Although they created many enemies and even angered close friends by revealing their intimate secrets, the famous French brothers Edmond and Jules Goncourt decided to make their diary entries public. With much wit and malice, they report on the refined French society of the 19th century, creating a precise picture of the intellectual life in Paris as well as the social and political situation of France at that time. From the right and the left, from the royalist and anarchist perspectives, from artists and ironic, self-ironic journalists, from the government or rather from the changing governments; from the circles of Faubourg St. Germain and the milieu of elegant gentlemen's dinners, such as those meeting at Café Brébant, in short, from a wide variety of sources.