverman’s fascinating study, which so eloquently describes a time when printed books not only mattered but were treasured, sought after, and treated almost as lovers at times. Far from being a treatise on monomaniacal, “nebbishy” bookworms, Silverman sheds light on a facet of Belle E´poque history hitherto underdeveloped and introduces us to a colorful, eccentric, artistic, and fanatically driven set of bibliophiles bent on creating a haven for the book, a “bibliopolis,” or as one of Silverman’s subjects, Robert de Montesquiou, put it referring …