The Paris Bookseller: A sweeping story of love, friendship and betrayal in bohemian 1920s Paris

Plenty of historical references, but doesn’t quite hit the spot as creative fiction - 3 StarsI was hoping for a fictional read that blended a few facts with a lot of imagination, but this didn’t quite hit the spot for me. Very much centred around the publication of ‘Ulysses’, ‘The Paris Bookseller’ certainly encompasses commonly known facts about the inception of the ‘Shakespeare and Company’ bookstore and Beach’s business dealings with Joyce, but (as is made clear by its categorisation as fiction) this isn’t a work involving new research. As a work of fiction though, it just didn’t get away from facts often enough to provide an entertaining story.Set between the wars in the bohemian Left Bank, this opens well with young Sylvia arriving in Paris and being beguiled by Adrienne Monnier. However, passages imagining the development of their relationship become less frequent and, in later chapters, Monnier often comes across merely as Sylvia’s cook and indulgent mother-figure rather than her lover. Sure, it hints that Monnier might be an innovative and challenging sexual partner, but it never dares to explore that theme.Due to its factual bias, this novel does offer insight into the artistic community who gathered in this area of Paris, but by the end of the book, Beach is unsatisfactorily painted as a somewhat pathetic figure. To finish, there’s another stream of facts as the author presents a summation of the rest of Beach’s life. All-in-all, I found this book overly concerned with listing ‘knowns’ and, apart from the first few chapters (which promised a good yarn), it never really seemed to take-off as a work of fiction.Overall: Offers a flavour of the period and publication history of ‘Ulysses’, but never really diverges from relating facts to produce a gripping story.

An excellent overview of the life and times of Mis Sylvia Beech who opened an English language bookshop in central Paris in the 1920's She knew everyone from Gertrude Stein to Ernest Hemingway and everyone in between! A really good book which I enjoyed very much and would happily recommend

What a woman! Great respect for Sylvia, and of her tolerating Joyce! Dont think such a famous/infamous group of people will gather in one place ever again. Makes the Bloomsbury group look rather tired.😂

Such a beautiful and well researched novel. I learned so much from reading this and it has added SO many books to my TBR 😆

Mawkish, over-romanticised and poorly written. Someone should also tell Ms Maher that the d'Orsay was a railway station throughout period in which the story is set, and remained so until the 1970's. There's no excuse for poor research, and perhaps a general indication of authenticity falling foul of a storyline.

👩 It's 1919, and young Sylvia Beach moves to Paris, not knowing what to do with her life. When she befriends bookstore owner Adrienne Monnier and is introduced to the greatest artists of the time, she decides to open a bookshop herself. This is how Shakespeare and Company, the first English-language bookshop in Paris, comes to life. With time, many leading writers start considering her bookshop a second home. In that same period, James Joyce's controversial novel Ulysses is banned in the US, thanks to the Volstead Act. When Sylvia is introduced to Joyce, she has no doubts: she will publish the book through Shakespeare and Company.❤️ I liked:⁠🥐 1920's Paris. Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald... these are just some of the artists mentioned in the book. Some of them will become regulars of the bookshop, some others don't appreciate Sylvia's decision of publishing Ulysses... Anyway, can you imagine owning a bookstore and welcoming Hemingway in your store?✍️ Working with Joyce. Joyce is described as temperamental and demanding. Sylvia puts up with him because she is convinced that Ulysses is pure art, at the cost of her health and finances.👭 Adrienne. She is Sylvia's rock: not only does she encourage Sylvia to open her own bookshop, but also supports her in dealing with Joyce and the publishing of his manuscript. The relationship that blossoms between Adrienne and Sylvia is pure, passionate and incredibly strong.📚 The life-changing power of books. Sylvia almost throws away her life to publish Ulysses, because she is a firm believer in the power of books, art and literature.⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4/5 A great historical fiction novel about books and how they can change your life forever. Thanks to #netgalley for the preview.

The Paris Bookseller delves into the life of Sylvia Beach who founded the infamous Shakespeare and Company Bookshop in 1920s Paris, a bookshop devoted to selling and lending books written in English. I completely lost myself in the atmosphere of the book, it is so richly descriptive and I was completely captivated with Sylvia Beach’s life. I adored the Paris setting, in fact that was what drew me to the book in the first place. As always the mention of food piques my interest and my mouth was watering with some of the descriptions of the French cuisine. For romance lovers there is a lovely little love story incorporated within the pages, between Sylvia and Adrienne Monnier, another Parisian bookshop owner.The book is a work of fiction and non-fiction, most of the dates are factually correct and whilst the author can only imagine what some of these famous writers were like she did an incredible job of bringing them to life. It is beautifully written with lots of wonderful details and it has been incredibly well researched, you really get a sense of what is was like in this era.This is a heartwarming and emotional read and also incredibly interesting learning about some of the history of Paris and this famous bookshop. Don’t miss the author’s note and bibliography at the end which outlines Sylvia Beach’s life post 1936, having lived quite a long life until she was 75 years old. A fascinating book which literature and history fans will treasure.