Books About Paris: 50+ Novels, Memoirs & Guidebooks

This is a shelf of novels, memoirs, history, guidebooks, children’s books, cookbooks, and photo books. The year beside a novel, memoir, history, cookbook, children’s book, or photo book is the first publication. Guidebook years are the current edition. The note says who it suits. A few famous titles are only partly about Paris.

Start here

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (1964). The short 1920s memoir, if you want one book before anything else.
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo (1831). A classic that is actually about a Paris building, and shorter than Les Misérables.
The Greater Journey, David McCullough (2011). History through people, if you would rather not start with a novel.
Rick Steves Paris, Rick Steves, Steve Smith, and Gene Openshaw (2026). The current guidebook if you are booking the trip and want one plan.
My Life in France, Julia Child (2006). The food book, with the honest caveat that not all of it is in Paris.

Classic novels

Hugo, Dumas, Balzac, and Zola if you want the nineteenth-century city. The later novels on this list are smaller, and several of them are only partly set in Paris. Flaubert’s Sentimental Education is left off: the publication year could not be pinned down cleanly enough to print.

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo (1862). The long one. It suits a reader who wants Paris as a city of decades, not a weekend, and who does not mind a novel that keeps leaving the street for an essay.
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Victor Hugo (1831). Notre-Dame is the setting, not a backdrop. A shorter way into Hugo if Les Misérables is too much book for the trip.
The Three Musketeers, Alexandre Dumas (1844). Adventure first. Read it for duels and loyalty in seventeenth-century Paris, not for a portrait of how the city works.
Père Goriot, Honoré de Balzac (1835). A boarding-house novel about ambition and money. The English edition linked here is published as Old Goriot. Short, and sharper than it first looks.
Lost Illusions, Honoré de Balzac (1837). A young writer from the provinces meets the Paris press. The book to pick if you want Balzac on journalism and status.
Nana, Émile Zola (1880). The theater, money, and a courtesan, written straight at sex and class. Adults, and not a gentle visit to the Belle Époque.
The Ladies' Paradise, Émile Zola (1883). A department store swallows the neighborhood around it. The novel if you care how modern shopping arrived in Paris.
The Phantom of the Opera, Gaston Leroux (1911). The Palais Garnier, including the water under it. A short gothic when you want the building more than a social novel.
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens (1859). London and the Revolution, and only part of it is Paris. Read it for those chapters, not as a guide to the city.
The Ambassadors, Henry James (1903). An American sent to Paris to bring a young man home starts to like the life instead. Slow on purpose.
Good Morning, Midnight, Jean Rhys (1939). A woman walks the city between the wars, broke and clear-eyed. Short, and not a cheerful book to pack for a holiday.
Giovanni's Room, James Baldwin (1956). An American in Paris and a love affair he will not admit. The city is the room around the story. Adults.
Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald (1934). Americans on the Riviera, with Paris as one of the places a marriage comes apart. Not a Paris novel first.
Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller (1934). Explicit, and about being broke in 1930s Paris. Adults only. It is a novel, not a polite memoir of cafés.

Modern and romantic novels

Twentieth- and twenty-first-century fiction with Paris in it. “In it” is doing work: some of these leave the city, or were never only about it.

The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah (2015). Mostly occupied France and the Loire. One sister’s story runs through Paris, so do not expect a Left Bank novel.
Suite Française, Irène Némirovsky (2004). An unfinished novel of the 1940 exodus and the occupation. Paris is the city people are leaving. This English edition translates the manuscript published in 2004.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog, Muriel Barbery (2006). A concierge and a gifted child in a grand Paris building. First published in French in 2006. Quiet, and better if you like ideas as much as plot.
The Paris Library, Janet Skeslien Charles (2020). The American Library in Paris during the war, braided with a later story in Montana. The Paris half is the reason to read it.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, V. E. Schwab (2020). A bargain to live forever, across centuries and more than one city. Paris is part of it. A fantasy, not a portrait of one arrondissement.
The Hundred-Foot Journey, Richard C. Morais (2010). A cook from Mumbai and a restaurant in a French village. Paris is not the point, which is worth knowing before you pack it as a city novel.
Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay (2006). The 1942 Vel d’Hiv roundup in Paris, told beside a modern story. Fiction for readers who want that history as a novel.
The Paris Architect, Charles Belfoure (2013). A historical thriller about an architect asked to hide people in occupied Paris. Plot first.
The Painted Girls, Cathy Marie Buchanan (2012). The Paris Opera ballet and the girls who modeled for Degas. Backstage Belle Époque, not the museum gift shop version.

