The Paris Wife

Last updated
The Paris Wife
The Paris Wife book cover.jpg
Author Paula McLain
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Historical fiction
Published2012
Publisher Ballantine Books
Media typePrint (paperback)
Pages352
ISBN 978-0345521316

The Paris Wife is a 2011 historical fiction novel by Paula McLain which became a New York Times Bestseller. [1] It is a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's marriage to the first of his four wives, Hadley Richardson. McLain decided to write from Hadley's perspective after reading A Moveable Feast , Hemingway's 1964 posthumously published account of his early years in Paris. McLain researched their biographies, letters, and Hemingway's novels. Hemingway's 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises is dedicated to Hadley and their son.

Contents

Plot

The Paris Wife focuses on the romance, marriage and divorce of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson, who met when Hemingway was 20 years old, and Richardson 28. They marry and move to Paris soon afterwards, where Hemingway befriends Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and James Joyce. Hadley sees the open marriages/relationships of her husband's friends, and suspects he is having an affair with Duff Twysden until his book The Sun Also Rises appears and then Hadley realises that their special relationship is because Duff is the spark that ignited Hemingway's first best seller. There are further strains as Hemingway pushes his satire on Sherwood Anderson which his wife's new friend Pauline Pfeiffer approves of—the marriage falls apart when Hemingway begins having an affair with Pauline Pfeiffer.

Reception

The Paris Wife was popular with readers, and "shot to the top of the New York Times best-seller list soon after its release in 2011." [2] Author Helen Simonson praised the book for "its depiction of two passionate, yet humanly-flawed people struggling against impossible odds—poverty, artistic fervor, destructive friendships—to cling on to each other". [3] On the other hand, literary critic Janet Maslin criticized McLain's Richardson as "a stodgy bore". [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Hemingway</span> American author and journalist (1899–1961)

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which included his iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his adventurous lifestyle and public image brought him admiration from later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature. He published seven novels, six short-story collections, and two nonfiction works. Three of his novels, four short-story collections, and three nonfiction works were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

<i>A Farewell to Arms</i> 1929 novel by Ernest Hemingway

A Farewell to Arms is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, set during the Italian campaign of World War I. First published in 1929, it is a first-person account of an American, Frederic Henry, serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The novel describes a love affair between the expatriate from America and an English nurse, Catherine Barkley.

<i>A Moveable Feast</i> 1964 memoir by Ernest Hemingway

A Moveable Feast is a 1964 memoir belles-lettres by American author Ernest Hemingway about his years as a struggling expat journalist and writer in Paris during the 1920s. It was published posthumously. The book details Hemingway's first marriage to Hadley Richardson and his associations with other cultural figures of the Lost Generation in Interwar France.

<i>The Sun Also Rises</i> 1926 novel by Ernest Hemingway

The Sun Also Rises is a 1926 novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, his first, that portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona to watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early modernist novel, it received mixed reviews upon publication. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers writes that it is now "recognized as Hemingway's greatest work" and Hemingway scholar Linda Wagner-Martin calls it his most important novel. The novel was published in the United States in October 1926 by Scribner's. A year later, Jonathan Cape published the novel in London under the title Fiesta. It remains in print.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Martha Gellhorn</span> American novelist, travel writer, and war correspondent (1908–1998)

Martha Ellis Gellhorn was an American novelist, travel writer, and journalist who is considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century.

<i>The Garden of Eden</i> (novel) 1986 posthumous novel by Ernest Hemingway

The Garden of Eden is the second posthumously released novel of Ernest Hemingway, published in 1986. Hemingway started the novel in 1946 and worked on the manuscript for the next 15 years, during which time he also wrote The Old Man and the Sea, The Dangerous Summer, A Moveable Feast, and Islands in the Stream.

<i>Across the River and into the Trees</i> 1950 novel by Ernest Hemingway

Across the River and Into the Trees is a novel by American writer Ernest Hemingway, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1950, after first being serialized in Cosmopolitan magazine earlier that year. The title is derived from the last words of U.S. Civil War Confederate General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson: “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hadley Richardson</span> First wife of Ernest Hemingway

Elizabeth Hadley Richardson was the first wife of American author Ernest Hemingway. The two married in 1921 after a courtship of less than a year, and moved to Paris within months of being married. In Paris, Hemingway pursued a writing career, and through him Hadley met other expatriate American and British writers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest Hemingway House</span> House and museum in Key west, Florida

