A Moveable Feast

Written by Ernest Hemingway

Narrated by James Naughton

Ernest Hemingway’s classic memoir of Paris in the 1920s, now available in a restored edition, includes the original manuscript along with insightful recollections and unfinished sketches.

Published posthumously in 1964, A Moveable Feast remains one of Ernest Hemingway’s most enduring works. Since Hemingway’s personal papers were released in 1979, scholars have examined the changes made to the text before publication. Now, this special restored edition presents the original manuscript as the author prepared it to be published.

Featuring a personal foreword by Patrick Hemingway, Ernest’s sole surviving son, and an introduction by grandson of the author, Seán Hemingway, editor of this edition, the book also includes a number of unfinished, never-before-published Paris sketches revealing experiences that Hemingway had with his son, Jack, and his first wife Hadley. Also included are irreverent portraits of literary luminaries, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ford Maddox Ford, and insightful recollections of Hemingway’s own early experiments with his craft.

Widely celebrated and debated by critics and readers everywhere, the restored edition of A Moveable Feast brilliantly evokes the exuberant mood of Paris after World War I and the unbridled creativity and unquenchable enthusiasm that Hemingway himself epitomized.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio
• Release date: Jun 1, 2006
• ISBN: 9780743565141

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway did more to change the style of English prose than any other writer of his time. Publication of The Sun Also Rises and A Farewell to Arms immediately established Hemingway as one of the greatest literary lights of the twentieth century. His classic novel The Old Man and the Sea won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953. Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954. His life and accomplishments are explored in-depth in the PBS documentary film from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, Hemingway. Known for his larger-than-life personality and his passions for bullfighting, fishing, and big-game hunting, he died in Ketchum, Idaho on July 2, 1961. 

Reviews for A Moveable Feast

[stepstosand · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Being in Paris with Hem. Meeting his friends and acquaintances. Going to cafes, and walking the streets.

[bkohl_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A Moveable Feast is a series of stories about Hemingway's life in Paris in the 20s with his first wife, before the publication of his first novel. Ford Madox Ford, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and F. Scott Fitzgerald all have a chapter. This is a fun Hemingway (perhaps the only one), and everything has a happy nostalgic patina, even when he's digging viciously at Zelda Fitzgerald.

[markwinston · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

"A Moveable Feast" is Hemingway’s final attempt to mold his public persona, but he was hardly the first American author to use fiction as a vehicle for wealth, notoriety, and the construction of a macho public image. As a child of the early 20th century, it is difficult to imagine young Hemingway not being aware of the works of Jack London, a product of a difficult childhood who made his name writing about vigorous, dangerous outdoor life, military action, and sports like boxing. The public persona wasn’t always effective-- President Theodore Roosevelt, another larger-than-life macho contemporary, assailed London as a “nature faker”—but provided a template for the next generation of manly writers, of which Hemingway was the king. Hemingway’s took the mantel to new heights, most notably his achievement of the Nobel Prize, but, with the exception of his time in Paris, largely followed the Jack London path, albeit with the addition of sport hunting and deep sea fishing to the genre. The earlier author’s attempt at memoir was the 1914 "John Barleycorn," which covered virtually all of his life in the first person and identified alcohol and intellectualism as the causes of his bad behavior and downfall. Hemingway’s entry was "A Moveable Feast," which, despite having 20 more years of life and two more marriages than London had enjoyed, focused on Paris while only touching on his failures as a husband, father, and friend. The bulk of the story in "Feast" concerns Hemingway, wife Hadley, and friends as innocent and comely starving bohemians. There is never the slightest hint of marital strife, even though the narrator briefly mentions during the book that the marriage was fated to end in short order. The oblique tension of a story like Hills Like White Elephants, which was published during the time period Hemingway recalls in Feast, is completely absent from their poor, but putatively happy domestic life. They have a son, Bumby, but he makes few appearances across the narrative, and shares billing with the cat F. Puss, who Hemingway describes as Bumby’s babysitter, a startling revelation that is presented in a light-hearted way that doesn’t suggest child neglect. “There were people who said it was dangerous to leave a cat with a baby,” but no harm ever came to either, so it was perfectly fine to do this." Hemingway himself spends little time at home in the book, however, preferring travel to Italy, Spain, and Austria (though he and his young family were broke and subject to going hungry) and to write and hobnob in Parisian cafes. Hemingway was, of course, always the better man in these encounters with individuals some would consider his literary superiors: Ford Maddox Ford was far more arrogant and self-deluded than him, for instance. Fitzgerald was not only a far more pathetic drunk, but had been with only one woman, his wife, who felt that his anatomy was inadequate, two problems narrator Hemingway by implication never had. To boot, he vigorously shoots down Gertrude Stein’s accepting talk of male homosexuals, and essentially breaks with her when her own homosexuality is revealed. Hemingway is stalwart, though: When Pascin offers one of his nubile models to him as a sex partner, the married narrator gallantly declines, and does so with charm. The infidelity that ultimately ruined the marriage was in fact not his fault, but that of, “another rich using the oldest trick there is. It is that an unmarried young woman becomes the temporary best friend of another young woman who is married, goes to live with the husband and wife and then unknowingly, innocently and unrelentingly sets out to marry the husband.”Narrators are virtually always a vicarious stand-in for the reader, but Hemingway made sure of the reader’s sympathy by occasionally shifting into the second person. Significantly, virtually everyone mentioned in Feast save Hadley and Bumby were dead by the time "Feast" was written.

