Dawn of the Belle Epoque is the story of those extraordinary years from 1871-1900, when Paris emerged from military defeat, siege, and a bloody uprising into the full flower of the Belle Epoque. These were vibrant and seminal years, as seen through the eyes of luminaries such as Monet, Zola, Debussy, Eiffel, Marie Curie, and other pioneers as they successfully struggled with the forces of tradition.
"Mary McAuliffe strikingly evokes the three flourishing decades of culture that followed France's humiliation by Germany and the never-to-be-forgotten crowning, in 1871, of a German emperor at Versailles." - Miranda Seymour, New York Times
“This is an excellent and honest portrayal of an exciting and vital era in European history.”
- Booklist
"McAuliffe deftly explores the inner lives of the artists and those who surrounded them, and in the process humanizes these larger-than-life characters. . . . McAuliffe has added a truly remarkable degree of insight into both the lives of the participants and the turbulent world they inhabited.” - Washington Independent Review of Books
Dawn of the Belle Epoque
The Paris of Monet, Zola, Bernhardt, Eiffel, Debussy, Clemenceau, and Their Friends
By Mary McAuliffe