15 January 2010. Shakespeare & Company, Paris.
Spent today in Chartres, doing nothing at all. It was a good day to do nothing (rain and miserable weather), and well deserved (I tell myself) after a long and wonderful day in Paris. I mentioned that I spent some time in Shakespeare & Company yesterday; this is it. This is not the original bookstore that helped rocket James Joyce and the lost generation to fame. S&Co I was closed during WWII, allegedly because Sylvia refused a German soldier her last copy of Finnegans Wake. (Let him have it, for all I care.) Another bookstore specializing in English literature opened in the early 1950s, and upon Beach's death, renamed itself Shakespeare & Company. Was this to render homage to S&C I, or to avoid copyright claims from Ms. Beach? After all, this marvelous bookstore no longer operates as a lending library, as the original did. Their selection of new English books was extensive, but expensive as well. Yes, the current owners maintain that oh-so-french spirit of socialism by allowing up-and-coming (or down-and-going) writers to live and work in the shop, but still. Library! I want it!
The shop was hosting author Wally Lamb that night for a talk and book signing. Oprah would approve, but WWGSS (What Would Gertrude Stein Say)?
On a somewhat-related note, one of the literature teachers at the lycée refuses to teach Corneille/Racine. In their place, Shakespeare. Translated.
On a somewhat-related note, one of the literature teachers at the lycée refuses to teach Corneille/Racine. In their place, Shakespeare. Translated.
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2 comments:
Take a right out of Shakespeare & Co, right on Rue Fouarre, tea shop with a purple sign a few doors down on the right - so good and adorable. Also, my class was the building next door to the right of this tea shop. I'm so effing jalouse. Tu me manques, and expect comments on all of your posts as well as a creepy dedication to reading your blog.
-Mlle. Lauren B.
I've added your directions to my little black book. Can't wait to wander the latin district and sip parisian tea that I KNOW will be good, because you've recommended it.
Come here now.
And leave me tons of comments.
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