Moonlight Over Paris
Page 29
Palais de Bois: an exposition space near Porte Maillot on the western fringes of central Paris; it has since been replaced by the Palais de Congrès
Paris Edition: the colloquial name for the European Edition of the Chicago Tribune
pédé: a derogatory and highly offensive term for a gay man
la peinture à l’huile: oil painting
petit bleu: a pneumatic message, so named for the blue color of the original message cards; literally, “little blue”
Le Petit Journal: large daily French-language paper that occupied most of the building in which the offices of the Paris Edition were located
Pigalle: a district in central Paris known for its nightlife and cabarets, among them the Moulin Rouge
pissoir: a public urinal
pointillism: an artistic technique in which tiny, distinct dots of color are used to create an image. The most famous practitioner of pointillism was Georges Seurat, who is best known for “La Grande Jatte.”
Printemps: one of the great Parisian department stores, its competitors in this period included Le Bon Marché, La Samaritaine, and Galeries Lafayette
ravissante: gorgeous or beautiful; literally “ravishing”
rewrite desk: the area of a newspaper where editors (deskmen) reworked truncated cables into full-length pieces
Rive Gauche: the “left bank” of the Seine in Paris
Sainte Chapelle: thirteenth-century chapel located on the Île-de-la-Cité in Paris
Salon des Indépendants: the annual art exhibition of the members of the Société des Artists Indépendants. It was first held in 1884 and had the guiding motto of “no jury, no recompense.”
saucisson: dried pork sausage
Shakespeare and Company: Sylvia Beach’s renowned English-language bookshop, it opened in 1919 and closed in 1940. The current shop by that name first opened at a different location and under different management in the 1950s.
sou: coin of little value; term was unconnected to any specific unit of currency in France at that time
SS Minnewaska: a luxury ocean liner with the Atlantic Transport Line, she sailed the London–New York route between 1924 and 1931
St.-Cloud: a well-to-do commune, or suburb, located on the western fringes of Paris. Sara and Gerald Murphy lived here for part of each year in the early 1920s.
St.-Germain-des-Prés: neighborhood on the Left Bank of Paris that was the center of French intellectual life for much of the twentieth century
St. Peter’s Eaton Square: church in the Belgravia district of London
Studio for Portrait Masks: the American Red Cross Studio for Portrait Masks, which was active from late 1917 to early 1919, was established and run by Anna Coleman Ladd, an American sculptor. The studio provided customized face masks for French and American soldiers and officers with facial deformities as a result of war wounds.
tartine: slice of baguette, typically day-old, that is toasted and spread with preserves or butter
The Falstaff: a café in Montparnasse, still in existence, that was decorated to resemble a traditional English public house
Théâtre de la Cigale: a theater in the Pigalle district of Paris with a long-standing connection to avant-garde culture
Third Republic: government of France from the collapse of the Second Empire in 1870 to the Occupation of France in 1940
toi aussi: you, too
Le Train Bleu: see Blue Train, above
vendeuse: saleswoman
vernissage: opening of an art exhibition; literally, “the varnishing”
An explanatory note on currency:
In the years following the First World War, the value of the French franc all but collapsed, though its currency did not experience the same dramatic devaluation as the Reichsmark of the Weimar Republic, for instance. In 1925 one American dollar could buy 20 French francs, while a pound sterling could buy 50 French francs. This meant that expatriate Americans were particularly well-off in a city where a decent meal could be had for one franc, a room in a hotel could be let for 200 francs a month, and a journalist like Sam Howard was paid $60 a month, which equaled roughly 1,200 francs. This happy state of affairs only lasted until October 1929, when the beginning of the Depression prompted many American expatriates to return home.
Reading Group Questions
1.Other cities in Europe—for instance Rome, Venice, Barcelona, Vienna, or London—are arguably just as beautiful and historic as Paris. Why, then, are we so drawn to the City of Lights? And what is it about Paris in the 1920s that we find so particularly fascinating?
2.Did you enjoy encountering real-life figures in the pages of Moonlight Over Paris? Is it possible to portray such iconic figures as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway with any degree of accuracy? Or has their fame obscured the real men behind the legends?
3.This novel is set six years after the end of World War I, but even still the characters and Paris itself are affected by those years. How do we see this with our characters? What do we see of this in the city itself?
4.Would a year in Paris, with all the freedom that Helena enjoys, have been possible for most women in that era? Or was it the case that her family’s wealth and status made it more easily achievable for her?
5.If you were able to read the story of one of the other fictional characters in the book, whose would it be? Étienne’s? Aunt Agnes’s? Another of the secondary figures?
6.Music, visual art, and the written word play a big role in this story. Why do you think that Paris became such an epicenter for artistic expression during this time? Do you think the aftermath of the war played any part in this?
