Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
A Moveable Feast  By  cover art

A Moveable Feast

By: Ernest Hemingway
Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $13.46

Buy for $13.46

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

When Ernest Hemingway died in 1961 he had nearly completed A Moveable Feast, which eventually was published posthumously in 1964 and edited by his widow Mary Hemingway. This new special edition of Hemingway's classic memoir of his early years in Paris in the 1920's presents the original manuscript as the author intended it to be published at the time of his death.

This new publication also includes a number of unfinished Paris sketches on writing and experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, his wife Hadley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ford Maddox Ford and others. A personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest's sole surviving son, precedes an introduction by the editor, Sean Hemingway, grandson of the author.

©2009 the Hemingway Copyright Owners (P)2009 Simon & Schuster, Inc

Featured Article: 35+ Quotes About Books That Truly Speak to Bibliophiles


Novels, memoirs, short stories, essay compilations, and more continue to shape who we are and how we view the world, no matter what format—physical book, ebook, or audiobook—we use to absorb and enjoy them. Books are pathways into different worlds and different lives, and one can never be truly bored with a good book. Celebrate your literary love with these quotes about books that will inspire you to dive into your next story.

What listeners say about A Moveable Feast

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    627
  • 4 Stars
    267
  • 3 Stars
    126
  • 2 Stars
    38
  • 1 Stars
    16
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    590
  • 4 Stars
    191
  • 3 Stars
    77
  • 2 Stars
    17
  • 1 Stars
    8
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    511
  • 4 Stars
    226
  • 3 Stars
    96
  • 2 Stars
    26
  • 1 Stars
    23

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Perfect complement-Paris Wife & Midnight in Paris

Don’t let the Sample discourage you from listening to this wonderful book! The Sample—the forward and introduction—are presented by relatives of Hemingway, not the narrator J. B. Lloyd.

Lloyd does a wonderful job narrating this up-lifting Hemingway book. For a sample of Lloyd’s voice, check out Michael Crichton’s Micro: A Novel.

This story is a love story and a tale of regret—a tale of lessons learned from the altered and divorcee.

You hear Hemingway’s thoughts about himself, about the writing process, and about others including some of literature’s best: Fitzgerald, James, Ford, Gertrude Stein (It is no wonder why she didn’t talk with him after this book—showing that honesty in print isn’t always the best policy.).

A bonus is found at the end of the book: Hemingway’s revisions of a section. You hear how he edited a section of his work, over, and over again—the subtle changes towards perfection, Hemingway style.

This is a perfect complement to The Paris Wife and Midnight in Paris.

Please click YES if this review was helpful to you. And Happy Listening!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

163 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Slightly disappointed..

I just wish the sample was of the narrator speaking. It is really important to me to know what I'm getting in to, so it seems a bit silly to have a sample hat isn't who you will be listening to for hours.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

30 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

outstanding

Far, far better than the original version, both in text and narration. Hard to imagine anyone not enjoying this book, and I'm not a lover of Hemingway's fiction.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

26 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

A must for any Hemingway fan

This book, which is a compendium of stories and notes from Hemingway's early days in Paris is a wonderful insight into this important literary figures life. There is some of Hemingway's work that is pure magic, stories that take you into a place and time and tell a story in a way that changes your life in some impactful manner, 'The Sun Also Rises' 'The Green Hills of Africa' are two of my favorites. Some of his stories, short stories especially, are dark and difficult to expose yourself to.
This book opens the window and discusses how he wrote and how he felt about how he wrote, it portrays the happy time of his life writing and being poor and being happy with Hadley, his first wife and one whom he was forever affectionate toward and living in Paris with other writers. He writes about them, and their life, and about life in that time.
Some of the book drifts into silly dialog, and some of the book is classic Hemingway that is moving and sinks into your soul.
If you are a Hemingway fan, and a fan of literature of this era this book is one you cannot let go by the wayside. Highly recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