[drronmccoy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Terrific memoir of a seminal time in American literature. The last chapter where he spends time with Fitzgerald is insightful. Wonderful writing, from observations of people to, and I can’t believe I’m saying this, fascinating discussions about avalanches. Are the characters mentioned include Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Ford Maddox Ford and of course, A wonderful portrayal of his relationship with Gertrude Stein. Excellently read too. Highly recommend it.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Hemingway is not one of my favorite authors, but in this book his description of Paris in the 20s is wonderful. He plays around with some of the facts, but captures a time and a place in history that fascinates me. Paris was the center of the world then and so much that was groundbreaking was happening there in the way of music (jazz), painting (cubism), and writing. Hemingway shows us his take on this magical time.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Vooral documentair interessant, over zijn verblijf in Parijs in de jaren 20. Duidelijk verfraaid. Soms ontluisterend over collegaschrijvers.

[Rohit Nallapeta · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic read. It starts off as a personal story where the author gives you a slice of his life in Paris. Slowly you get so immersed that you become the character in the book only to be reminded it’s his story and he’s in absolute control. A great read.

[laurochka-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A glimpse of Paris in the 20s and the lives of Hemingway and his contemporaries. I love the immediacy of Hemingway and this book transports you to a very specific time in his story. I enjoyed it.

[stuartaston · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I had never read Hemingway before so thought a small book would be something to try and see if I enjoyed it.Turns out I picked an Auto-biography of his time in the 20's in Paris where he was starting out as an unknown. You get the atmosphere on Paris in the 20's and the cliques that existed of the in crowd and the writers and the painters. You see that even then distractions existed for the famous but, as was life, were simpler than those of today.No laptops to write with just pen and paper and the local cafe to sit in Hemingway paints the picture of a Paris which once it has you will not let you go. And people who are interesting but have something held back that keeps you wondering.As well as learning about his life in those early years it is a book from which you can pick up his style of writing. And I can say now it will lead me to read more.

[tracyrowan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Apart from an abortive attempt at "The Old Man and the Sea" in high school, I managed to avoid Hemmingway for fifty years. Now I wonder why. "A Moveable Feast" is so enchanting, so fascinating with its tart, funny, incisive portraits of Stein, Pound, Fitzgerald and others that I feel sad to have missed it for so long.Why Hemmingway took so long to write this memoir is anyone's guess, but perhaps the older writer understood things the younger one only lived. Whatever the reason, AMF is a wonderful mixture of the perspective of age and the enthusiasm of youth. It's a lovely portrait of a city where people too poor to own a cat can afford a cook and a nurse for their son. It's a tale of a writer writing, reading everything he can borrow from Shakespeare and Company, getting to know artists and authors and loving Paris and Parisians. If you read no other Hemmingway in your life, read this.

[maureencean · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 really, I couldn't go the whole four. I listened to the audio version of the restored edition, and the narration was out of this world. The type of narration that lifts a story up. There are a number of fragments at the end, from his historical collection, and I have to say that audio is perhaps not the best venue for really soaking this sort of thing up. One of things noted about this restored edition is that it did not flow chronologically, which did in fact end up a little confusing, but that is not a major issue.

