Eugen Weber’s France: Fin de Siècle (End of Century) covers the period of change and upheaval in France during the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Weber promotes the idea that the Fin de Siècle stands on its own, apart from the Bell Époque that would follow it during the first decade of the twentieth century. However, while the Fin de Siècle France covered in most works like Weber’s focuses on the artistic and literary achievements and decadence of the two decades, Weber provides us with the reaction of different classes to this period of modernization, change, and innovation in French society. As Weber says in reference to the Belle Époque: “The fin de siècle had preceded it: a time of economic and moral depression, a great deal less redolent of buoyancy or hope. And yet a lot took place in these two decades that made life better for a lot of people” (2).
Weber’s discussion of the fin de siècle does not exclude the artistic movements that characterized and immortalized the era forever. From Rimbaud and Verlaine to Emile Zola and Guy de Maupassant, Weber provides us with an explanation of the artistic explosion that highlighted the decadent trends of the wealthy and artistic classes. Yet Weber is interested in showing us French society’s reaction to the radically transforming world around them. Not only were the arts being radically transformed through such movements as Art Nouveau, but politics, women’s rights, industrialization, and modernization were greatly altering French society. By using primary sources like the Petit Journal and Petit Parisien to bolster support for his ideas, Weber explains that the society of the fin de siècle felt imposed upon by the forces of industrialization and modernization: “The fin de siècle is the age of material novelties, of news, of faits divers, nouvelles a sensation; the time in when fashions—in dress, politics, or the arts—became clearly defin...