author
Alfred Delvau
1825–1867
A sharp-eyed journalist of 19th-century Paris, he wrote about the city’s streets, slang, pleasures, and political upheavals with the energy of someone who knew them from the inside. His work still offers a lively window into bohemian Paris and its everyday language.
3 Audiobooks
Au bord de la Bièvre: impressions et souvenirs
by Alfred Delvau
Dictionnaire érotique moderne
by Alfred Delvau
Dictionnaire de la langue verte
by Alfred Delvau
About the author
Born in Paris in 1825, Alfred Delvau was a French journalist and writer whose books moved easily between politics, city life, memoir, and language. Sources describe him as a figure of the 1848 Revolution as well as a chronicler of Paris, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France records a body of work that includes writing on the city’s history, streets, and popular speech.
Delvau is especially remembered for writing that captured the texture of Parisian life. His bibliography includes titles on bohemia, urban pleasures, and slang, which helps explain why he still stands out among lesser-known 19th-century authors: he paid attention not just to major events, but to how people actually talked and lived.
He died in Paris on May 3, 1867. For listeners today, his appeal lies in that mix of reportage and literary curiosity—he can feel both like a storyteller and like a guide to a vanished city.