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A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition

by Ernest Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway (Foreword), Seán Hemingway (Introduction)

4.04 of 5 stars 4.04 · rating details · 3,368 ratings · 273 reviews

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway’s most enduring works. Since Hemingway’s personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined the changes made to the text before publication. Now, this special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published. Featuring a personal Foreword b...more

Paperback, 256 pages

Published July 20th 2010 by Scribner (first published 1964)

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Jan 02, 2012 Diane D. rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own-already, nonfiction

I am not finished yet, but I love this book. I am googling many names as I read this (Ezra Pound, Ford Madox Ford, Ernest Walsh, Gertrude Stein). Honestly, I never would have picked this up if I hadn't read The Paris Wife, and I think this book is a wonderful companion to it. I also like the order in which I read them: The Paris Wife first and this one second.

This book is a memoir, with the vignettes written by Hemingway himself. Here is a favorite part I just read (Bumby is his and Hadley's ch...more I am not finished yet, but I love this book. I am googling many names as I read this (Ezra Pound, Ford Madox Ford, Ernest Walsh, Gertrude Stein). Honestly, I never would have picked this up if I hadn't read The Paris Wife, and I think this book is a wonderful companion to it. I also like the order in which I read them: The Paris Wife first and this one second.

This book is a memoir, with the vignettes written by Hemingway himself. Here is a favorite part I just read (Bumby is his and Hadley's child): "There were no baby-sitters then and Bumby would stay happy in his tall cage bed with his big, wonderful cat named F. Puss. There were people who said it was dangerous to leave a cat with a baby. The most ignornant and prejudiced said that a cat would suck a baby's breath and kill him. Others said that a cat would lie on a baby and the cat's weight would smother him. F. Puss lay beside Bumby in the tall cage bed and watchd the door with his big yellow eyes, and would let no one come near him when we were out....there was no need for baby-sitters. F. Puss was the baby-sitter." I'm not suggesting that I'd leave my baby with a cat, but I still found this quite great!

Review Continued: Special thanks to Kathleen of Novel Ideas who nudged me to read this book, and this edition in particular - the Restored Edition - which must be the version you read because it is the "more comprehensive version of the original manuscript material the author intended as a memoir of his young, formative years as a writer in Paris". And a very personal memoir as well, especially because Hemingway has written this in the first person.

What came across loud and clear to me was Hemingway's love for his first (of 4) wife, Hadely. Although the breakup was his fault (and he takes full blame) I believe she was the love of his life, and this book was like a tribute to her in my opinion. As he writes on page 219 "I accepted all the blame for it myself and lived with the remorse. The remorse was never away day or night until my wife had maried a much finer many than I ever was or ever could be and I knew that she was happy." And the one line that I will never forget "I wished I had died before I ever loved anyone but her."
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Aug 19, 2012 Carol rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: hemingway, paris

Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris: The Shooting Script was based on Hemingway's posthumous collection of essays about living in Paris in the ‘20s. He won best screenplay in 2012. Hemingway wrote: “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” (A moveable feast refers to a holy day of feasting or fasting in Christianity that isn’t fixed and moves each year in response to the equinox.)

H...more

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Nov 03, 2012 James Murphy rated it 3 of 5 stars

I've known of A Moveable Feast a long time. I was attracted, I suppose, to his prose, to his thoughts on writing, and to the idea of true sentences put on the page. The book's seductive in that way, reading his rhythms, crystal clear sentences which roll into the mind with the same regularity and gentleness as waves meeting the shore. He's telling you about Paris in the 1920s. You may not learn anything about Paris during the period, or even about Hemingway, because it's all been said before and...more I've known of A Moveable Feast a long time. I was attracted, I suppose, to his prose, to his thoughts on writing, and to the idea of true sentences put on the page. The book's seductive in that way, reading his rhythms, crystal clear sentences which roll into the mind with the same regularity and gentleness as waves meeting the shore. He's telling you about Paris in the 1920s. You may not learn anything about Paris during the period, or even about Hemingway, because it's all been said before and because much has been written about A Moveable Feast. You're familiar with the Paris he writes about, and the people he knew there, but you haven't read about them before in prose this unpolluted by blather or forced importance.

Still, to be honest, I tried to dislike the book. If you own half a shelf of books on or by Gertrude Stein, it becomes unacceptable that a certain name not be spoken--Alice, Alice, Alice. Because Alice B Toklas is a household name--and I suspect that may have been true in the 50s, when this book was written--it makes A Moveable Feast seen dated, irrelevant, because Hemingway doesn't call her by name but instead refers to her as Stein's companion or "the friend who lived with her." And that he goes to elaborate lengths in a chapter dedicated solely to recounting the by now famous story of how he inadvertently overheard the couple arguing upstairs and heard Stein imploringly using her pet name for Alice--Pussy. Hemingway's telling this story without calling her in his book by the name we all know makes him seem catty and demeaning.

