I  did it – I finished this book in spite of the fact I would nod off and have to reread big chunks; in spite of the fact that after Part 1 I had very little background; in spite of the fact that listening was okay except I could barely understand the narrator’s English!.  

Paris in Ruins:
Love, War and the Birth of Impressionism.  
By Sebastian Snaa 2024 
Rating – 8.75 / France art and military history

Smee writes very nicely, most of it is clear, with enough
poetry for the artists and enough grounded realism for
the military historians. 

And there’s a bit of romance in there – (of course there is) – this is Paris and Berta Morisot is painting along with Eduard Manet and there’s Edgar Degas and Claude Money and Frederic Bazile and Berta’s sister, Edma.  To day nothing of Napoleon. After which a dreadful war is

My problem I think was that I didn’t have the background for the military parts and I wasn’t interested enough to find out.  Nevertheless I did give the book a B+,  that’s not too shabby.