Romance

Love stories and light fiction. None of them is a guidebook with a plot taped on.

The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George (2015). A bookseller on a barge leaves the city. Romantic, and the journey is the larger part of the book.
Anna and the French Kiss, Stephanie Perkins (2010). A boarding-school romance set in Paris, written for teens.
Paris for One and Other Stories, Jojo Moyes (2016). Short stories. The title one sends a woman to Paris for a weekend that goes ahead without the boyfriend. Light, and not only about the city.
Le Divorce, Diane Johnson (1998). An American in Paris during her stepsister’s divorce. Social comedy.
The Red Notebook, Antoine Laurain (2015). A short novel about a bookseller and a lost notebook. Light, and actually set in the city. The edition linked here is the English translation.

Mystery and thriller

The Phantom of the Opera, above, is the gothic one. For a modern chase through the Louvre, there is one book worth naming, with a limit on what it is.

The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003). A thriller that uses the Louvre as a set piece and then leaves. Read it for the chase. Only part of the book is Paris, and it will not tell you how the museum works.

Paris in the 1920s

The Lost Generation shelf: the memoir, the novel that opens there, the salon, the bookshop, and one later novel about those years. When Paris Sizzled is the history of the decade if you want the context without the marriage plot.

A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway (1964). Hemingway looking back at being young and hungry in the 1920s. The book most people mean by Paris in that decade, and short enough to finish.
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway (1926). Opens in Paris, then leaves for Spain. Read it for the cafés, then expect the book to move on.
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Gertrude Stein (1933). Stein’s portrait of their Paris salon, told in Alice’s voice. The art-world 1920s, not a walking tour.
Shakespeare and Company, Sylvia Beach (1959). Beach’s memoir of the bookshop and the writers who used it. The practical companion to the more famous novels of those years.
The Paris Wife, Paula McLain (2011). A novel about Hadley Hemingway. Read it beside A Moveable Feast if you want her side of the same years.
Paris Was Yesterday, Janet Flanner (1972). Flanner’s letters from Paris for The New Yorker, gathered in 1972. Sketches of people and events, not a single plot.
When Paris Sizzled, Mary Sperling McAuliffe (2016). A history of the city in the 1920s, for readers who want the decade explained rather than novelized.

Paris history

Narrative history, from Americans abroad to one street. Paris 1919 belongs here because the conference was in Paris, not because it will help you choose a neighborhood.

The Greater Journey, David McCullough (2011). Americans who came to Paris to study, paint, and practice medicine in the nineteenth century. The history to start with if you want people rather than kings.
Parisians, Graham Robb (2010). Episodes from the city’s life, told as stories. A good fit if a straight chronology puts you off.
Is Paris Burning?, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre (1965). The liberation of Paris in 1944, told day by day. The end of the occupation, not the whole war.
Paris 1919, Margaret MacMillan (2002). The peace conference, which happened to be held in Paris. A book about the treaty, not about neighborhoods.
The Only Street in Paris, Elaine Sciolino (2015). The rue des Martyrs, one street rather than the monuments. The pick if you want ordinary Paris.
Paris: The Secret History, Andrew Hussey (2006). A long history that spends time on people who were not the kings. Use it when you want the outsiders as well as the official story.
Les Parisiennes, Anne Sebba (2016). Women in Paris from the occupation into the years after. History, not a novel.
Seven Ages of Paris, Alistair Horne (2002). One volume from the Middle Ages into the twentieth century. The overview when you want a single history and will not read three.
How Paris Became Paris, Joan DeJean (2014). The seventeenth century, when avenues and public life started to make the city look like the Paris people picture.
The Judgment of Paris, Ross King (2006). The painters who broke with the Salon. Art history of the 1860s and 1870s. This is Ross King’s book, not a novel with the same title.

