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Location: Home » European Islands » Paris Underground: The Maps, Stations, and Design of the Metro

Paris Underground: The Maps, Stations, and Design of the Metro

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Author: Mark Ovenden
Creators: Julian Pepinster, Peter B. Lloyd
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book

List Price: ~~$25.00~~
Buy Used: $12.75
as of 9/8/2010 04:10 PDT details
You Save: $12.25 (49%)

Seller: webuyyourbooks
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

12 reviews
Sales Rank: 125014

Media: Paperback
Pages: 176
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 9.5 x 0.3

ISBN: 0143116398
Dewey Decimal Number: 388.428944361
EAN: 9780143116394
ASIN: 0143116398

Publication Date: October 27, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
The delectable follow up to Transit Maps of the World- with a French twist

A word-of-mouth sensation, Transit Maps of the World garnered rave reviews and offered delicious eye-candy to the many who devoured its lusciously designed pages. In Paris Underground, Mark Ovenden turns his attention to the famous Paris transit system with its inimitable Art Nouveau inspired stations and Art Deco signage. More than one thousand maps, diagrams, and photographs-historical and current-along with fascinating factual tidbits and enthusiastic, informed commentary embellish this gorgeous cultural history of the Métro's design and construction. Transit buffs, Francophiles, and anyone who appreciates beautiful design are sure to make Paris Underground the season's must-have volume.

Customer Reviews:

Showing reviews 1-5 of 12

1 2 3 Next »

For the Paris Metro enthusiast and many others September 8, 2010
Harriet Craig (Eastern US)
Such a great book and what a subject! More information than any Metro lover would expect and it's better each time you read it or just glance through it. The only drawback is that some of the illustrations and even texts are too small to appreciate without a magnifying glass. But any Paris, Metro or subway enthusiast and all graphic designers should enjoy this book!

3 out of 5 stars

Paris Underground partly undone by English August 11, 2010
J. Bucar (New Haven, CT)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Mark Ovenden's subject in this book is fascinating enough to carry itself, but he does provide a thorough enough history of the Paris Métro's genesis and evolution, enough maps and photographs, and enough of the Métro's cultural importance and legacy to make the subject even more enticing. However, neither he nor his editors seem aware of some basic principles of clear, direct, readable English prose. Start with the title of Chapter 1: Paris prevaricates [sic] over a Métro. What the chapter really documents is that Paris "procrastinated" building a subway system-- a bad error, one worthy of careless bloggers' malapropisms. Ovenden also displays a fatal fondness for passive verb constructions, sentence after sentence of them, even when he is trying to describe some of the Métro's early and energetic advocates in all their fervor.

I haven't read more that the first third at all closely, so I cannot tell what awaits me in the remaining pages. I know that I will find the people, maps, photos, etc fascinating, but I know I will also cringe at Mr. Ovenden's prose.

5 out of 5 stars

An orgy of the maps March 12, 2010
Grzegorz Wozniakowski
As i got this book, i thought "i can't imagine what could be new about Paris metro, coz i already have a book about this awesome system" but i was wrong! This book gives you great opportunity to know how the metro of Paris has grown over the decades, yet over a full century - and the best part of it - at least for me personaly - is the fact, that you will find there tons of historical maps. i didnt even imagine, there were so many of them! It's really amazing to have them all in one book and hold in your own hands, plus the history and other images of the iconic metro system.

4 out of 5 stars

Paris More than Underground March 11, 2010
James Gollin
Paris Underground is far more than a history of the famed Paris Métro. It's a fascinating piece of social and political history, mirroring the growth of Paris from the mid-19th c. to today. It takes a long look at logistics -- what it takes to move people in, through and around a increasingly crowded urban environment. And in addition, Paris Underground is a brilliant survey of French engineering and design.
Author Mark Ovenden sees, and makes his readers see, how much one seemingly mundane element in an industrial culture -- in this case, a city transit system -- can reveal about the wider culture itself.
One key theme is the fierce Parisian resistance to development, however practical, that might insult or degrade the aboveground environment. A hero of Métro design was the designer Hector Guimard, who created the celebrated, elegant Art Nouveau entranceways which are still so much a part of the Paris streetscape, and of our image of the City of Light.
Another theme is Ovenden's tracing of the evolution of the maps, big and small, that help people link the surface geography of Paris with the comings and goings beneath its streets. What this cartographic history has to say about contemporary sensibility adds a philosophical dimension to a book that says it's only about a subway system.

3 out of 5 stars

Paris Underground March 8, 2010
Sacramento Book Review (Sacramento, CA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

I'm one of those people who has an interest in what interests other people. I know that seems confusing, but follow me for a minute. When someone is truly passionate about something, it doesn't really matter if I've never even heard of what it is they love. I could listen to them talk about it for hours. In that way, //Paris Underground// is a triumph. Author Mark Ovendon is //obsessed// with the Parisian transit system, and it's infectious. I flipped through the book, smiling at the obvious joy with which it had been compiled.

But the fact remains that this is a book full of microscopic maps and pictures of old French signs. It's a comprehensive history of Paris transit. If you can't even make it through this review without feeling like you want to take a nap, this book is not for you. But if you love public transit (and I won't judge), or if you want to add to your collection of obscure knowledge for your next Trivial Pursuit tournament, this book ought to be right up your alley.

Reviewed by Amanda Mitchell

Showing reviews 1-5 of 12

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