The whole thing has an air of incompleteness about it. It seems directionless. Even considering additional sketches Hemingway had intended to leave out were tacked on to the original body, given some fragments he was working on were included at the end, the main part of the book feels unfinished, as if he'd simply put it aside and not returned to it. Those finished sketches seem only that, sketches, skeletons of impressions without the flesh and muscle of thought. In the section entitled "Additional Paris Sketches" there's a long one about boxing and an even longer one about he and his wife, Hadley, deciding how he should wear his hair. They're filled with good sentences but they're not very interesting, and their not having been woven into the rest of the book adds to the feeling of incompleteness.

To its credit, the portraits of the people Hemingway knew in Paris are truly interesting. He writes of conversations with James Joyce and Ezra Pound. His portrait of F Scott Fitzgerald is fascinating, if a little mean and probably, in the end, unreliable. He wrote two send-ups of Ford Madox Ford which are hilarious. A sketch Hemingway wrote of his son--called Bumby--is loving and cute. The man could write prose to die for, as we've always known. It's just that he didn't always make what he wrote interesting.(less)

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Apr 10, 2012 Jay F rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-united-states

A Moveable Feast, published posthumously in 1964, is Hemingway’s memoir of his Paris years (1921-1926). Semi-autobiographical as many of his works, it is Hemingway at some of his best in regard to style and voice. It is also Hemingway displaying openly his meanness, disloyalty and self-centeredness.

Post WWI Paris of the American expatriate has always held a fascination for me. The vision of Americans retreating (or is it withdrawing) into a ravaged Europe that is itself in the rumbling turmoil o...more A Moveable Feast, published posthumously in 1964, is Hemingway’s memoir of his Paris years (1921-1926). Semi-autobiographical as many of his works, it is Hemingway at some of his best in regard to style and voice. It is also Hemingway displaying openly his meanness, disloyalty and self-centeredness.

Post WWI Paris of the American expatriate has always held a fascination for me. The vision of Americans retreating (or is it withdrawing) into a ravaged Europe that is itself in the rumbling turmoil of the antechamber of WWII I find strangely mesmerizing. Those Americans, the “Lost Generation” [Gertrude Stein], created some of the best and more intriguing literary works in the English language. Fitzgerald, Pound, T.S. Eliot, Ford, Stein, dos Passos, Miller, Hemingway—their names and others continue to echo today even as some of their works slide into oblivion. Our fascination either with those years or with the artists who lived them helps explain the current popularity of Woody Allen’s film, Midnight in Paris (2011) and Paula McLain’s novel, The Paris Wife (2011).

There is something about living temporarily in a foreign culture that can be liberating. The experience can open you to new ideas, new understandings, new ways of seeing life and your own socio-cultural roots. But just as often, living in a foreign culture does not really engage the impermanent expatriate in that culture’s core. The Paris émigrés who populate A Moveable Feast are not enmeshed in the lives of the French. The French move at their margins, serving or assisting them but not melded into their circle. The Lost Generation created in Paris its own world that really had little to do with the French and which centered around alcohol, art, travel, cafes and literary salons. There is about those days an ambience of creative dissipation and decadence. The Lost Generation essentially moved and lived outside of French mores, disengaged both from French and American social and cultural constraints and forming their own community operating flexibly and often in relaxed luxury.

It was that Paris in which Hemingway lived. Living with him at the time were his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and, by 1923, his new-born son, Jack. It was a particularly productive time for Hemingway when he wrote some of his most lasting prose: in addition to short stories were the novels The Sun also Rises and A Farewell to Arms. It was also a time of several instrumental friendships with people like Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald who were important in helping him forge his characteristic style that influenced so many future writers.

A Moveable Feast captures so much of Hemingway and his memory during his time in Europe. When read in conjunction with The Sun Also Rises, a reader will come away enriched.
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Jan 08, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is really good. Most people know what this book is about, but I'll summarize: the last thing Hemingway wrote before he died was a collection of essays and vignettes about his life in Paris during the 1920s. The book was published posthumously by Hemingway's fourth wife. A "moveable feast" refers to Paris itself; its moveable because Hemingway would always have his memories of Paris and of the people he knew there--his first wife, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Scott Fitzgerald--an...more This is really good. Most people know what this book is about, but I'll summarize: the last thing Hemingway wrote before he died was a collection of essays and vignettes about his life in Paris during the 1920s. The book was published posthumously by Hemingway's fourth wife. A "moveable feast" refers to Paris itself; its moveable because Hemingway would always have his memories of Paris and of the people he knew there--his first wife, Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Scott Fitzgerald--and could always go back there to Paris and those people through those memories.

