This portrait of Paris between 1900 and 1914, when it was the artistic centre of Europe, is evoked by a series of character sketches of important figures, such as Proust, Gide, Claudel, Debussy, Sarah Bernhardt, Picasso, Diaghilev and the Curies. By drawing together the threads of their lives the author distinguishes a subtlety and delicacy in artistic and intellectual life not present in the more pleasure-seeking 1890s. But dark political clouds were looming with the German occupation of Alsace-Lorraine, the Agadir crisis, and the effect on Germany of the growing Entente Cordiale - events of which intellectuals and artists failed to see the full significance. The author has written "Louis XIV", "Louis and Antoinette" and "Napoleon".