Light biographies covering the Paris years of five women whose lives were connected with the arts, in more or less chronological order: Mary Cassatt, Edith Wharton, Caresse Crosby, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Josephine Baker.. The author assumes that readers are familiar with his well-documented subjects (with the exception, perhaps, of Caresse Crosby, a relative unknown who lived high and went in for the publication of cheap but well-produced editions of English language books). Told with easy grace by an author with an insider's feel for Paris. ( )