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The Paris Wife

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About this listen

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a shy 28-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....

©2011 Paula McLain (P)2011 Random House Inc Fiction Historical Fiction

Critic reviews

"I read it in two days, laughing and crying. What a heartbreaker . . . It has all the ingredients of a literary heart-thumper: sex, love, ambition, betrayal, impossibility and regret . . . McLain has given the voice, mind, pen and strength to a woman. Hadley is an intelligent, strong, adult woman in a deeply unsympathetic situation - glittering, but toxic and ultimately very undermining. It's a very haunting combination." (Bidisha)
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This has my 5 stars largely thanks to the superb narration, I loved the range of voices that Carrington MacDuffie brings to the dialogue, quite a range of characters, both male and female, and all of them felt right, many of them captivating, particularly Zelda Fitzgerald, 'Duff' and rather unexpectedly, Papa himself.

Lost Generation brought to life

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Hadley, the Paris Wife & first of four.
..'grinding disintegration is beautifully painted across the final dozen or so chapters. 'opportunity to 'see' & 'hear' some of the worldview that within marriage her experiences & needs are and 'should be', relative to his. I listened walking along the beach & just wondered..
I'd definitely recommend.

intriguing for folks into literature, specifically writers, specifically Hemingway

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Was looking in my library for something easy as I was working and didn’t have time to choose a new book!…Devoured this again! Lovely ..interesting story.. great narration.
It was a pleasure

Just as good second time round

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I am loving this book, it is a fascinating insight into the literary world of the 1920s. It has inspired me to read mpore of the novels of the authors who inhabit Hadley's world. At first I thought that the voice of the narrator would irritate but she did an excellent job. Great read.

Paris in the 1920s

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I have to admit it took me a while to get into this book. I listened to the first couple of chapters and gave up as I thought it was boring and I just could'nt get in to it. I went back to it after a month and then I got in to it. It's okay not great. The narrator sounds like the actress Candice Bergin I could imagine to some people her voice could be annoying but I was okay with it.

Okay

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