Paris in 1869 was known as "the new Babylon", a city obsessed with sex and money, and ruled by the ailing despot Louis Napoleon and his ruthless wife Eugenie. Rebuilt by Haussmann to display the splendours of the Second Empire, racked with scandal, anxiety and political tension, Europe's most glittering capital was on the verge of the unexpected nemesis of the Franco-Prussian War, a five-month siege, and the revolutionary conflagration of the Commune. How and why this happened is described in this book, which also paints a picture of Parisian high and low life during one of the most dramatic periods of the city's history.