Fond of Enigmas – a novel of 19th century Paris

Charlotte is introduced to her first murder and has a chance to use her amateur detective skills in solving the murder – along with a police commissaire and a university friend.

I hope to introduce you to Charlotte – and her friends – soon…….

Charlotte Amiot, a Librarian at the Saint Geneviève Library in Paris, lover of Edgar Allan Poe mysteries (translated into French by Charles Baudelaire – an admirer of Poe), and first-time amateur detective – is the central character in Fond of Enigmas, a novel set in the decidedly male world of late 19th century Paris.

There is nothing librarian-like about Charlotte. A widower – having been married briefly to a soldier who was killed in the Franco-Prussian war, an orphan of parents active in the Paris Commune, a female librarian in a male dominated profession, and a lover of murders and mysteries – very unsuitable for a young woman in 19th century Paris. She works in the Bibliothèque Ste. Geneviève, built in the mid 19th century by Henri Labrouste. It still is in existence today.

Her environment – the university district near the library, bookstores, and the left bank – all feature in the book.

The left bank – in the late 19th century – is pictured below from the Plan de Paris, c. 1880.