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Lover of anything vintage. I spend my free time looking at antiques,watching and collecting classic films,and reading some of the greatest literary classics known to man.This blog is just my way of sharing my interests with other people.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

"I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her..."-Ernest Hemingway

Welcome back to Think Classic after yet another absence. Once again, we apologize for our silence over the last several weeks, but we hope that today's post will make up for it. We have a very special treat that we are excited to share with you. It has been almost 2 years since we did a book post, and today's review should send you to the nearest Barnes and Noble.

The Paris Wife
2012 novel
by Paula McLain

I purchased The Paris Wife on a whim while on a trip to Barnes and Noble about a month ago. Like most people who are educated in literature and history, I am familiar with not only the work of Ernest Hemingway, but also his life. After reading the back cover I was instantly intrigued and took the novel home with me. I
was stuck in a reading rut, having previously finished a wonderful book, but having no idea what to read next, so that it had actually been a few months since I'd sat down and rifled through some pages. I was wary of this historical novel, as I usually am when someone seemingly makes up a story about historical facts. But from the very first page, I was lost in it, already desperate for more each time I had to put it down.
The book begins in Chicago, just 20 years after the turn of the century, which is when and where a young, ambitious, and as of yet unpublished Ernest Hemingway met his first wife, Hadley Richardson. I found myself falling in love with their relationship, just as Ernest found himself falling in love with the honest and compassionate Hadley. I got caught up in their year long whirlwind romance and the promise of a life in Paris, just as they did.
The two married on September 3, 1921, and very shortly after set off for France. They were poorer than poor, and yet made the best of their life together in their rundown apartments, still managing to rub shoulders with notable names such as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and more. They also managed to travel to beautiful and interesting places such as Schruns, Austria; Lausane, Switzerland; and of course, Pamplona, Spain.
I was locked in the pages of this novel, traveling to all of these places and vacationing with the young and happy Hemingways, meeting these people I have only read about before. I was wandering around the streets of Paris with Hadley, and ducking into little cafes. I was locked in Ernest's writing room while genius burned as he feverishly scribbled the words that would become The Sun Also Rises. I felt the couple's despair when his life's work was stolen. I got to share in the eventual joy they felt when they had their son, Bumby.
It was enthralling, in the best ways, and yet there was always the underlying knowledge of eventual tragedy. Knowing that, as happy as they seemed in this moment or that chapter, things would not stay that way. Because I was also locked in the pages of the book, as a silent witness to their struggles. I watched their marriage deteriorate, and saw the cracks form that would eventually cause their relationship to crumble. I hated the other woman for Hadley, who saw her as a friend. I wanted to slap Ernest silly for his mistakes, but also wanted to cry for him, and occasionally with him. And, as I approached the final pages, I didn't know if I could say goodbye to the book. Just as Ernest and Hadley were wondering how they could really say goodbye to each other and wondering what they would do next, I was wondering how I would move on to my next book, while still being enchanted with this apparent masterpiece.
It is a wonderful book. The author has a beautiful way with words that gave her the ability to create an emotional and exciting story, while also keeping to the period, the places, and the people according to historical facts.It is a novel, but it is also genuinely true. You will travel to places you've never been, and see things that you never have. You will get lost in it.


"It was sometimes painful for me to think that to those who followed his life with interest, I was just the early wife, the Paris wife. But that was probably vanity, wanting to stand out in a long line of women. In truth it didn't matter what others saw. We knew what we had and what it meant, and though so much had happened since for both of us, there was nothing like those years in Paris, after the war. Life was painfully pure, and simple, and good, and I believe Ernest was his best self then. I got the very best of him. We got the best of each other."
Hadley Richardson
The Paris Wife

"The city was never to be the same again. When I returned to it, I found it had changed as I had changed. Paris was never the same as when I was poor and very happy."
Ernest Hemingway