Hemingway talks a lot about his writing, which he always call "his work." I suppose its encouraging to read how much of a struggle it was for someone as talented as Hemingway to write. (Encouraging because I often find it hard to write exactly what I want to convey.) He states that if he could write one good paragraph before lunch, it was a good morning, maybe even a good day. When he had writer's block, he would tell himself to write "the truest sentence that you know." If he could do that, he was on his way. A couple other interesting nuggets about writing: "I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day." One more: "It was in that room too that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it and the same time I would be listening to other people and noticing everything, I hoped; learning, I hoped."

I'd never in a million years trade my life for Hemingway's--as this book makes clear, and as he was well aware, Hemingway was not a very nice person; a few of these stories deal with how he fell in love with his second wife while she was living temporarily with him AND his first wife in Paris and it's not easy reading; the remorse bleeds off the pages--but if I had an alternative life to live with the ones I love, being a young, poor fiction writer in 1920s Paris would be quite an adventure. Reading this book allows you to somewhat experience that type of life.(less)

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Nov 05, 2012 Miriam rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I haven't read a lot of Hemingway, but I am a fan of most of what I've read, especially of his short stories. Like everyone, I love his controlled, precise, deliberate prose. That same prose quality left me feeling a bit snookered by this memoir; I found myself thinking of it as an authoritative depiction of the time period, places, and people he writes about - very fascinating - and had to remind myself that I was in fact getting only his perception and only what he chose to tell. This edition...more

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Jul 08, 2012 Maria rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: General public

Recommended to Maria by: A friend and I decided to read it so we had the same book to discuss.

Shelves: history, memoir

First, I don't think that Sean Hemingway honored Ernest Hemingway by adding the fragments at the end. It meant that the reader went from a story of sketches to redundant musings that Hemingway obviously didn't want in his book. The process of creating the paragraph has it's place, but it's on the wall in a library, it's not at the end of a book-unless it's listed as an appendix, and given less status that the rest of the book.

Also, Sean Hemingway obviously had a thing against Mary Hemingway. Wel...more

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Jun 11, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

short, declarative sentences....like Bukowski

notes:
Hunger was a good discipline

Miss Stein instructs...(after returning from mountains)..Because of the change in altitude I did not notice the grade [of Paris'] hills except with pleasure, and the climb up to the top floor of the hotel where I worked, in a room that looked across all the roofs and the chimneys of the high hill, WAS A PLEASURE. (my caps)
you can buy either clothes or pictures...Pay no attn. to your clothes & no attn. at all to th...more

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Aug 15, 2011 Marcus rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american, classics, non-fiction

Quotable.

“"Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know.” So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. It was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say.”

“Memory is hunger.”

"To have come on all this new world of writing […] was like having a great treasure given to you. You could take your treasure with you...more

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Dec 02, 2011 Dick Peterson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read the various parts of this book between other reads. That worked out fine, as it is actually a collection of individual Hemingway experiences and encounters during his ex-pat days. There are two reasons I read it. One is that an author friend once wrote that it is a favorite of his and that he revisits the volume annually. The other reason is that I plan to read the Paris Wife, which is a fictitious story of the same time period from the perspective of Hadley, Hemingway's wife during that...more

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Nov 07, 2011 michael rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Just discovering that I like reading my own reviews, even if nobody else does, so I should make more of an effort to put thoughts into word form rather than just star form. When I take trips, the choice of reading material is pretty much equally as important as the destination, the lodging, the food, and the potential to get impressive facebook profile pictures. Point is I was really proud of myself for this choice. A quick read that captures the romance of how foreign soil can be made into home...more

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Mar 05, 2010 Scot rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Judging it by its cover, Scribner’s hardback 2009 edition of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast (The Restored Edition) is a handsome book. It was a generous Christmas gift from a dear old friend who had studied writing with me decades ago. No doubt he recalled a fascination I had always had for the “Lost Generation,” my youthful idealizing and championing of the bohemian movement they embraced. Now, years later, on a cold rainy January night, I sat down with this memoir of Hemingway, the final work of...more Judging it by its cover, Scribner’s hardback 2009 edition of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast (The Restored Edition) is a handsome book. It was a generous Christmas gift from a dear old friend who had studied writing with me decades ago. No doubt he recalled a fascination I had always had for the “Lost Generation,” my youthful idealizing and championing of the bohemian movement they embraced. Now, years later, on a cold rainy January night, I sat down with this memoir of Hemingway, the final work of his career, an unfinished account of his stay in Europe (mostly Paris) from 1921 through 1926, not in search of a hero or a role model, but curious how his descendants would arrange or edit the materials in the memoir and prepared just to savor some crisp declarative prose and—truth be told--maybe get nostalgic for a year I myself lived in Europe as a young man.