16 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

tread carefully

These are good stories. Narration is flawless. With that being said, I want to mention one should tread carefully with reading this book. Hemingway's other books are all semi-autobiographical. Stuff like Farewell and For Whom the Bell Tolls are real stories wrapped in the blanket of fiction. While interesting, these stories unfortunately show you the real man who wrote these fictions. It's akin to seeing the wizard in wizard of oz. So, it might ruin his other stories for you. But, if you can handle that, this is a good book with interesting stories about a young man trying to grasp writing and living in Paris with his wife.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Long Over Due

Sooo sick I couldn't sleep- Sat on my couch all week with my i-pod. Spent 7 hrs in 1920's Paris with Hemingway & his unfinished novel 'A Moveable Feast' -the new Ed. LOVED every second of it -like crack cocaine to a writer. I WILL listen to it again and again. I esp enjoyed hearing his son and grandson. Thank you for this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars

Is it really a love story?

To begin with I found this book of limited interest, all these French names of streets and coffee houses sounded a bit pretentious and I didnt care much about Hemmingways tales of Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound or James Joyce although I admit the stories of Scott Fitzgerald were amusing. However, after a while I started to sense an undercurrent running right through the book. And this was the love between Hemmingway and his first wife Hadley. They were indestructible, I think he says several times. And because they are so obviously content and happy a sense of foreboding creeps in (after all you know he married four times). And when the disaster strikes in one of final chapters (and this should have been the final chapter) it is heart-rending. It made me wonder if the remorse he felt didnt last all his life and not just until Hadley got married again. This background story made this book a great book after all.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just great.

I read this in high school and again in college. That second reading led me to some of the bars and other places Hemingway hung out in while on my first trip to Paris in 1967 during my junior year.

Now that I'm a grown-up I listened to the book and was taken back to the Paris of my youth. This followed listening to "The Paris Wife" and seeing "Midnight in Paris" over the summer and a visit to his haunts on Lake Maggiore in Italy last fall, which is along the escape route in "A Farewell to Arms". Hemingway is a classic and this version of the book is, too.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

12 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Worth your time

Whether you like Hemingway or not this is a good book ... a peek into history ... the life of a writer ... paris ... food ... cafe's ... art ... a moveable feast is a must read for lovers of literature

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting insight into Hemingway’s life.

A memoir - similar to a diary. Hemingway writes about 30 different experiences he had during the 1920s. Most were set in Paris, France, where he lived with his wife Hadley. Examples: his visits with Gertrude Stein, betting on horse racing, a trip he made with F. Scott Fitzgerald, a ski trip he made with his wife. I was sad thinking about the poverty he and his wife lived through. Sometimes he went hungry. He said he and his wife were in love and happy during that time. I was concerned about all the alcohol drinking by Hemingway and others. He said it did not interfere with his work, but I wondered.

I was sad that Scott’s wife Zelda sabotaged Scott’s writing, frequently interrupting him, and tempting him to drink. She was jealous of his writing.

I liked Hemingway’s comment about Ford Madox Hueffer and lying. “Almost everyone lies and the lies are not important. Some people we loved for their lies and would wait hopefully for them to start their best ones. Ford though lied about things that left scars. He lied about money and about things that were important in daily living that he would give you his word on.”

I would have preferred a biography written by someone researching Hemingway’s life - using these memoirs as a source but confirming them with other sources. Hemingway wrote several introductions for this book which appear in the last chapter. In all of them he begins “This is fiction.” I think he did that to avoid or reduce lawsuits since he was writing about people he knew. That troubled me. I’d prefer knowing this was factual, not made up. But it sounded factual because it didn’t have things that fiction usually has. One interesting chapter was about loving two women at the same time, which ended with his divorce from Hadley and marrying Pauline. He had great remorse over this, and he believed Hadley had a good life through marrying another man later.

A negative: this was unfinished. It was published after his death by relatives. The first publishers eliminated some sections. The second publishers included more. I regret that Hemingway was not able to edit and rewrite his own words.

Apparently the print version has pictures which I did not see, since I did the audiobook.

The narrator John Bedford Lloyd was fine.

Genre: memoirs.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

9 people found this helpful