The Seine

The River That Made Paris

By: Elaine Sciolino

Narrated by: Elaine Sciolino

Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's Summary

A vibrant, enchanting tour of the Seine from longtime New York Times foreign correspondent and best-selling author Elaine Sciolino.

Elaine Sciolino came to Paris as a young foreign correspondent and was seduced by a river. In The Seine, she tells the story of that river from its source on a remote plateau of Burgundy to the wide estuary where its waters meet the sea, and the cities, tributaries, islands, ports, and bridges in between.

Sciolino explores the Seine through its rich history and lively characters: a bargewoman, a riverbank bookseller, a houseboat dweller, a famous cinematographer known for capturing the river’s light. She discovers the story of Sequana - the Gallo-Roman healing goddess who gave the Seine its name - and follows the river through Paris, where it determined the city’s destiny and now snakes through all aspects of daily life. She patrols with river police, rows with a restorer of antique boats, sips champagne at a vineyard along the river, and even dares to go for a swim. She finds the Seine in art, literature, music, and movies from Renoir and Les Misérables to Puccini and La La Land. Along the way, she reveals how the river that created Paris has touched her own life. A powerful afterword tells the dramatic story of how water from the depths of the Seine saved Notre-Dame from destruction during the devastating fire in April 2019.

A “storyteller at heart” (June Sawyers, Chicago Tribune) with a “sumptuous eye for detail” (Sinclair McKay, Daily Telegraph), Sciolino braids memoir, travelogue, and history through the Seine’s winding route. The Seine offers a love letter to Paris and the most romantic river in the world, and invites listeners to explore its magic for themselves.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Elaine Sciolino (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Takes you there

Not a travel guide, although it gives plenty of ideas for your next visit to Paris and environs. (I’d love the riverside Sisley walk and a visit the national archaeological museum upriver, for example.) Not a romance or love letter either, but a practical and loving description of the many aspects of this deceptively gentle but important French river, from its source to where it spills into the sea. Some history, some legend, some modern culture, some autobiography, some surprises, all written in sturdy journalistic style, as befits the writer’s profession as a foreign correspondent for The New York Times.

The author’s own voice provides the narration; at least her French pronounciation doesn’t grate, although her native American English is oddly hesitant or self consciously enunciated at times, no great drawback. Altogether an enjoyable and enriching listen.

A separate PDF provides images she describes, so important to this oft-painted and photographed subject, but when will someone offer an integrated and affordable e-book reader that’s able to show high-res images too?

A worthwhile read

Recommended
Some chapters were so good I played them again for my partner. The ones about the police teams that patrol the Seine, the fire at Notre Dame, painters, photographers, her cruise, WWll and Joan of Arc, I loved. That is 70-80% of the book. The ones about every mention of the Seine in film or song got tenuous before they were over. The research was remarkable. The revelation of process gave the authors voice authority and was just interesting.
The performance was excellent. If you are planning a trip, as we are, or just interested in France, I’d recommend.

8 out of 5 stars!

What a terrific listen! Usually I can’t listen to a women narrator, however the author was wonderful. I felt like I actually shared her travels of the Seine.

Disappointed

Ugh. This book was minimally informative, unduly saccharine, and filled with shockingly bad pronunciation. I split my time between the US and Paris and I teach Parisian history and culture at the university level (pre-Roman to contemporary pop culture). This was a struggle and I only got through by listening at 3.45× speed.

Nice writing, terrible reading

Well-written but not well-read. I almost gave up halfway through, I was so annoyed. I persevered only because I was learning a lot about the river, I'm not a quiter, and I had paid for the damn book. I felt a palpable sense of relief when it ended. If you like hearing every single "t" and "d" carefully pronounced in phrases like "Hitler's little hidden garden on the water" and you enjoy fake French accents for every quotation delivered in a breathless, slow, plaintive style, this audio book is for you. I wish Audible had sprung for a professional reader for this book. Or maybe it was the author's ego that prevented a professional from being hired. Either way, someone should have intervened. I wish I had read this book, not listened to it.

Good book, Terrible Reader

This is an addendum to my first review. The author, who is reading her own book, is a good writer, but should not be reading her own work. In my previous review I said she has a stilted manor. To elaborate, she trips over "Ts" anywhere they appear in a word. It comes across as a kind of speech impediment. It certainly is an impediment to telling the story.

When she quotes others she takes on a ridiculous melodramatic tone and imitates the French accent as if she were appearing in a bad farce. The combination of the two is so distracting that I am tempted to give up on this book altogether.

Please rerecord this book with a professional actor. It deserves better. Thank you.

Waste of one credit

Terrible. Did not finish! Did not expect this to be a book ONLY about the Seine!

Sharing Beauty

What a wonderful book, filled with stories, spirit, geography, history, joy and splendid beauty. It made me long to see Paris again... but for today, it’s taken me there.

review

really enjoyed it. would have even more if author had learned to pronounce "pont" correctly