Before I opened this book, it has been a long, long time since I had read any Hemingway. I tended to consume authors in bursts or cycles growing up, and I recall a Hemingway period coinciding with trying out for the wrestling team in my early teens. At the time I found him a strong, tough writer who said so much by what he left unsaid; I always secretly hoped I could stumble into half of the self-assuredness he seemed to exude effortlessly. Though I admired him, I was more fascinated by (and perhaps envious of) the world Fitzgerald evoked, and the manner in which he evoked it.

So in reading A Moveable Feast now, I come away with a sense that the great Hemingway was not as self-assured as I always had imagined him to be. I say this not because he presents himself as weak or frail—on the contrary, the narrator of these sketches comes across as virile, with an incredible (almost unbelievably so) sense of integrity and unwavering commitment to the creation and celebration of great literature. He and his wife (his first wife Hadley) live ever on the edge of poverty, but united in their joie de vivre, whether it be skiing in the mountains of Austria, wandering with their boon companion a World War I vet, or going to the horse races outside of Paris.

I question his self-assurance because, aside from the charming descriptions of the excursions to Austria, or fishing in the Seine, or finding an ever-welcoming haven in Sylvia Beach’s glorious bookstore, what mostly comes through are fairly negative descriptions of almost all the other characters that made up this legendary expat subculture. I just can’t accept that these complicated individuals were truly as shallow or silly or effete as he portrays them. Okay, Ezra Pound (whom I recall not only for his brilliant contributions to modernist poetry but also for his later Fascist propaganda) comes off very well here, but the rest of them, when mentioned, generally do not. Scott Fitzgerald gets the most attention, and much of it is damning (although a lot of blame is laid on Zelda too—so perhaps Papa is suggesting part of Fitzgerald’s weakness is the un-macho act of succumbing to total devotion to this woman?).

I still remain fascinated by this Lost Generation, but I think Hemingway, in trying to heighten a cult of the artist around himself by the way he pseudo-modestly presents young Hemingway in this memoir, actually reveals an unattractive need to upgrade himself by denigrating others. I’ll continue to acknowledge that his contributions to his craft are significant and artistic, but this memoir, in the end, unwittingly conveys more about Papa’s insecurities than I had expected, and less really reliable information on folks like Gertrude Stein and Ford Madox Ford. I do appreciate its poignant undertone of nostalgia for an older, less touristy Paris, before this bunch got famous and in some direct ways hastened the demise of the very life they were embracing.

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Aug 01, 2009 Maggie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've never been much of a fan of Hemingway. I understand how his lean prose can appeal to people, but I'm more of a dense, rich Victorian melodrama sort of gal. But I can appreciate his work in small doses, which is what you get in this restored version of his Paris memoirs. Each chapter works as a vignette and as a part of a larger vision. The spareness of his language works with this sort of reflection, since memoirs and journalism aren't terribly far apart, stylistically speaking. There are a...more

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Sep 24, 2012 Derrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoirs, classics, 2012read

Perfection. No one has ever written like Hemingway, and no one ever will again. His "fictionalized" memories of Paris in the 1920's are funny and heartbreaking and beautiful. The stories of Scott Fitzgerald are at once familiar (who among us hasn't had a friend who drank too much all the time and embarrassed the party?) and also tragic. What might he have done if he'd had more control over himself and his relationship with Zelda?

The saddest story is the final one, that starts out talking about...more

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Apr 22, 2012 Casceil rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The Restored Edition is edited by Hemingway's son and grandson, who have gone back to the original manuscripts from which Mary Hemingway put together the 1962 version of A Moveable Feast. They have added several stories, "The Paris Sketches" that were left out of the first version, and they have made different editorial choices where the author left multiple or revised drafts. I suspect the new edition comes much closer to original author's sentiments. The original stories were written in Paris...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Everett Pantaloons rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Paris enthusiasts, aspiring writers, Hemingway fans

Shelves: biography-and-memoir

As with most memoirs nothing really happens. Of course, the purpose of most memoirs are to act as not only a first hand account of the writer, but of a particular time period, place, or culture. A Moveable Feast takes place in France, probably the most fascinating country in the world, to me at least.

