If you came here are looking for Dumas, Proust or Hugo here, you are going to be disappointed. I still have to read one of these classic pieces of French Literature, and as I pen this sentence down, I realize its high time these books need to come sit on top of my reading pile.
But from my current reading experience , I want to call out a couple of books that I thought captured the essence of Paris (not France, I know).
This novel hits the spots for both readers and travelers. It’s a fictional autobiography of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife.
Richardson meets Hemingway in Chicago and they fall madly in love. Soon after she crosses the pond with Hemingway to join the literary scene in Paris. In the 1920s, Paris was in the middle of what the French call the ‘Crazy years’- a period of intense cultural collaboration. Hemingway came to Paris so that it could inspire him to write and help meet like-minded people. By association, Richardson had inner access to the cafe life of Hemingway’s literary friends that made up the Lost Generation writers.
Paris of the 1920s is no longer there, but many of those cafes and landmarks still exist. One can visit the house where Hemingway lived on 74, rue du Cardinal Lemoine in the Latin Quarter. Grab a book at Shakespeare and Company, where Richardsons & Hemingway met Sylvia Beach for the first time. Admire the works of impressionist painters in Musee du Luxembourg or walk its gardens. Go shopping at Forum des Halles, where many years ago Richardson would buy groceries. Or ponder on the banks of Seine, as she did, astonished at both the beauty and the squalor of Paris. Maybe stop by 27 rue de Fluereus and read the plaque on the wall commemorating Gertrude Stein’s famous salon, where the who’s who of the art world converged. If you are thirsty, grab a coffee at one of the many cafes in Montparnasse including Hemingway’s beloved La Closerie des Lilas.
While this is a fictional narrative, McLain has borrowed heavily from historic incidents and documents and created a faithful representation of Richardson’s life. Her marriage to Hemingway was tumultuous and as you flip through the pages, even the charm of Paris can’t take away the sadness of it all.
A great companion read, and honestly better written is Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast. It’s a non-fictional point of view from Hemingway during the same years. It gives us an insight into his life, his thoughts and his writing.
On of my favorite French books is the short but packed Candide by Voltaire. A compelling satire on the French society, across a broad spectrum of the church to the government. A satire that is universally applicable then and even now.
Back to Around the World recommendations.
