Scenes of Bohemian Life

<p><I>Scenes of Bohemian Life</I> (1851) is a novel by Henri Murger. Written at the beginning of his career as a popular French poet and novelist <I>Scenes of Bohemian Life</I> is composed of vignettes inspired by the author's experience as a starving artist in Paris' Latin Quarter. Adapted countless times for theater and film Murger's novel served as inspiration for Puccini's opera <I>La boh��me</I> (1896) and for the hit musical <I>Rent</I> (1996). The Bohemians know everything and go everywhere according as they have patent leather pumps or burst boots. They are to be met one day leaning against the mantel-shelf in a fashionable drawing room and the next seated in the arbor of some suburban dancing place. They cannot take ten steps on the Boulevard without meeting a friend and thirty no matter where without encountering a creditor. Distinguished by their sense of fashion and impoverished lifestyle Paris' Bohemians are part of a historical avant-garde a cultural phenomenon found in any artistic society. Living day to day these artists and radicals commune with the world as it is taking nothing and no one for granted. In <I>Scenes of Bohemian Life</I> four friends-Rodolphe Marcel Colline and Schaunard-avoid landlords and old lovers on the streets of the Latin Quarter a district known for its countercultural figures. Hilarious and preeminently human <I>Scenes of Bohemian Life</I> is a masterpiece of nineteenth century fiction from a writer whose lifestyle informed much of his work. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript this edition of Henri Burger's <I>Scenes of Bohemian Life</I> is a classic of French literature reimagined for modern readers.</p>