It's a nice look at a struggling writer's life in Paris, something I hope to also experience someday. If you have any interest in France or Hemingway this is a must read. Hemingway also name-drops...more

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Oct 17, 2012 Emily added it · review of another edition

This edition has a different introduction, as well as 10 new stories that were not in the 1964 edition. I'm always a fan of more Moveable Feast, but I'm not sure if the purpose of the "recasting" in this new edition was achieved. How is an unfinished edition, edited by the grandson of Hemingway
s' second wife, Pauline more accurate than one edited by his last wife, Mary, who was entirely removed from the Hadley-Pauline marital situation? Even more interesting, is that while these new stories shed...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Alison rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, writing

LOVE this book. I read the original published version about five years or so ago, so I can't remember how much of a difference it made to read the Restored Edition, but I would always argue for the author's original intention, even if it isn't complete. As always with Hemingway, this has some real gems, some beautiful writing - and in addition some great tips on writing.

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Dec 14, 2011 Saby rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Hemingway Fans

Shelves: 2011, non-fiction, france

If you want to read about all of the great writers collected in Paris in the 1920's might I suggest The Paris Wife and not A Moveable Feast?

Unless you are a huge fan of Ernest Hemingway I don't recommend this book. I feel the reason this book was published posthumously is because it wasn't in any state to be published. A Moveable Feast seems like a dog's breakfast of disconnected unfinished stories. I think publishers just gave Hemingway fans what they could. Unfortunately there wasn't a whole l...more

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Jan 26, 2010 Richard Wise rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have read it (the originally published edited edition) and referred back to it several times during the course of my ongoing education as a writer.

If you access the Amazon edition you will find two scanned manuscript pages labeled 3 & 4. Those two pages contain the best advice I have ever received as a writer. First, stop while you still have something to say, second, don't think about what you wrote, let your subconscious "work on it" until the next day.

Also, you will find Hemingway's fam...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013

Picture yourself living in the beautiful city of Paris in the 1920s. Everything around you is alive and full of art, and your journal captures the entire amazing experience. Now imagine that, 30 years later, you get a phone call from a Parisian hotel saying, "Hey, we found boxes of your journals chronicling your vividly painted memories in a couple of trunks in our basement. You want 'em?" The rediscovery of those magical years would be the equivalent of me looking through my old high school yea...more

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Apr 09, 2013 Brandon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I remember being very jealous of Deborah when she picked up her copy of the revised edition of "A Moveable Feast", but it wasn't until I recently read "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" that I actually went out and bought it. I've become fascinated with Hemingway lately, and "A Moveable Feast" is, for me, the perfect way to explore that because not only does the author describe an important period in his life in his own words, but he does so from the perspective of a writer than a biographer. He trims t...more I remember being very jealous of Deborah when she picked up her copy of the revised edition of "A Moveable Feast", but it wasn't until I recently read "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" that I actually went out and bought it. I've become fascinated with Hemingway lately, and "A Moveable Feast" is, for me, the perfect way to explore that because not only does the author describe an important period in his life in his own words, but he does so from the perspective of a writer than a biographer. He trims the fat of the stories and changes what needs to be changed because, even though it's not exactly true, he hopes the changes will make it more true. It's written best in one of the Fragments found at the end of this edition, part of an introduction that never was: "This book is fiction. But there is always a chance that such a work of fiction may throw light on what has been written as fact."

The stories in the book chronicle Hemingway's early days of writing in Paris and traveling in Europe. While in Paris Hemingway is exposed the community of writers living there at the time, and in particular he writes about knowing F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ford Maddox Ford, and some other who I did not recognize but enjoyed very much reading about. Upon reflection one can see the hint of a narrative from the beginning of the book to the end, but for the most part the stories stand alone and are as strong that way as they are considered as a whole.

It must be said that it felt strange reading the revised edition without having read the book as it was originally published. But then, even when it was originally published there had been choices and edits to be made, as it was unfinished at the time of Hemingway's death. Of both editions it is safe to say that there is an amount of uncertainty regarding what the finished product may have looked like. This edition claims, of course, to be more complete or true to character than the original, but this is opinion and not fact. Either way it is valuable to have these stories written by a man in his last days (Hemingway committed suicide in July 1961) looking back on his early days.