Books about the Paris Catacombs

No English book on the Catacombs was solid enough to put on this list. For the visit itself, see our Catacombs page.

Memoirs of Americans in Paris

Most of these are by Americans who stayed. A few are not, and the note says so. They are here because people looking for “an American in Paris” usually want the life-in-the-city book, and the honest version of that shelf includes the exceptions.

Paris to the Moon, Adam Gopnik (2000). Essays on raising a family in Paris in the 1990s. The modern “we moved there” book that is actually about the city.
My Life in France, Julia Child (2006). Child learning to cook, much of it in Paris and some of it in Marseille and Provence. Read it for the food education. Not every chapter is in the capital.
Me Talk Pretty One Day, David Sedaris (2000). Essays. The French-class pieces are the famous ones, and a lot of the France material is Normandy rather than Paris.
The Sweet Life in Paris, David Lebovitz (2009). A pastry cook moves to Paris. A food memoir, with recipes in the book.
Lunch in Paris, Elizabeth Bard (2010). Falling in love, and learning to shop and cook. Romantic, and practical about the market.
Almost French, Sarah Turnbull (2002). An Australian journalist who stays. Culture shock, not a food book. She is not American, and the book does not pretend otherwise.
Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell (1933). Poverty in Paris, then in London. The Paris half is kitchens, hunger, and cheap hotels. Short, and not a love letter.
The Flâneur, Edmund White (2001). Essays from walking the city. A fit if you like wandering more than a plot. The edition linked here is titled The Flaneur.
The Piano Shop on the Left Bank, Thad Carhart (2001). A quiet memoir of one shop, its pianos, and the street around it.
Paris, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down, Rosecrans Baldwin (2012). Working in the city and liking it less than the fantasy. A useful corrective to the move-to-Paris memoir.
A Year in the Merde, Stephen Clarke (1998). A comic novel about an Englishman in a Paris office, rude on purpose. First published in 1998. The paperback linked here is a later edition.

The best Paris guidebooks

Three current city guides, and who each one suits. Links search for the edition in print, so a new printing does not leave a dead product page behind. If you are still deciding whether to go at all, start with is Paris worth visiting.

Rick Steves Paris, Rick Steves, Steve Smith, and Gene Openshaw (2026). The 2026 edition, the 26th, is the current standalone guide. It suits a first trip of several days, when you want one opinionated plan. For a short stay, the Paris chapter in his France guide is enough.
DK Paris, DK (2025). The illustrated guide, now titled DK Paris. A 2025 English edition runs 328 pages. Use it if you want maps and photos of the sights more than a narrative. The link searches for the current printing.
Lonely Planet Paris, Lonely Planet (2026). The 15th edition, published in 2026, is the current city guide. It suits a traveler who wants neighborhoods and practical listings more than a single author’s route.

Children’s books

Picture books and one illustrated novel. Madeline is the title many people expect here. The 1939 original is left off this list because it could not be confirmed apart from the later Madeline sequels.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret, Brian Selznick (2007). An illustrated novel about a boy living in a train station and a filmmaker. The pictures carry the plot. For older children, and for adults who like that form.
This Is Paris, Miroslav Sasek (1959). A picture book, first published in 1959 and reissued since. For small children who like a stylized city more than a story. The edition linked here is a later hardcover.
Linnea in Monet's Garden, Christina Björk (1987). A girl visits Monet’s garden at Giverny. Pair it with the day trip if that outing is on the list.
Adele and Simon, Barbara McClintock (2004). A sister walks her brother home across Paris, and he loses one thing on every page. A picture book for looking.
The Family Under the Bridge, Natalie Savage Carlson (1958). A short chapter book about a man and children living under a Paris bridge. It does not pretend the city is only pretty.
Eloise in Paris, Kay Thompson (1957). Eloise on a trip to the city. A picture book with a lot of attitude. The edition linked here is a later hardcover, not a book-and-CD.
Anatole, Eve Titus (1956). A mouse who works as a cheese taster. This is the original picture book, not one of the sequels.

