This book is a story about two cities, London and Paris, about the cultures of two countries using examples from the life of their capitals. Conlin's intriguing narrative immerses us in the history of cities reflected in each other as if in a bizarre mirror. The author analyzes six components of urban life in the early 19th century: the street, the apartment, the restaurant, the cemetery, the world of entertainment and the world of crime.Paris and London have always been rival lovers, but passions peaked during the period 1750–1914, when each claimed to be the capital of the world. Among many researchers, it is Conlin who is the first to analyze the complex, almost interpersonal relationships between them and brilliantly proves that the inhabitants of Paris and London created a completely special dimension of urban space, without which the emergence of a modern metropolis is unthinkable.