All of the hallmarks of Hemingway's style are present in the stories, but one aspect I kept coming back to was the beauty and poignancy of the last lines or paragraphs of the stories. Hemingway's descriptions of his day-to-day life and encounters were not spectacular or showy, but matter-of-fact and interesting. But those last lines made me pay special attention, as they usually pulled the concept together, making the story about more than what it was about.(less)

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Feb 02, 2013 Cleo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

Ernest Hemingway is not one of my favorite writers, but I certainly do like him. And I loved A Moveable Feast, his memoir of his time spent in Paris in the 1920s. Hemingway describes many of the famous artists he associated with, like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein and James Joyce and Ezra Pound and (though she wasn't really an artist) Sylvia Beach. He also describes his wife Hadley, and their son. This had particular relevance for me because I just recently read The Paris Wife, which wa...more Ernest Hemingway is not one of my favorite writers, but I certainly do like him. And I loved A Moveable Feast, his memoir of his time spent in Paris in the 1920s. Hemingway describes many of the famous artists he associated with, like F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein and James Joyce and Ezra Pound and (though she wasn't really an artist) Sylvia Beach. He also describes his wife Hadley, and their son. This had particular relevance for me because I just recently read The Paris Wife, which was from Hadley Richardson's perspective. Here we have what life was like from Ernest's point of view. He chronicles his writing days, where he would sit and write and eat oranges and then walk along the river, he chronicles the horse races (and one familiar event that appears in The Paris Wife), and he tells of specific incidents.

I read "the restored edition", and I don't really know if it's "the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published." Many reviewers on Amazon seem to suggest that Sean Hemingway manipulated the work, claiming that Hemingway's fourth wife had changed it. But he's doing the same thing. And really, who can tell what Hemingway himself actually intended? He can't tell us anymore.

I loved the descriptions of Paris in this novel, of its high-life and its low-life, of Ernest and Hadley's poverty, their struggle to get by, and his struggle to create. He describes it all really well, though obviously he is biased. There are chapters about the race tracks, about walking by the river, about various famous figures, and of course, about eating. And eating cheaply, but well.

I think I liked this book more than any of Hemingway's novels (I've read The Old Man and the Sea, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls). It was more compelling somehow, and easier to get through. Perhaps I'm just more interested in Hemingway's life than the stuff he writes about. Fishing and wars aren't the most interesting for me, but life in Paris is, with its famous authors and bars and cafes and cheap apartments. Hemingway paints a fascinating portrait of what life was like then for artists and writers.

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Dec 30, 2012 Paula Marinak rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: memoirs

People in some literary circles would probably hang me for rating a work of Hemingway's with two stars. Oh well. I really wanted to like this book. Honest. Since I started reading it on Halloween, you might say I really wanted it to be a treat. As someone who has always enjoyed writing, I felt sure I would like to read the account of Hemingway's early days in Paris as a writer finding his voice. The back cover described this book as a portable Paris, where the reader would be transported back th...more People in some literary circles would probably hang me for rating a work of Hemingway's with two stars. Oh well. I really wanted to like this book. Honest. Since I started reading it on Halloween, you might say I really wanted it to be a treat. As someone who has always enjoyed writing, I felt sure I would like to read the account of Hemingway's early days in Paris as a writer finding his voice. The back cover described this book as a portable Paris, where the reader would be transported back there by the sights, sounds and smells. Sorry, but I just didn't get it. The only thing I smelled was the alcohol that seemed to be constantly on Hemingway's breath. Parts of this book were beautifully written, especially the parts where Hemingway described the intensity and sacrifice (going hungry, losing money, taking hours or even a day to write a paragraph).

However, I found a lot of the book to be disjointed and pointless. This is the first book I have ever read that I couldn't finish. Oddly, the other parts that I liked best were about his relationship with F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, and the dissolution of his first marriage. Maybe that's because it caused me to actually feel something. Pity, compassion, loss? Gratitude for what I have? Probably some combination of all those feelings. Aside from that, though, nothing about this book will stay with me. The one exception may be the very last paragraph. This is what I had been looking for the whole time from this book. It reads as follows: "There is never any ending to Paris, and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other. We always returned to it no matter who we were, nor how it was changed; nor with what difficulties nor what ease it could be reached. It was always worth it and we received a return for whatever we brought to it." That last paragraph is positively lyrical. I so wish the entire book had been written this way. Prior to this, my only exposure to Hemingway was during my sophomore or junior year of high school. The beauty of this final paragraph aside, it will be some time, if ever, before I pick up another Hemingway. (less)

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Dec 25, 2012 Naila rated it 5 of 5 stars

This book reads like good company, warm and genuine.

