On Paris [Paperback]

On Paris is a slim volume of 71 pages consisting of 29 articles written by Hemingway for the Toronto Star from 1922-23 (not 1920-1924 as the book claims). As far as I can tell, all have been published previously, some several times. The unique contribution of this volume is that it brings together articles more or less about Paris. Indeed, the Paris of post-World War I--the food, the drinks, the cafes, the characters, the clothes, the politics (especially the politics and particularly the relations between France and Germany), the streets, the foreigners, and even the gargoyles--is brought to life as only Hemingway can do it. A book was apparently never Hemingway's intention, but On Paris holds up as a book rather than as a miscellany; when you are finished, you feel as if you have been to post-war Paris. Of course, that's the problem. Somebody, not Hemingway, conceived of this as a book. That person remains unknown. No editor is listed, not even a "selected by." It's all written beautifully in what has come to be known as the Hemingway style. If you've read the re-edited A Moveable Feast and are wondering what Hemingway thought of Paris while he actually lived there rather than what he thought 30 years later, then this book was conceived just for you--by some unknown editorial hand. It is paperbound, printed beautifully on good stock and bound and gathered, though in my copy the gatherings are not glued in properly and look to eventually separate from the cover.

Of all the books I own the one that gets taken down and re-read the most is Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast. I pretty much learned everything good about writing, about creating atmosphere and mood, from that book. For that reason I was excited to see that Hesperus books has released a volume titled On Paris by Ernest Hemingway. It is a small volume, just 80 pages, collecting the young Ernest Hemingway's dispatches to the Toronto Star between March 1922 and December 1923. Some short, some longer, all of them filled with the young journalists beginnings as a writer.

The key to appreciating Hemingway's style in these early years is in recognizing the dry, droll humor. It seems sometimes that he is the only sane man in a lunatic asylum but he has chosen to report on whatever happens as accurately as possible. A Moveable Feast was written forty years later than the articles in On Paris and, in it, we see the seasoned old giant looking back on the eager young man he once was. But in On Paris the author is that eager young man and everything about him seems strangely wonderful.


My favorite of the articles is Rug Vendors in Paris. Complaining about the inevitability of being accosted by a rug vendor while enjoying a coffee at an outdoor café he advocates periodic outbursts of screaming "Death to robbers and rug vendors!" but recognizes they will probably not take that seriously. In the conversation that follows, arguing with a rug vendor, the dialog style, that became so typical of the later novels, is crisp, clean and hilarious.

Some of the articles delve in to the mysteries of French politics and the growing tensions (between the two World Wars) with Germany. In an essay on gargoyles he makes note of the particularly nasty gargoyles on high towers that, despite having been created some centuries before, all seem to glare in the direction of Germany.

He also takes on shocking offenses against Parisian society, did Pioncaré laugh in Verdun cemetery, and the great apéritif scandal, which happened during a particularly festive July 14th celebration. It seems an "unbalanced young Communist took a shot at and missed a prefect of police by mistake for M. Poincaré and the patriotic crowd mobbed him. Everyone agreed that M. Poincaré's life was undoubtedly saved by the Fourteenth of July because who could be expected to hit anyone they had shot at after such a night as all Paris had just spent." This had little to do with the actual scandal which only manifested days later when everyone sobered up and realized that the many signs advertising apéritifs hanging over the cafés had been paid for by the government and it just seemed wrong that the government should promote the distilleries in the process of creating such a grand celebration. "There is a fearful scandal on," Hemingway concludes, "and the inquiry about the apéritif signs still continues."


I had to stop myself from reading the book all at once because the stories were so entertaining. In one article he discusses feminine fashion and the fad of ladies wearing hats with sparrows on them. In another he questions why the working men of Paris tolerate wearing such dreadful clothes just because their wives bought them. The men admit that the female domination of working men has to stop but, unfortunately, there is a daunting issue - these same women are such excellent cooks it is rather hard to stand up to them.

One of the most purely Hemingway essays in the collection is about one M. Deibler who lives in a comfortable Paris suburb among neighbors who respect and admire him for his jovial personality and neighborliness. They know he works for the government and, when M. Deibler is called away for a few days on business, they keep his wife company and await his return. What they do not know is that M. Deibler is the official executioner of Paris and is often required to pack up his portable guillotine and travel to some other town to attend to business. Well, you can imagine the rest.

This is such an entertaining little book. In it Hemingway is never more Hemingway-ish and that is a non-stop delight.

It's a cool little book and was fun to read. Another look at Hemingway's Paris years, my favorite stage of his career. It is always a pleasure to have more from a favorite author who is no longer with us, to be able to see more deeply into what he was thinking and feeling back then before his life became something from which he (like others in his family) had to escape. I'm so glad this volume became available.

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