The Paris Wife

A Novel

By: Paula McLain

Narrated by: Carrington MacDuffie

Length: 11 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures a remarkable period of time and a love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley.

Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet 28-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. Following a whirlwind courtship and wedding, the pair set sail for Paris, where they become the golden couple in a lively and volatile group—the fabled “Lost Generation”—that includes Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.

Though deeply in love, the Hemingways are ill prepared for the hard-drinking and fast-living life of Jazz Age Paris, which hardly values traditional notions of family and monogamy. Surrounded by beautiful women and competing egos, Ernest struggles to find the voice that will earn him a place in history, pouring all the richness and intensity of his life with Hadley and their circle of friends into the novel that will become The Sun Also Rises.

Hadley, meanwhile, strives to hold onto her sense of self as the demands of life with Ernest grow costly and her roles as wife, friend, and muse become more challenging. Despite their extraordinary bond, they eventually find themselves facing the ultimate crisis of their marriage—a deception that will lead to the unraveling of everything they’ve fought so hard for.

A heartbreaking portrayal of love and torn loyalty, The Paris Wife is all the more poignant because we know that, in the end, Hemingway wrote that he would rather have died than fallen in love with anyone but Hadley.

©2011 Paula Mclain (P)2011 Random House

Critic reviews

“McLain smartly explores Hadley's ambivalence about her role as supportive wife to a budding genius.... Women and book groups are going to eat up this novel.” (USA Today)

“By making the ordinary come to life, McLain has written a beautiful portrait of being in Paris in the glittering 1920s - as a wife and one's own woman.... McLain's vivid, clear-voiced novel is a conjecture, an act of imaginary autobiography on the part of the author. Yet her biographical and geographical research is so deep, and her empathy for the real Hadley Richardson so forthright (without being intrusively femme partisan), that the account reads as very real indeed.” (Entertainment Weekly)

“Written much in the style of Nancy Horan's Loving Frank ... Paula McLain's fictional account of Hemingway's first marriage beautifully captures the sense of despair and faint hope that pervaded the era and their marriage.” (Associated Press)

Overall, very good.

I was sucked into the Hemmingway's world while listening to this story, and when it was over, I craved more (so I also purchased The Moveable Feast). I can see the point of some of the reviewers, that the narrator sounded a bit "whiney" at times. Ernest must have rolled over in his grave when he heard her read some of his lines of dialogue. But, it wasn't a constant thing, and did not bother me much at all. Overall, I enjoyed this narration and story very much, and I want to know more about all of the ex-pats in the Jazz Age in Paris - Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, the whole bunch. Would love a recommendation if someone has one.

Fine Story--Poor Narrator

I never realized before how important the narrator is to interpreting the book. The story is a fascinating insight into the life of Hemingway not presented before, and the author has clearly done her research well. The writing is good although too many of the conversations feel false or too pat. However the narrator's reading of the conversations comes across as a naive first reading of the script. Some the dialogue ends with a period that feels like she's just wrapped a bright bow on a package and given it an approving pat.Hemingway is so large a character, I am certain he would be difficult for anyone to try to capture his voice, but this narrator is clearly not up to it.
While I'm heavily committed to and invested in Audible, I agree with some of the others that this is a book that is probably best read.

Great Companion to A Moveable Feast

I undertook a Hemingway Trilogy that started with A Moveable Feast, then his wife's side of the story from the same period in Paris, and finally The Sun Also Rises, his masterpiece from that period.

The Paris Wife is a rich and engaging story of Paris in the 1920's. Carrington is a great narrator.

Great story!

I’m a Hemingway fan, and it was nice to enjoy a story about him instead of one by him for a change. It was easy to imagine being there, and feeling the intense relationships between all of the characters.

Can't stop listening

Very engaging story. Very well read. Vividly depict lives in Paris and other places they stayed.

Very Good!

A really interesting book and the narrator was spot on. I enjoyed learning more about Hemingway and his first wife and their very unconventional marriage.

Magical & Transporting

It sounds cheesy, I know. But this book is wonderful! You get lost in the midst of their love story, the ups & downs. It takes you across the globe to so many places. And it was performed well. The narrator’s performance was a bit dry. She reads relatively stagnant the whole novel. But her reading of different characters (& there’s a lot of them!) was amazing.

Sad yet captivating

The story was slow at first as you get to know the characters. But once you understood the line-up, the story captures some great joys of life with friends and loved ones. The story is in the early 1930s after the war but only touches briefly on the destruction and loss of war. The characters were mainly of writers and artists that had money and lived the “good” life. Curious now to better understand Ernest Hemingway’s life though the book is fiction. Well worth the read and or audible.

Interesting Perspective of Hemingway and His Contemporaries.

I enjoyed learning about Hemingway’s life from the perspective of his first wife, Hadley. Even though this is fiction, the author did a lot of research, so I feel like it’s directionally a true account of this time. I also appreciated gaining some perspective of the interaction and personalities of the dominant authors of this time.

Loved it!

What a pleasure to listen to. Very well performed. The writing is beautiful and makes the story so delightful. Thank you!!