A Moveable Feast is many things--memoir, novel, apology, treatise on writing, account of a growing family making do with a low-income and having a pleasant time of it, living, breathing remnant of its author--and will be many other things to different people, but what I feel like it will always be is true. Hemingway illuminates the creative process, no fluff, no BS, in so quiet and effective a way than any other book I've read about writing its...more

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May 18, 2013 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I've wanted to read this book for quite some time but for some reason I only looked for it in used books stores (and never found it). Fortunately, I waited. From the introduction, it seems there are substantial differences between this restored version and the original publication of Hemingway's Paris memoirs. I found the book fascinating -- from Hemingway's philosophy of writing, his intimate portraits of his first marriage (though he certainly left out what must have been his true reaction whe...more

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May 20, 2013 Ivan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I like romanticize Hemingway's Paris. He's my idol and Paris in the 1920s was built on writing, art, and love. And drinking. He wrote this near the end of his life, and in it he recounts what is likely the most beloved time of his life. Each essay is a snapshot into the early days of a genius. He's 25. He's writing in a cafe when he spots a beautiful woman and he loves her. He meets Gertrude Stein and argues with her about writing and art. He drinks with Ezra Pound. He gets into brawls with Jame...more

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Mar 16, 2013 Savannah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

[This is an extensive excerpt, from a review I posted on my personal review blog.]

This collection of memoirs from Hemingway's life in the city of Paris in the 1920s is expertly crafted, like some kind of passport back in space and time, to what Woody Allen guaranteed us in "Midnight in Paris" was the most amazing time and place ever. The book includes such grandiose names and legacies as those of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Ford Maxford Ford, as well as one of Hemingway's closest friends, Scott...more [This is an extensive excerpt, from a review I posted on my personal review blog.]

This collection of memoirs from Hemingway's life in the city of Paris in the 1920s is expertly crafted, like some kind of passport back in space and time, to what Woody Allen guaranteed us in "Midnight in Paris" was the most amazing time and place ever. The book includes such grandiose names and legacies as those of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Ford Maxford Ford, as well as one of Hemingway's closest friends, Scott Fitzgerald, as well as Fitzgerald's wife, Zelda. Overall, the inner workings of this elite set of almost-ex-pat bohemians living in the most romantic city in the world, making a mean and meager living in Europe while their home country was drowning in excess, and finding joy in their own humility and costlessness, was truly transformative to read. Involving discussions on Love, Truth, Bravery, and, of course, a lot of Food and Drinking, this book not only felt like a vacation for my mind - despite the unseasonably sunny weather we're getting here in Seattle - but also a bit of a trip of the heart.

However, that's not to say that old Hem's got it all right. His characterizations of people are still incredibly bothersome for me: he is incredibly condemnatory in the vices and follies of others, without looking to exorcise his own personal demons (and obviously he has many). He constantly labels other people as drunks, racists, or idiots, without seeing the same in himself, and he really is sexist. The problem is, from the limited viewpoint of the reader, we take everything he says in truth, and because of his oftentimes extreme differences in what is absolutely good or absolutely bad, we can be left with a skewed view of Hemingway's reality in Paris. Despite his work in fiction, and his concessions to critiques that even his own work as a journalist or in his memoirs contains some elements of fiction, we are forced to believe - due to the limited scope of the author's viewpoints - that everything he says is right. And clearly, some of it is not right.

But that fiction he paints is so wonderful. The setting - the descriptions of Paris - make this an almost-guidebook, simply because of all the street and restaurant names he delivers explicitly. His work can be terse and over-condensed, just like I remember it to be, but occasionally, these chunky blocks of phrases and words swirl into a long and winding description, like a cobblestone street disappearing around a bend in the road. His elucidations of food and drink make an enormous amount of sense in the context of the setting, and , of course, the many appearances of his famous friends are incredibly interesting as well!(less)

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Feb 22, 2013 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-in-2013, france-reading, travel-memoirs

This book has always been a favorite of mine--the anecdotes of Paris life (and European travel in general) have always drawn me in. I also appreciate the book for all its advice on writing well and simply--à la Heminway. However, the restored edition of the book was a particular treat. The introduction and forewords by Sean and Patrick Hemingway were very helpful in seeing what Ernest Hemingway had originally intended his book to be (strongly advice on writing) and what Mary Hemingway, his fourt...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Deborah Ward rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This was pure pleasure and insight. The sort of book you devour, but slowly like dark chocolate or a glass or port. I appreciated the introduction by Hemingway's grandsons (Sean & Patrick)as well as the additional material that they have included in this edition. If you've read, studied or enjoyed previous editions PLEASE take this one in hand and visit Paris yet again.

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About Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collec...more Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections and two non-fiction works. Three novels, four collections of short stories and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. Many of these are considered classics of American literature.

Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star, before leaving for the Italian front to enlist with the World War I ambulance drivers. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms. In 1922, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent, and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s "Lost Generation" expatriate community. The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's first novel, was published in 1926.