I am keeping this book - I keep only a fraction of the books I read, that is notable. There were a number of parts of this memoir/work of fiction (in his words), that I really enjoyed. I loved hearing about their winters in Schroontz, which I am entirely sure I have misspelled, but hey, I never saw it in writing. And I absolutely adore the dialogue. There is something unique about his dialogue, and between his words and this narration, it was just outstanding. Some of the things that were really small were amazing to ponder, such as leaving their baby son home alone in the crib with the cat as a babysitter

His writing about Scott Fitzgerald was sadly distressing. I will follow up soon by reading Z, about Zelda, as it also fits in my challenge.

If you like Hemingway, this is worth your while. If you don't already care for him, this probably won't, change your mind.

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ernest Hemingway’s memoir about his time in Paris in the 1920s. He lived there with his first wife, Hadley, and their young son. He preferred to write in cafés so there are plenty of references to food, drink, sights, sounds, and locations. It includes essays about his interactions with other expatriate writers, such as Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He includes several writing tips. For example, when he was blocked, his goal was to write “one true sentence.”

This book is quite introspective. It gives the reader an idea of how he saw himself. It does not always portray him in the best light, but it feels candid. He wrote the memoir toward the end of his life, and we know how his life ended, so the content of this novel is very telling. Death comes up frequently. It reflects his self-doubts and what was important to him. I was struck by how much reading he did, and his strong desire to discuss writing with other writers. It was his last book, published posthumously. Definitely worth reading.

[chris.wolak · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Happy to finally have experienced this posthumous work by Hemingway, a writer with whom I have a love/hate relationship. Love his novels, but don't so much like the man, although I do have some sympathy toward him.

James Naughton did a fine job reading this book. I imagine another actor could have made Hemingway come across as more of a braggart. It was nice to hear the French pronunciation of place names, streets, etc.

I'm now reading the Restored Edition of A Moveable Feast (2009) that is closer to Hemingway's last work on the manuscript. His 4th wife made some editorial changes that altered the tone or intention of passages...or at least Hemingway's memory or feeling of how something happened.

[the_literary_jedi · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A series of true to life vignettes surrounding Hemingway's early Paris life. Collection includes interludes with Fitzgerald, Pound, Ford, Stein and mentions other great arts figures. Not for the easily offended or without historical context. A rich tableau of what a creative existence was in the early 1900's without heavy existential conundrums.Recommended for adults (21+) and/or college level readers who have historical context of society and human-interaction/activity in the 1900's.**All thoughts and opinions are my own.**

[kevn57-163679 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Great look at Hemingway and Fitzgerald in Paris in the 1920's. Inspired me to dig out some of those classic novels.

[bodagirl · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Hemingway's ego and misogyny are on full display. I would have DNF except that it worked for a couple of reading challenge tasks I've been trying to complete.

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

nonfiction biographical essays (partially embroidered) about Hemingway's younger days in Paris spent with his first wife and various literary figures and other ex-patriated notables (which are sometimes not portrayed in a very flattering way). It's hard to feel sorry for a starving artist who lives in Paris with a roof over his head, especially when he is so frequently betting on horses and drinking, and who also has a sizeable ego. That said, Hemingway does have a way with evoking places and moods.

[paul_s-289480 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Dedicating a chapter to discuss (at length) F Scott Fitzgerald's small penis must be the biggest dick move in literary history. I wonder in what way he must have had annoyed Hemingway to warrant this. Alternatively Hemingway must've become really petty at the end of his life.

[ericlee_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Hemingway wrote this short collection of vignettes during the very last years of his life. And because of that, they are the mature reflections of a great writer looking back at the beginning of his career as a young, married man living in Paris in the 1920s. What interests most people today are Hemingway’s memories of other authors he knew (and he knew them all), but in particular F. Scott Fitzgerald. Though Hemingway greatly admired Fitzgerald’s books, especially The Great Gatsby, his stories about the man and his insecurities are cringe-worthy. And though written many years later, he doesn’t have a bad word to say about Ezra Pound, despite the latter’s later support for Mussolini and Hitler. (Hemingway’s own anti-fascist credentials are, of course, rock-solid.). The book is also important for its description of how Hemingway wrote, especially his now famous injunction to writers to leave the last sentence of the day for the next day, so he would have somewhere to start and not a blank page. As Hemingway explained, every young person should spend some time in Paris — this one did — and his or her experience there, like this book, will stay with them their entire life.

