The birth of intimacy - Annik Pardaihl-Galabrun

This lively new book examines the origins of modern intimacy anddomestic life. Focusing on Paris in the seventeenth and eighteenthcenturies, the author explores the emergence and development ofideas such as 'sociability', 'comfort' and 'the home.

On the basis of extensive and original research, Pardailhe-Galabrundescribes early modern Paris as a city of contrasts: betweenbuildings constructed as rental properties with ordinary, crampedfacades, and the townhouses of the nobility, with carriageentrances, standing on lots alongside spacious courtyards andgardens. She has produced a vivid picture of the texture and warmthof life in the domestic world of pre-Revolutionary Parisians.