Overview

The fl�neur is the quintessentially masculine figure of privilege and leisure who strides the capitals of the world with abandon. But it is the fl�neuse who captures the imagination of the cultural critic Lauren Elkin. In her wonderfully gender-bending new book, the fl�neuse is a determined, resourceful individual keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city and the liberating possibilities of a good walk. Virginia Woolf called it street haunting; Holly Golightly epitomized it in Breakfast at Tiffany's; and Patti Smith did it in her own inimitable style in 1970s New York. Part cultural meander, part memoir, Fl�neuse takes us on a distinctly cosmopolitan jaunt that begins in New York, where Elkin grew up, and transports us to Paris via Venice, Tokyo, and London, all cities in which she's lived. We are shown the paths beaten by such fl�neuses as the cross-dressing nineteenth-century novelist George Sand, the Parisian artist Sophie Calle, the wartime correspondent Martha Gellhorn, and the writer Jean Rhys. With tenacity and insight, Elkin creates a mosaic of what urban settings have meant to women, charting through literature, art, history, and film the sometimes exhilarating, sometimes fraught relationship that women have with the metropolis.

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9781665264051

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[A] pastiche of travel writing, memoir, history, and literary nonfiction....[with] some of the pleasures of each. -- New York Times Book Review Deliciously spiky and seditious. -- Guardian (London) Makes a forceful case for the genderless joy and vital importance of striking out for the territory on foot . . . Flaneuse is a stimulating read whose itinerary ranges from wanderlust and space as a 'feminist issue' to self-definition in connection with a specific place. -- Los Angeles Times

"""[A] pastiche of travel writing, memoir, history, and literary nonfiction....[with] some of the pleasures of each."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""Deliciously spiky and seditious."" -- ""Guardian (London)"" ""Makes a forceful case for the genderless joy and vital importance of striking out for the territory―on foot . . . Fl�neuse is a stimulating read whose itinerary ranges from wanderlust and space as a 'feminist issue' to self-definition in connection with a specific place."" -- "" Los Angeles Times"""

Author Information

Lauren Elkin's essays have appeared in many publications, including the New York Times Book Review, Frieze, and the Times Literary Supplement, and she is a contributing editor at the White Review. A native New Yorker, she moved to Paris in 2004. Currently living on the Right Bank after years on the Left, she can generally be found ambling around Belleville. Abby Craden is a professional actress and voice artist who can be heard in numerous TV and radio commercials, video games, and audiobooks. An AudioFile Earphones Award winner as well as an AudioFile Best Voice of 2012, Abby is an award-winning stage actress and a resident artist with the prestigious theater A Noise Within.

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