[amydross · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The passages about Gertrude Stein and Fitzgerald and writing and Paris are fantastic. The stuff about horse racing and skiing vacations, much less so. But then, maybe that says more about my interests than anything else.

[scottjpearson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This memoir, published posthumously, covers Hemingway's early days in Paris, right after he decided to leave journalism to become a writer of fiction. He was married, a father, constantly writing, friends with some very intelligent and very successful writers (Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald), and - to use his words - "very poor and very happy." In this series of short essays, he sheds his skin to expose his heart.

I was struck with the sense that Hemingway found every day an adventure. He is constantly stringing together sentences as run-ons with the connectors of "but" and "and." It's like he is spinning some yarn and can't wait to get to the end. So he rushes and avoids the periods and the commas. He is ready to tell his tale no matter what comes. Such was his sense of determination to become a writer while in Paris.

It is good for this aspiring writer to read of his struggles. He knew not how to make money. He just worked on his craft. This is good advice for anyone starting off in any profession or station in life. Work on the craft; be dedicated to the work; hone your skills; don't be discouraged by rejection. Such was Hemingway's time in Paris, whose lesson of being "very poor and very happy" is the path to success.

[eyejaybee · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I have to confess that I have never understood the acclaim afforded to Ernest Hemigway, and this book has done nothing to assuage my doubts. I know that he is revered as one of the great writers of the twentieth century, and seen as some sort of embodiment of the writer as a man of action, but his works simply leave me cold.I was looking forward to this account of his life in Paris between the World Wars. After all, with such a setting, and the added frisson afforded by accounts of F. Scott Fitzgerald (one of my all-time literary heroes), how could the book fail to enthral? Well, somehow, it managed to overcome the integral advantages, and somehow claw back defeat from the jaws of victory. The foreword and preface to this edition, written by one of Hemingway’s sons, and one of his grandsons, made much play of the considerable efforts to edit the manuscript undertaken by Mary, Hemingway’s final wife, and the rest of the family. I must say that if this manuscript was the consequence of intense and dedicated editing, I dread to think how dreadful the original must have been.Far from an enlightening selection of memoirs recounting scintillating encounters between prominent figures of the world of the arts, it is a series of inconsequential and rambling recollections of tedious meetings, recounted in appalling, inchoate prose. I think we would all have been better served if this book had been edited through the medium of a shredding machine.

[clara53_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In the Preface, Hemingway writes: "If the readers prefer, this book may be regarded as fiction. But there is always the chance that such a book of fiction may throw light on what has been written as fact".... One feels intrigued and disappointed at the same time about such a statement. But one reads eagerly nonetheless. Because right from the start, Hemingway's way of narration flows so easily, not overrun by flowery metaphors and yet so compelling. A certain unavoidable feeling of rhythm to his writing. Yes, probably romanticized a bit - or even more than a bit! - it having been written so much later in life, but I couldn't let that bother me: the writing was just too good.During these years in Paris (1920s), still as a young writer, Hemingway encounters interesting personalities and describes them to the fullest: Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound and Scott Fitzgerald are in particular given colorful portraits. Also, I couldn't help being impressed at his fascination with the Russian writers - Turgenev, Tolstoi, Dostoyevsky:"From the day I had found Sylvia Beach's library, I had read all of Turgenev, what had been published in English by Gogol,... translations of Tolstoi and Chekhov.... In Dostoyevsky there were things believable and not to be believed, but some so true they changed you as you read them; frailty and madness, wickedness and saintliness, and the sanity of gambling were there to know as you knew the landscape and the roads in Turgenev, and the movement of troops , the terrain and the officers and the men and the fighting in Tolstoi.... To have come on all this new world of writing, with time to read in a city like Paris where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a great treasure given to you." Strangely enough, there is only faint mention of Hemingway's wife Hadley and their child in the whole of the narration. She comes through as a pale background to all his wanderings on Paris streets and meetings at cafes. Her portrayal (or what there is of it) is very sweet and genuine in the few words that the writer allots her, but not sufficiently "real" for a constant companion. He gives much more colorful description to the character of Zelda Fitzgerald (who, as he witnessed, turned out to be a bad influence on her husband) than to his own wife.As for Scott Fitzgerald, his portrait is probably the most revealing. At first we see certain contradiction of attitude during their first meeting, during their unusual and troublesome car trip, but little by little (and especially after reading "The Great Gatsby") Hemingway puts aside the weird idiosyncrasies of the man, his hypochondriac character, his problems with his wife Zelda - to give him full credit as a great writer - and gives himself a promise to always be there for him.Among the good times, there were bitter disappointments - like when all his manuscripts were lost in a robbery, and he had to start writing all anew. Or hardships - when he had to go hungry and "invent" meal invitations (while simply going on long walks and later retelling his wife at home the menus and what he ate at such "invitations") to save money on food. But the general feel to this time in Paris (as well as short trips and stays outside the city during the winter) is a good and treasured one, one that probably stayed with the author throughout his life.

