Have you ever dreamed of following in the footsteps of your favorite fictional character? This is now possible thanks to a work of maps entitled “In Paris, in the footsteps of the characters in novels”.
In this illustrated book published in mid-November by Autres Editions, nearly 50 novels are mapped in order to retrace the movements and adventures of the greatest fictional characters in French literature. The City of Paris also collaborated by installing plaques in various places in the capital to complete the routes in this atlas and allow you to reproduce them.
Asterix, d’Artagnan, Nana, Maigret or even Gavroche and Arsène Lupin… The greatest fictional literary names, sometimes become as real as their creators, are all found in this work by François Sureau, member of the Académie française, and Ismaël Jude, novelist and doctor of literature. The whole is mapped by Maxime Salles.
“The selection of characters was made in small committee with the editors and the City who helped us with some very difficult choices. We needed all eras, some essential foreigners like Hemingway, and obviously the French, such as Zola, Proust, Flaubert and Hugo,” explains Ismaël Jude.
“Zazie in the metro” (by Raymond Queneau) particularly marked the author of the atlas. “She has an image of Paris in her head and has a language that won’t stung beetles which touches me a lot,” he confides.
22 plaques in Paris
Over the pages and centuries, readers gradually discover the moments of life – sometimes death – of the characters in Paris. Whether they lived, wandered or died in the capital, everything is listed using 50 itineraries and detachable maps. It is thus possible to find, for example, Cosette and Jean Valjean (Les Miserables) boulevard de l’Hôpital (13th century).
“We wanted to put up plaques that commemorate not the artists or the writers, but the characters,” explains Ismaël Jude. There are 50 characters in the novels and, for each one, I wrote a text which retraces the character’s journey(s). Then, there is an insert where we recall the plot, and on the right, we find the mapped route. »
These routes can then be reproduced in the streets of Paris thanks to the 22 plaques set up by the town hall in homage to the characters of the novels. “We can either focus on reading first or walking through the streets of Paris first,” adds Ismaël Jude.
A literary tour for lovers of the French language, as well as a discovery itinerary for the curious eager to know more about the capital and its mythical or hidden places.