7.How does the character of Helena change and evolve over the course of the novel?
8.In what ways is Sam a typical man of his time? Are there ways in which he transcends the conventions and expectations of his era?
9.Do you think Helena ends up fulfilling the promise she makes to herself at the beginning of the book?
Read on
Further Reading
THE FOLLOWING TITLES represent only a fraction of the sources I consulted when researching Moonlight Over Paris, but if you are interested in learning more about the era, the people who lived through it, and the places that appear in my book, these books and articles are a good place to start. Most should be easily available through your local library or bookseller, though some are now out of print.
To begin, there is no better place to start than with John Baxter’s guides and histories to Paris. Few people know the City of Lights better than he, and if you can’t travel to Paris you can at least see the city through his eyes in The Most Beautiful Walk in the World: A Pedestrian in Paris and The Golden Moments of Paris: A Guide to the Paris of the 1920s. For a more general understanding of French life and culture in the interwar period, I recommend Paris 1919-1939: Art, Life, and Culture by Gérard Durozoi. For a history of art and artists in these years, Cubism and Twentieth-Century Art by Robert Rosenblum is an excellent resource.
The memoirs of the Lost Generation, though often unreliable in regard to details of their relationships and work, nonetheless contain a wealth of illuminating information on their day-to-day lives. Best known, of course, is A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway, but I also recommend The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas (which was actually written by Gertrude Stein), Shakespeare and Company by Sylvia Beach, Paris Was Yesterday by Janet Flanner, That Summer in Paris by Morley Callaghan, and Memoirs of Montparnasse by John Glassco.
For biographies of key Lost Generation figures, I recommend Hemingway: The Paris Years by Michael Reynolds, Paris Without End: The True Story of Hemingway’s First Wife by Gioia Diliberto, F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Paris Years by Paul Brody, Zelda: An Illustrated Life by Eleanor Lanahan, Gertrude and Alice by Diana Souhami, and Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A History of Literary Paris in the Twenties and Thirties by Noel Riley Fitch.
To learn more about the salons of Gertrude Stein and Natalie Barney, search out “The Stein Salo
n was the First Museum of Modern Art” by James R. Mellow (New York Times, 1 December 1968) and Wild Heart: Natalie Clifford Barney and the Decadence of Literary Paris by Suzanna Rodriguez.
For more information on Sara and Gerald Murphy, I recommend Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy—A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill, “Living Well is the Best Revenge” by Calvin Tomkins (New Yorker, 28 July 1962), and Sara and Gerald: Villa America and After by Honoria Murphy Donnelly and Richard N. Billings.
The memoirs of the men who worked at the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune make for especially entertaining reading. The best of these are The Start by William L. Shirer, The Last Time I Saw Paris by Elliott Paul, and The Paris Edition: The Autobiography of Waverley Root, 1927-1934. News of Paris: American Journalists in the City of Light Between the Wars by Ronald Weber is an excellent resource as well.
Last of all, if you would like to read more fiction set in this period, I recommend Villa America by Liza Klaussmann, The Beautiful American by Jeanne Mackin, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, Call Me Zelda by Erika Robuck, and The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig.
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Daisy’s story continues in
“All for the Love of You”
an all-new short story in the anthology,
FALL OF POPPIES
Stories of Love and the Great War
Coming March 2016
Praise for After the War is Over
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“Jennifer Robson returns with mastery once more to the World War I era. . . . She evokes true beauty by showing the hope and courage in rebuilding lives and the promise of a world born anew. This is a moving and memorable book.” —Pam Jenoff, author of The Winter Guest
“A beautifully old-fashioned novel of the very best sort.” —Deanna Raybourn, New York Times bestselling author of The Dark Enquiry and A Curious Beginning
Praise for Somewhere in France
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“Set in the turbulent years of the first world war, Somewhere in France is a heartfelt portrait of love, courage, and self-discovery. Robson deftly weaves a tale richly steeped in the atmosphere, drama, and heroism of an evolving and war-torn world. A compelling and memorable read.” —Lynn Sheene, author of The Last Time I Saw Paris
“. . . the fiercely independent Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford (Lily) will be sure to inspire readers.” —Huffington Post
Also By Jennifer Robson
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Credits
Cover design by Emin Mancheril
Cover photographs: © Richard Jenkins Photography (couple);
© Collaboration JS/Arcangel Images (man’s face); © Axiom Photographic/
Design Pics/Corbis (background); © vichie81/Shutterstock
(sky detail)
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
P.S.™ is a trademark of HarperCollins Publishers.
MOONLIGHT OVER PARIS. Copyright © 2016 by Jennifer Robson. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
FIRST EDITION
EPub Edition January 2016 ISBN 9780062389831
ISBN 978-0-06-238982-4
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