Cookbooks

Home cooking, technique, and pastry. None of these is a list of restaurants.

Barefoot in Paris, Ina Garten (2004). French recipes adapted for an American home kitchen. Not a restaurant guide.
My Paris Kitchen, David Lebovitz (2014). Lebovitz again, this time the recipes rather than the memoir.
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child, Simone Beck, and Louisette Bertholle (1961). The 1961 teaching book. It is a course in French cooking, not a directory of Paris restaurants. Volume one is the book people mean.
Around My French Table, Dorie Greenspan (2010). Recipes from French home cooks. Broad France, with Paris in the mix.
Le Cordon Bleu's Complete Cooking Techniques, Le Cordon Bleu (1997). A technique book from the Paris school. Use it to learn methods, not to plan where to eat.
Paris Sweets, Dorie Greenspan (2002). Pastry shops and how to make the cakes. The cookbook if the trip is about pâtisserie.
The Little Paris Kitchen, Rachel Khoo (2013). Recipes from a small apartment kitchen. Approachable. The Paris in the title is her home, not a restaurant tour.

Photo books

Two books of photographs. Atget’s Paris, and a later photographer walking the same views again.

Paris Changing, Christopher Rauschenberg (2007). Rauschenberg rephotographed Eugène Atget’s views of Paris. For readers who want to see what stayed and what moved.
Atget's Paris, Eugène Atget (2001). A selection of Atget’s photographs. The pictures, with less text than a history. The edition linked here is an English-language paperback.

Read it, then see it

The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, and The Da Vinci Code all send people to the museum. The novel will not get you through the rooms. For that, use the Louvre in two hours, or a private Louvre tour if you want a guide.

Linnea in Monet’s Garden is the children’s book for a day trip to Giverny. The Catacombs note above points at the visit, not at a book we could not verify.

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Questions readers ask

What is the best book about Paris?

There is no single best book. For a short memoir of the 1920s, start with A Moveable Feast. For a novel about a Paris building, read The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. If you are going soon, pick a current guidebook and then one novel for the flight.

What should I read before going to Paris?

A guidebook first: Rick Steves Paris if you want a plan, DK Paris if you want pictures and maps, Lonely Planet Paris if you want neighborhoods. Then one novel or memoir from this list. If you are still deciding whether to go, read is Paris worth visiting.

What is the best Paris guidebook?

It depends on the trip. The 2026 Rick Steves Paris suits a first visit of several days. DK Paris suits sight-by-sight browsing. The 2026 Lonely Planet city guide suits neighborhood listings. None of them replaces booking timed tickets ahead.

What are the best novels set in Paris?

For the nineteenth century, start with The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, Père Goriot, or The Ladies’ Paradise. For something shorter and modern, The Elegance of the Hedgehog or The Red Notebook. A Tale of Two Cities and The Nightingale are only partly set in Paris.

Which books cover Paris in the 1920s?

A Moveable Feast, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, and Shakespeare and Company are the memoirs. The Paris Wife is the later novel about those years. When Paris Sizzled is the history of the decade.

What are good children's books about Paris?

This Is Paris, Adele and Simon, Eloise in Paris, and Anatole are the picture books. The Invention of Hugo Cabret is the illustrated novel for older children. Madeline’s 1939 original is not on this list because that edition could not be confirmed apart from the sequels.

Is there a good book about the Paris Catacombs?

Not one we could verify well enough to recommend here. For the visit, start with our Catacombs page.

Do book links on this page earn a commission?

Yes. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases, including the Audible trial link. Details are on the affiliate disclosure.

Books About Paris: The Big Reading List