The Ernest Hemingway House was the residence of American writer Ernest Hemingway in the 1930s. The house is situated on the island of Key West in Florida. It is at 907 Whitehead Street, across from the Key West Lighthouse, close to the southern coast of the island. Due to its association with Hemingway, the property is the most popular tourist attraction in Key West. It is also famous for its large population of so-called Hemingway cats, many of which are polydactyl.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pfeiffer House and Carriage House</span> Historic house in Arkansas, United States

The Hemingway-Pfeiffer House, also known as the Pfeiffer House and Carriage House, is a historic house museum at 10th and Cherry Streets in Piggott, Arkansas. It is where novelist Ernest Hemingway wrote portions of his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms. Hemingway was married to Pauline Pfeiffer, the daughter of the owners of the house, Paul and Mary Pfeiffer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pauline Pfeiffer</span> American journalist, second wife of Ernest Hemingway

Pauline Marie Pfeiffer was an American journalist, and the second wife of writer Ernest Hemingway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gloria Hemingway</span> American physician (1931–2001)

Gloria Hemingway was an American physician and writer who was the third and youngest child of author Ernest Hemingway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Hemingway</span> American writer, son of Ernest Hemingway

John Hadley Nicanor Hemingway was a Canadian-American fly fisherman, conservationist, and writer. He was the son of American novelist and Nobel Prize-laureate Ernest Hemingway.

<i>Worth the Fighting For</i> Book by John McCain

Worth the Fighting For is a 2002 book by John McCain with Mark Salter. Published by Random House, it is part autobiography, part mini-biographies of others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patrick Hemingway</span> Conservationist

Patrick Miller Hemingway is an American wildlife manager and writer who is novelist Ernest Hemingway's second son, and the first born to Hemingway's second wife Pauline Pfeiffer. During his childhood he travelled frequently with his parents, and then attended Harvard University, graduated in 1950, and shortly thereafter moved to East Africa where he lived for 25 years. In Tanzania, Patrick was a professional big-game hunter and for over a decade he owned a safari business. In the 1960s he was appointed by the United Nations to the Wildlife Management College in Tanzania as a teacher of conservation and wildlife. In the 1970s he moved to Montana where he managed the intellectual property of his father's estate. He edited his father's unpublished novel about a 1950s safari to Africa and published it with the title True at First Light (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paula McLain</span> American author

Paula McLain is an American author best known for her novel, The Paris Wife, a fictionalized account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage which became a long-time New York Times bestseller. She has published two collections of poetry, a memoir about growing up in the foster system, and the novel A Ticket to Ride.

<i>Papa: Hemingway in Cuba</i> 2015 film

Papa: Hemingway in Cuba is a 2015 Canadian-American biographical film. It was written by Denne Bart Petitclerc, and directed by Bob Yari. The film is based on events from Ernest Hemingway's life in Havana, Cuba in the 1950s, and on a friendship that developed there between Hemingway and Petitclerc, who was then a young journalist. The film received generally unfavorable reviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Out of Season (short story)</span> Short story by Ernest Hemingway

"Out of Season" is a short story written by Ernest Hemingway, first published in 1923 in Paris in the privately printed book, Three Stories and Ten Poems. It was included in his next collection of stories, In Our Time, published in New York in 1925 by Boni & Liveright. Set in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, the story is about an expatriate American husband and wife who spend the day fishing, with a local guide. Critical attention focuses chiefly on its autobiographical elements and on Hemingway's claim that it was his first attempt at using the "theory of omission".

<i>Into the Water</i> 2017 novel by Paula Hawkins

Into the Water (2017) is a thriller novel by British author Paula Hawkins. It is Hawkins' second full-length thriller following the success of The Girl on the Train.

<i>Today is Friday</i>

Today is Friday is a short, one act play by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). The play was first published in pamphlet form in 1926 but became more widely known through its subsequent publication in Hemingway's 1927 short story collection, Men Without Women. The play is a representation of the aftermath of the crucifixion of Jesus, in the form of a conversation between three Roman Soldiers and a Hebrew bartender. It is one of the few dramatic works written by Hemingway.

References

  1. "Trade Paperback bestsellers". New York Times. May 5, 2013. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
  2. Pierleoni, Allen (5 February 2013). "Paula McLain discusses "The Paris Wife" in advance of her Bee Book Club visit". The Sacramento Bee.
  3. Simonson, Helen (2011). Guest Reviewer: Helen Simonson on The Paris Wife. ISBN   978-0345521309.
  4. Maslin, Janet (27 February 2011). "A First Wife Can Be So Stolid and Clueless and Plain and Pregnant". The New York Times.