Convolutes A&B of Walter Benjamin's the Arcades Project
A [Arcades, MaMagasinsgasins de NoNouveautis,uveautis, Sales Clerks] The magic columns of these palaces Show to the amateur on all sides, In the obobjectsjects theirtheir porticos display, That industry is the rival of the arts. -"Chanson nouvelle;' cited inin NoNouveauxuveaux Tableaux de PaParis,ris, ou Observa e tions sur IesIes mOCUTS et usages des PaParisiensrisiens au commencement du XIXeXIX siecle (Paris, 1828), vol. 1, p. 27 For sale the bodies, the voices, the tretremendousmendous unquestionable wealth, what will never be sold. -Rimbaud1 "In speaking of thethe inner boulevards;' says the IlluIllustratedstrated Guide to PaPans,ns, a com plete picture of the city on the Seine and its environs from the year 1852, "we have made mention again and again of the arcades which open onto them. These arcaarcades,des, a recent invention of industrial luxury, are glass-roofed, marble-paneled corridors extending through whole blocks of buildings, whose owners have joined together for such enterprienterprises.ses. Lining both sides of these corrcorridors,idors, which get their light from above, are the most elegant shops, so that the arcade is a city, a world in miniature D Fli\neur D, in which customers will find everything they need. During sudden rainshowerainshowers,rs, the arcades are a place of refuge foforr the unprepared, to whom they offer a secure, if restricted, promenade-one from which the merchants also benefit:' D WeWeather ather D This passage is the locus classicus for thethe presentation of thethe arcadarcades;es; for not only do the divagations on the fli\neur and the weather develop out of it, but, also, what there is to be said about the construction of the arcades, in an eco nomic and architarchitecturalectural vein, would have a place here.
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