The Paris Wife

by Paula McLain

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness when she meets Ernest Hemingway and is captivated by his energy, intensity and burning ambition to write. After a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for France. But glamorous Jazz Age Paris, full of artists and writers, fuelled by alcohol and gossip, is no place for family life and fidelity. Ernest and Hadley's marriage begins to founder, and the birth of a beloved son serves only to drive them further apart. Then, at last, Ernest's ferocious literary endeavours begin to bring him recognition - not least from a woman intent on making him her own . . .

• ISBN10: 1844086682
• ISBN13: 9781844086689
• Publish Date: 5 January 2012 (first published 22 February 2011)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 11 March 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
• Imprint: Virago Press Ltd
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[Michael @ Knowledge Lost]

Forget everything you know about Ernest Hemingway because Paula McLain has set out to change that in The Paris Wife. This stunning novel follows a fictionalised account of Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley Richardson. McLain’s version of Hemingway starts off as a tender man, with a crush on an older woman; he is persistent and full of love; nothing like what I know of the man.

The Paris Wife begins in the Chicago in 1920; it is here we meet Hadley and Ernest. Slowly we watch the two fell in love and get married. Soon after they have relocated to Paris where they meet other expatriate authors, such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The love shared between Hadley and Ernest is nothing short of beautiful, while it lasted.

If you know much about Ernest Hemingway, you know this whirlwind romance wasn’t going to last, I’m not spoiling anything by mentioning this. In fact it is mentioned on the back of the book. What I found most interesting about The Paris Wife is the way it is written in a first person perspective. My calculations from the clues in the book, is that Hadley was narrating this account at least thirty-four years after her divorce from Hemingway.

This presents a unique perspective of Ernest Hemingway, the pain and suffering would have been mostly gone and we get a distorted opinion of this famous author. Paula McLain’s masterfully presented Hemingway in such a way that I began to re-evaluate my personal opinion of the man. He was depicted as loving and caring, a struggling author with big dreams but also suffering from the torments of war. This eventually all came crashing down and my opinions where back to how I originally felt about this author; it takes some talent to be able to pull that kind of writing off.

This is the kind of novel you take to Paris. The atmosphere of 1920’s Paris was stunning, I could picture it and I wanted to go back to France and enjoy this city all over again. Unfortunately I don’t live in the world of Midnight in Paris, so I will have to stick with the modern city. Mentions of Shakespeare and Company were particularly special for me as I have very fond memoirs of that wonderful bookstore.

Fictionalised accounts are tricky and should always be taken with a giant grain of salt but I was happy to see Ms McLain ended this book with a note about her research including sources for her research. While this doesn’t mean I’m going to take the entire story as true, it does provide me with some reassurances that the author intended to keep as close to the facts as possible. This meant that at times the novel did feel more like a biography but the story was compelling enough to keep the book enjoyable.

One thing that bothered me after reading some reviews about this book is the people who hated this book because of the ‘unlikeable character’ when referring to Hemingway. I’ve always thought of the author as an unlikeable person (the man was a dick). What I was impressed with is the fact that Paula McLain managed to alter my opinion and try to look at things from another perspective. He was self-destructive and often came across as a man with no remorse but seeing his downward spiral on the page is what made this journey interesting.

I read this book for Jazz Age January; it was a good excuse to pick up The Paris Wife. I did in fact enjoy the novel but not in the sense that I would recommend it, I just think it was an interesting journey and look at Ernest Hemingway. There were flaws in the novel but you have to respect the way McLean worked the reader. I knew the Fitzgeralds and Hemingway had a falling out but now I suspect it was a case of them siding with Hadley during the break up. I will have to research some more to know for sure.

This review originally appeared on my blog; http://literary-exploration.com/2014/01/23/the-paris-wife-by-paula-mclain/

For me this was between liked and really liked. It's not my type of book. I've never really thought much about Hemingway or even a historical book per say, but I found the character of Hadley very interesting. Although it's based on Hemingway's first wife, it is loosely based on real events. The book was well written, it was visually beautiful to me. I found how much she put up with so surprising and so different from the world today.

[ibeforem]

Confession: This book was not on my to-read list. Not in the slightest. The description reminded me of Loving Frank, which I tried to read and did not like, so I had mentally filed this into my “not for me” pile. And then the list of upcoming reads for my book club was handed out, and this was on the top of the list.

