The Paris Wife is the fictionalised story of his first marriage to Hadley, and their years primarily in Paris but also in Spain and Austria. The author of “The Paris Wife” made a name for herself exploring the lives of real women. A deeply evocative story of ambition and betrayal, The Paris Wife captures the love affair between two unforgettable people: Ernest Hemingway and his wife Hadley. . Chicago, 1920: Hadley Richardson is a quiet twenty-eight-year-old who has all but given up on love and happiness—until she meets Ernest Hemingway and her life changes forever. 5 talking about this. The Paris Wife tells the story of Hadley Richardson, Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, who he married in 1921. “The Paris Wife creates the kind of out-of-body reading experience that dedicated book lovers yearn for, nearly as good as reading Hemingway for the first time—and it doesn’t get much better than that.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “Exquisitely evocative . In her first suspense novel, “When the Stars Go Dark,” she faces her own demons. Or at least she has planted Hadley in the midst of a lot of famous, ambitious people. 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. The Paris Wife (2012), a historical novel by Paula McLain, recounts a fictionalized version of the real-life courtship between author Ernest Hemingway and his wife, Hadley Richardson. . Although it is a novel, it is backed by Paula’s extensive research to make it as factually accurate as possible. The Paris Wife details their life together, throughout their marriage, as Ernest grinds and makes his way to recognition and releases his novels to critical acclaim, and as Hadley explores her own role in Paris, her relationship, and in the world. I was sold on the idea of the literary Paris of the 1920s, full of great characters like Gertrude Stein, Picasso, Fitzgerald and James Joyce. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain – review Paula McLain's novel gives Ernest Hemingway's Paris years an affectingly romantic cast Hadley and Ernest Hemingway in Chamby, Switzerland, 1922. I absolutely loved The Paris Wife. In the novel, Ernest and Hadley meet in 1920 at a party thrown by Hadley’s best friend, Kate. Hadley is instantly captivated by Ernest, who is seven years younger than she. Introduction. Paula McLain has built “The Paris Wife” around Hadley. The advantage to this technique is that it allows the reader to rub shoulders and bend elbows with celebrated literary types: the stay-at-home way of feeling like the soigné figure on the book cover. 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