La Boheme

Bohemians of the Latin Quarter

*Bohemians of the Latin Quarter by Henri Murger was doubtless the source material used by Puccini in his opera “La Bohème,” and its latter-day incarnation as “Rent.”

Originally produced as a play in 1849 and published as a novel in 1851—the book was an immediate sensation.

Set in the ancient Latin Quarter, a vibrant and cosmopolitan area near the University of Paris, Murger’s novel is a masterful portrait of nineteenth-century Parisian artistic life.

Consisting of a series of interconnected episodes in the lives of a group of starving artists—a musician, a poet, a philosopher, a sculptor, and a painter—who attempt to maintain their artistic ideals while struggling for food, shelter, and sex, Bohemians captures the heart, spirit, and poignant humor of artists the world over.

HENRI MURGER (1822-1861) wrote for newspapers and magazines and authored several books of poetry and fiction but is widely remembered today for his groundbreaking novel of artistic life in nineteenth-century Paris, Bohemians of the Latin Quarter, which drew upon his own experiences as a desperately poor auteur living in a Parisian garret, and member of a small club of friends who called themselves "the water drinkers" because they could not afford wine.