The Once Upon a Time World by Jonathan Miles

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The Once Upon a Time World by Jonathan Miles

*A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice*

Chronicling two-hundred years of glamour, intrigue, and hedonism, this rich and vivid history of the French Riviera features a vast cast of characters, from Pablo Picasso and Coco Chanel to Andre Matisse and James Baldwin.

1835, Lord Brougham founded Cannes, introducing bathing and the manicured lawn to the wilds of the Mediterranean coast. Today, much of that shore has become a concrete mass from which escape is an exclusive dream. In the 185 years between, the stretch of seaboard from the red mountains of the Esterel to the Italian border hosted a cultural phenomenon well in excess of its tiny size.

A mere handful of towns and resorts created by foreign visitors - notably English, Russian and American - attracted the talented, rich and famous as well as those who wanted to be. For nearly two centuries of creativity, luxury, excess, scandal, war and corruption, the dark and sparkling world of the Riviera was a temptation for everybody who was anybody. Often frivolous, it was also a potent cultural matrix that inspired the likes of Picasso, Matisse, Coco Chanel, Scott Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, James Baldwin, Catherine Mansfield, Sartre and Stravinsky.

In Once Upon a Time World, Jonathan Miles presents the remarkable story of the small strip of French coast that lured the world to its shores. It is a wild and unforgettable tale that follows the Riviera's transformation from paradise and wilderness to a pollution imperiled concrete jungle.

Dear American Airlines, Want Not, and Anatomy of a Miracle are all written by Jonathan Miles. He is a contributing editor to magazines like Details, Garden & Gun, Men's Magazine, and Field & Stream, and is a former New York Times columnist. Best American Sports Writing and Best American Crime Writing have both published anthologies of his work. He used to live in Oxford, Mississippi, but now resides in rural New Jersey beside the Delaware River.

SKU Unavailable
ISBN 13 9781639364954
ISBN 10 1639364951
Title The Once Upon a Time World
Author Jonathan Miles
Condition Unavailable
Binding Type Hardback
Publisher Pegasus Books
Year published 2023-09-05
Number of pages 464
Cover note Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.