After his 1927 divorce from Hadley Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer. They divorced after he returned from Spanish Civil War where he had acted as a journalist, and after which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls. Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940. They separated when he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II; during which he was present at the Normandy Landings and liberation of Paris.

Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea in 1952, Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two plane crashes that left him in pain or ill-health for much of the rest of his life. Hemingway had permanent residences in Key West, Florida, and Cuba during the 1930s and 1940s, but in 1959 he moved from Cuba to Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.(less)

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“When we came back to Paris it was clear and cold and lovely. The city had accommodated itself to winter, there was good wood for sale at the wood and coal place across our street, and there were braziers outside of many of the good cafes so that you could keep warm on the terraces. Our own apartment was warm and cheerful. We burned boulets which were moulded, egg-shaped lumps of coal dust, on the wood fire, and on the streets the winter light was beautiful. Now you were accustomed to see the bare trees against the sky and you walked on the fresh- washed gravel paths through the Luxembourg Gardens in the clear sharp wind. The trees were sculpture without their leaves when you were reconciled to them, and the winter winds blew across the surfaces of the ponds and the fountains blew in the bright light. All the distances were short now since we had been in the mountains.
Because of the change in altitude I did not notice the grade of the hills except with pleasure, and the climb up to the top floor of the hotel where I worked, in a room that looked across all the roofs and the chimneys of the high hill of the quarter, was a pleasure. The fireplace drew well in the room and it was warm and pleasant to work. I brought mandarins and roasted chestnuts to the room in paper packets and peeled and ate the small tangerine-like oranges and threw their skins and spat their seeds in the fire when I ate them and the roasted chestnuts when I was hungry. I was always hungry with the walking and the cold and the working. Up in the room I had a bottle of kirsch that we had brought back from the mountains and I took a drink of kirsch when I would get towards the end of a story or towards the end of the day's work. When I was through working for the day I put away the notebook, or the paper, in the drawer of the table and put any mandarines that were left in my pocket. They would freeze if they were left in the room at night.
It was wonderful to walk down the long flights of stairs knowing that I 'd had good luck working. I always worked until I had something done and I always stopped when I knew what was going to happen next. That way I could be sure of going on the next day.
But sometimes when I was starting a new story and I could not get it going, I would sit in front of the fire and squeeze the peel of the little oranges into the edge of the flame and watch the sputter of blue that they made. I would stand and look out over the roofs of Paris and think, 'Do not worry. You have always written before and you will write now. All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.' So finally I would write one true sentence, and then go on from there. I t was easy then because there was always one true sentence that I knew or had seen or had heard someone say. If I started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had written. Up in that room I decided that I would write one story about each thing that I knew about. I was trying to do this all the time I was writing, and it was good and severe discipline.
I t was in that room too that I learned not to think about anything that I was writing from the time I stopped writing until I started again the next day. That way my subconscious would be working on it and at the same time I would be listening to other people and noticing everything, I hoped; learning, I hoped; and I would read so that I would not think about my work and make myself impotent to do it. Going down the stairs when I had worked well, and that needed luck as well as discipline, was a wonderful feeling and I was free then to walk anywhere in Paris.” — 1 person liked it

“My wife and I had called on Miss Stein, and she and the friend who lived with her had been very cordial and friendly and we had loved the big studio with the great paintings. I t was like one of the best rooms in the finest museum except there was a big fireplace and it was warm and comfortable and they gave you good things to eat and tea and natural distilled liqueurs made from purple plums, yellow plums or wild raspberries.
Miss Stein was very big but not tall and was heavily built like a peasant woman. She had beautiful eyes and a strong German-Jewish face that also could have been Friulano and she reminded me of a northern I talian peasant woman with her clothes, her mobile face and her lovely, thick, alive immigrant hair which she wore put up in the same way she had probably worn it in college. She talked all the time and at first it was about people and places.
Her companion had a very pleasant voice, was small, very dark, with her hair cut like Joan of Arc in the Boutet de Monvel illustrations and had a very hooked nose. She was working on a piece of needlepoint when we first met them and she worked on this and saw to the food and drink and talked to my wife. She made one conversation and listened to two and often interrupted the one she was not making. Afterwards she explained to me that she always talked to the wives. The wives, my wife and I felt, were tolerated. But we liked Miss Stein and her friend, although the friend was frightening. The paintings and the cakes and the eau-de-vie were truly wonderful. They seemed to like us too and treated us as though we were very good, well-mannered and promising children and I felt that they forgave us for being in love and being married - time would fix that - and when my wife invited them to tea, they accepted.” — 1 person liked it

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