[viccavalli · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hemingway's description of Scott Fitzgerald is my favorite paragraph in the book: "His talent was as natural as the pattern that was made by the dust on a butterfly's wings. At one time he understood it no more than the butterfly did and he did not know when it was brushed or marred. Later he became conscious of his damaged wings and of their construction and he learned to think and could not fly any more because the love of flight was gone and he could only remember when it had been effortless."

[abycats_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Had read this before so listened to it this time. Unfortunately, there's a reason Hemingway is subject so often to parody. His intentional avoidance of all adjectives or variation in sentences makes him difficult to listen to as well as to read. Enjoyed his portraits of his peers, but would not have made it all the way thru had this not been for a book club.

[melissalenhardt · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Yes, Hemingway is a giant of American literature. Still, I do not like his writing style. His descriptions are literal but his sentences can be long, rambling and nonsensical. While this was interesting to read as a writer, only readers well versed in Hemingway’s biography will be able to fill in all the blanks Hemingway leaves.

[fliss88_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first Hemingway book and it took me a chapter or two to hear his voice. Thankfully the chapters are short or I may not have persevered. I'm glad I did. This is a remembrance of Hemingway's life in Paris at that time early in the 1920s when the Bohemian Set were starting to assemble themselves in this city full of expatriates. He was friends with some of the big names, James Joyce, Ezra Pound, Ford Maddox Ford, Gertrude Stein and Scott Fitzgerald. A bookshop called Shakespeare and Company run by Sylvia Beach was where they could all meet and talk about their writing, and it was Sylvia Beach who published Jame's Joyce's Ulysees, which was banned in Britain and the United States! Hemingway has a particular writing style, very pared back and yet descriptive. How he manages to do both at the same time is indeed his special skill. I was reminded of the writing style in Early Readers, where the sentences are short and clipped - We went to the zoo. We saw a lion and a tiger. This made us happy. But then Mr Hemingway will give you a sentence like this - " To have come on all this new world of writing, with time to read in a city like Paris where there was a way of living well and working, no matter how poor you were, was like having a great treasure given to you." (page 117) Paris in the 20's was where Ernest and his wife lived happily with their first born son, poor financially but rich in the happiness of their life.

[madepercy-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I can't help thinking that "A Moveable Feast" is a kind of Facebook into Hemingway's Parisian past. Hemingway writes of himself and in particular, Scott Fitzgerald, as if he were posting on social media private details about a recent event. I don't mean to cheapen the work by comparing prosaic Facebook with Hemingway's genius but the raw public openness is analogous. I felt Hemingway's poor and happy nostalgia marks the end of his innocence and the very ending made me tingle all over - at once identifying with him while hoping it is all in the past. In short, a masterpiece.

[akblanchard_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In this collection of short, autobiographical essays, Ernest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley drink, gamble, and hobnob with expatriate writers in post WWI Paris and elsewhere in Europe. Sometimes, in between meals and trips to the racetrack, he settles down and "works" (writes).This book was very different, and not nearly as compelling, as I thought it would be. The essays are too brief and disconnected to allow for indentification with any of the characters, and the narrative (or lack of the same) often failed to hold my interest. It would have helped me if the edition I read had annotations to put the essays into context.

[leonardgmokos · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

One of the ones you sometimes re-read, partially or entirely.