The Twilight Years: Paris in the 1930s

by William Wiser

For the artists and expatriates, the aristocrats and arrivistes, Paris in the 1930s lost none of its magical allure, as this lavishly illustrated chronicle of a fascinating decade in the city’s cultural history shows. At salons, galleries, palaces, and cafes, Henry Miller, Helena Rubinstein, Anais Nin, Coco Chanel, Salvador Dali, and Katherine Anne Porter joined illustrious exiles of the twenties like Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, Pablo Picasso, Janet Flanner, and Man Ray. Jazz orchestrated the city nights, surrealism flourished, haute couture reinvented itself. James Joyce redefined modern literature with Finnegans Wake and at her Chez Josephine Baker redefined the derriere. In a lively narrative, which is accompanied by a superb selection of period photographs, the award-winning author William Wiser follows Elsa Schiaparelli, T. S. Eliot, Peggy Guggenheim, the Windsors, Collette, Jean Cocteau, and a host of other colorful celebrities and literary luminaries through the ten years that continued to foster the creative revolution of the expatriate era in Paris—an era that began extravagantly with Elsa Maxwell’s famous masquerade ball and ended with perhaps the grimmest event in modern French the fall of Paris and the Nazi occupation in 1940.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, France

304 pages, Paperback

First published October 12, 2000

Reviews

[Jill H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am going to write a short review of this book. It takes place in the artistic world of Paris in the 1930s. This was a decade after the influx of American authors/playwrites/poets to the City of Light after WWI about which many books have been written. The 1930s were not as interesting as most of those individuals had returned to the US, especially those who had gained some fame while in France.

To be honest (which I try to be when writing a review), this book was rather boring and spent much too much time concentrating on author, Henry Miller. I just couldn't seem to stay interested but I did finish it. Ho hum!

[فریبا ارجمند · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I had to read the Persian translation of the book. Couldn't find the English copy.
And for some reason, the Persian translation is not listed in Goodreads

[Mikey B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this book is a misnomer – as it is, for the most part, about the expatriate colony in Paris – and most of them English-speaking. But, it is interesting how Paris was an international magnate attracting Americans, Russians, and Spaniards. It helps to make a great city like Paris even more pre-eminent to have this international influx.

The stories around these personages are fascinating – like Sylvia Beach of “Shakespeare and Company” bookstore, Picasso, Dali, Gertrude Stein, and a demented James Joyce it seems to me. Many stayed in France even after the German occupation in 1940. France had become home for them.

There is a second-hand feeling to the writing – most of it is gathered from other sources. Nevertheless for a Francophile, like me, it is interesting.

A few other notes:
The headquarters for the French military was Chateau Vincennes, not Chateau Versailles. Why is there a picture of a German tank on a snowy Parisian street with the caption “German tank entering Paris” when this entire chapter is devoted to the collapse of France in the summer of 1940?

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not to be put on one's "world's greatest literature" bookshelf, this is still an entertaining and informative read. The real life people discussed in these pages make some novel characters look wimpy.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took my time with book simply because I found that my interest in Henry Miller seems to have waned. Oh well. Still a good read.

[The Library Lady · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of name dropping, but not terribly compelling. Skimmed the last chapters.

[Lynn Mccartney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another in the theme of pre-war Paris. I really enjoyed reading this and intend to fall it up with several other titles about the German occupation of Paris from 1940-1944.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

similar to The Crazy Years except a decade later