I’m happy to admit that I was completely wrong about this book. I found it to be not only readable, but quite interesting. I can’t really call it surprising — after all, it only takes a cursory knowledge of Hemingway’s life to know that he had more than one wife — but certain things about Hemingway did surprise me. For one, I never thought about his early struggle to not only get published, but to find his voice. Living with that sort of artist would be difficult under the best of circumstances, but add in an unfamiliar country and an “accidental” child, and it’s a long row to hoe.

The truth is, though Hemingway later considered Hadley the great love of his life, they weren’t a particularly good match. She was older than him in age, if not in maturity, and never possessed the sort of free spirit that he gravitated towards. I also don’t think she ever had a complete grasp of his work and its importance. There’s one thing she does in the novel that, as a writer, made my heart hurt. She doesn’t do it on purpose, but it is a perfect illustration of her lack of understanding. For a while, she was exactly what he needed — someone to validate his work, no matter what. But when her opinion started to differ from his, you could see him change. There’s more than one occasion when you want to grab him and shake him and ask “who would agree to that?”

Another plus of this novel was its illustration of the jazz age. We meet Gertrude Stein, the Fitzgeralds, and other well-known authors of the time. Hemingway’s circle of friends was not timid. They also were not Hadley’s.

At a certain point in the book, I struggled not to go to Wikipedia and peek ahead in Hemingway’s life. I’m glad I didn’t, and let the story unfold for me on its own. But I did go to Wikipedia once I was done, and if you’re curious, Hadley is the grandmother of Margeaux and Mariel Hemingway. I won’t say more than that!

Overall, this felt well researched, and I thought it was well-written. Whether you’re familiar with Hemingway’s life or not, I think this is a worthwhile read.

[lovelybookshelf]

I've looked forward to reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. This carefully-researched historical fiction novel tells the story of the romance and marriage between Ernest Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, via Hadley's voice.

I am a fan of Hemingway's writing, especially his short stories, but I didn't know much about his life prior to reading The Paris Wife. I started to feel annoyed by the narration. Phrases such as "later his parting remarks would come back to me sharply," "it was one of those domino moments," "we wouldn't look this way for long," and "that would eventually set off an entire series of events" were often placed at the end of sections, spoiling the pleasure I'd normally get from discovering the story as it unfolds. I'm sure in later chapters I would have recognized the impact of those previous scenes. I didn't like reading huge hints (in my eyes, spoilers) about what was going to happen.

There were also times when wonderfully written interaction between characters could have stood completely on its own. In these passages, I knew that I must be feeling how Hadley must have felt. And then McLain would shatter those lovely moments she had recreated by immediately spelling out exactly what those feelings were. Just in case the reader didn't get it the first time. This interrupted the flow of the story for me. I agree with Hemingway when he says in chapter 39, "It's what I've always said about the stories, that you get by with as little explanation as possible. It's all there already or it's not. The exposition slows it and ruins it."

However, that wasn't enough to make me give up on the book. I loved how McLain brought me into their world. The slang, the hairstyles and dress, their way of life, things they did for entertainment, their friends and acquaintances (F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, and so many others); thanks to these detailed glimpses into bohemian life in 1920's Paris, I felt as if I was there. McLain captures the struggles of the post-war "Lost Generation" with gentle honesty. Hadley says in the prologue, "Not everyone believed in marriage then. To marry was to say you believe in the future and in the past, too - that history and tradition and hope could stay knit together to hold you up. But the war had come and stolen all the fine young men and our faith, too." Although Hadley and Hemingway's relationship was often tumultuous, I was struck by their love for each other and their honest attempt at marriage despite the attitudes and feelings among their peers.

I'm glad I followed through with this book until the end, and I enjoyed much of it, but it isn't one I'd read again.

[Lianne]

I won an advanced reading copy of this book from the GoodReads First Reads programme. You could read my entire review over at my blog, eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2011/02/19/review-the-paris-wife/

The Paris Wife recounts the early years of Hemingway’s career and of his first marriage to Hadley Richardson. It’s incredibly domestic in a sense that the story really revolves around these two characters, despite it being written from Hadley’s perspective. It’s almost as if you’re really in the room observing this relationship, the good times and ultimately the bad times. It’s such an incredible journey for the two that I couldn’t believe that their relationship covered a span of five years (seemed longer; just another sign of how good this book is). Written in Hadley’s narrative, you really get a sense of what she’s feeling over the course of the relationship and how she saw everything around her, whether it be in Chicago or in Paris. While it’s a story about their relationship, you really also get a glimpse of how Hadley changed as an individual.

Overall, The Paris Wife was a wonderful book about a relatively obscure figure in Hemingway’s life.