Paris in 1869 was known to the world as the New Babylon, a city obsessed with sex and money, ruled by the ailing despot Louis Napoleon and his ruthless wife Eugenie. Rebuilt by Haussmann to display the splendours of the Second Empire, racked with scandal, anxiety and political tension, Europe's most glittering capital was on the verge of the unexpected nemesis of the Franco-Prussian War, a five-month siege and the revolutionary conflagration of the Commune. How and why this happened is explained in this history, which also paints an entertaining picture of Parisian high- and low-life during one of the most dramatic periods of the city's history.