Adventures in the Louvre
How to Fall in Love with the World's Greatest Museum
16 May 2025
Territory Rights — Worldwide.
Description
A former The New York Times Paris bureau chief explores the Louvre, offering an intimate journey of discovery and revelation
The Louvre is the most famous museum in the world, attracting millions of visitors every year with its masterpieces. In Adventures in the Louvre, Elaine Sciolino immerses herself in this magical space and helps us fall in love with what was once a forbidding fortress.
Exploring galleries, basements, rooftops and gardens, Sciolino demystifies the Louvre, introducing us to her favourite artworks, both legendary and overlooked, and to the people who are the museum’s lifeblood: the curators, the artisans producing frames and engravings, the builders overseeing restorations, the firefighters protecting the ageing structure.
Blending investigative journalism, travelogue, history and memoir, Sciolino walks her readers through the museum’s front gates and immerses them in its irresistible, engrossing world of beauty and culture. Adventures in the Louvre reveals the secrets of this grand monument of Paris and basks in its timeless, seductive power.
Reviews
"Named one of "the best books of the year so far" (2025)" — The Economist
"[Sciolino] has volunteered herself as a chatty, amiable tour guide… The author has a journalist’s knack for posing a good question." — The Economist
"[An] entertaining deep dive into the history—and dusty cellars—of the revered Paris institution… Sciolino has a peppy prose style that belies a keen journalistic eye." — Christian House, The Times
"[Sciolino] manages to humanize a museum that is usually described as elitist, overwhelming, unwelcoming." — Stephen Heyman, Vogue
"Delightful." — Scott Simon, NPR
"Elaine Sciolino writes with the curiosity of a journalist, the humanity of a storyteller, and the joyful disrespect of an American… With this enchanting book, we will find our way in a grand museum whose meanderings reflect the strange and glorious history of France." — Gérard Araud, former French ambassador to the United States and president of the Société des Amis du Louvre
"I have read many books about museums, but Elaine Sciolino's stands out. This is essential reading for anyone visiting the Louvre—for those who already know it inside out and for those who have never been... A marvel of observation and insight." — Xavier Salomon, chief curator of the Frick Collection
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