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Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway were the golden couple of Paris in the twenties, the center of an expatriate community boasting the likes of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and James and Nora Joyce. In this haunting account of the young Hemingways, Gioia Diliberto explores their passionate courtship, their family life in Paris with baby Bumby, and their thrilling, adventurous relationship—a literary love story scarred by Hadley’s loss of the only copy of Hemingway’s first novel and ultimately destroyed by a devastating ménage à trois on the French Riviera.
Compelling, illuminating, poignant, and deeply insightful, Paris Without End provides a rare, intimate glimpse of the writer who so fully captured the American imagination and the remarkable woman who inspired his passion and his art—the only woman Hemingway never stopped loving.
Gioia Diliberto is the author of the biographies A Useful Woman: The Early Life of Jane Addams and Debutante: The Story of Brenda Frazier, and the historical novels I Am Madame X and The Collection. She lives in Chicago.
"I was one of those dreamy children who spent all of her spare time alone in her room writing stories. My first story -- I long ago forgot what it was about -- was published in my school newspaper, when I was eight. The school was Burning Tree Elementary in suburban Maryland, and the paper, mimeographed in smelly purple ink, was The Burning Tree Ash. I was so looking forward to seeing my name in print, but when the paper came out, another girl's byline was on the story! My teacher was as horrified as I was, and couldn't understand how this tragedy had occurred. She collected all the papers from our class and throughout the school. My mother was called in, and at the end of the day she and I sat in the principal's office with stacks of The Burning Tree Ash, crossing out the other child's name and writing in mine. The following morning, the papers were redistributed to the children, and I had a lovely time receiving congratulations from my friends. From that moment, I knew I wanted to be a writer."
"I have lots of interests -- I practice yoga regularly, and I get teased about it regularly from my family. For years I've struggled to learn French, which I speak very badly, though not as badly as I play the piano."
Anonymous
Posted October 26, 2011
After enjoying "A Paris Wife", this book tells the story in more details. It is sure to create further interest in Hemingway and his work. If you enjoy this period in history you are sure to find other subjects of interest.
6 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted December 27, 2011
I read "The Paris Wife," then searched for another book to learn the whole story of Ernest Hemingway's first wife, Hadley. The book appears to be very well researched and very detailed, revealing a very interesting slice of life. Americans living in Paris, partying with famous names, life in the 1920's, true love, cheating spouses - never a dull moment. I love biographies, and this one was a great read.
5 out of 6 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.CatieScarlette
Posted July 6, 2012
I actually loved this book more than I liked "The Paris Wife" - it was told with such heart and empathy for both Hadley and Earnest. The prose, while non-fiction, reads like a love story, which it is. The attention to detail and the extensive research put you right in Paris in the 20s, and moved you forward in time as the story progressed. I couldn't put it down, even though I knew the endings to their stories!
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.juleecm1
Posted July 23, 2012
Enjoyed this book very much. Great insight into the patterns that shaped Hemingway's later life and legend. I only knew him as "Papa", and the overbearing, macho legend his name has come to embody. However, he was quite different when he was young, sensitive and caring, and while he was married to his first wife, Hadley, he became a writer who burst into the literary world with his own, unique style, fueled in great part by Hadley.
She was extremely interesting as a woman at the beginning of the 20th century, and Hemingway helped her to discover her real life. She was older than he, and far less passive than she has been portrayed in earlier works. She seems to have been the catalyst for all his idealized heroines, and brought out the best in him, at least in the first years of their marriage.
The way he treated her in the end of their marriage certainly sets up the pattern for the rest of his life. That Hadley went on to have a fulfilling and peaceful life was interesting, since Hemingway's life became more chaotic and in the end very sad (suicide).
There is quite a bit of detail about their son, Jack's, early life (from infanthood to about 7 years). Hemingway seems to have been and hands-on and doting father. The focus on Hemingway's early 20's was engrossing, because much of it is very different from how I had perceived Hemingway, and Hadley shines as a very grounded, kind person who was swept along (in many ways) by his charm and youthful enthusiasm. That she was his prototype is unquestionable. That she grounded him and gave him truthful feedback that led to his unique style is highlighted.
The author evokes Paris so vividly that I could actually "see" their apartment in my mind. Engrossing. I hated to put it down and wished there had been much more detail about Hadley's life after the divorce, instead of the more broadly sweeping description supplied. Surely another book could be written about her later years!
I look forward to reading anything else by this author.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 1, 2013
Somewhat well researched, but the past participles drove me nuts after the first few pages.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 24, 2012
Dilberto's book gives a thorough account of Earnest Hemingway's early life by providing a vivid description of the life of Hemingway's first wife. It adds a rich psychological dimension to Hemingway that other biographers (mostly men) seem to have missed. Drawing upon audio-taped interviews of Hadley from the early 70s and quoting extensively from letters between Earnest and Hadley, we get a deep understanding for how the Hemingways lived (and mostly thrived) in Paris. By describing the relationship between Earnest and Hadley, Dilberto helps us understand Hemingway's complicated motivations and the seeds for behaviors that would eventually destroy him.
Upon finishing _Paris Without End_, I felt compelled to re-read _A Moveable Feast_, which, with my newfound understanding of young Earnest's days in Paris, made Earnest's account of the same period seem much less nuanced. Don't get me wrong - AMF is still a great book, but once you know some of the details of Hemingway's life from that period, you wish for Earnest to spend less time talking about alcoholic beverages and interactions with important people, and more time describing his relationship to Hadley, which, I learned from reading _Paris Without End_, was one of the best things to ever happen to Hemingway the person and Hemingway the writer.
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted November 5, 2011
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Posted December 27, 2011
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Overview
Hadley Richardson and Ernest Hemingway were the golden couple of Paris in the twenties, the center of an expatriate community boasting the likes of Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas, and James and Nora Joyce. In this haunting account of the young Hemingways, Gioia Diliberto explores their passionate courtship, their family life in Paris with baby Bumby, and their thrilling, adventurous relationship—a literary love story scarred by Hadley’s loss of the only copy of Hemingway’s first ...