The works in this volume offer a lively, humorous tour of the manners and characters of the flâneur (a leisurely wanderer), the grisette (a young working-class woman), the gamin (a street urchin), and more. While the names of authors are no longer familiar, their works still open a window onto a vivid time and place.

An English translation of humorous works published in French for a mass audience. Describes the changing society of nineteenth-century Paris, featuring character types such as the flaneur, the grisette, the gamin, and the bourgeois. Includes texts by Paul de Kock, Honoré de Balzac, Delphine de Girardin, Louis Huart, and others.