The Paris Bookseller

Sylvia, Adrienne, Cyprian, and Suzanne become friends and spend more time together. They go to a screening of Cyprian’s series, Judex, and Sylvia struggles with her envy of Adrienne and Suzanne’s relationship. After the show, Cyprian suggests that they visit a known gay bar on Rue Edgar-Quinet; Sylvia realizes that Cyprian is not-so-subtly attempting to bring the women’s sexual orientations out into the open.

As the women continue to spend time together and bond, Sylvia begins to notice that Suzanne is increasingly ill. One day, she visits the bookshop when Adrienne is alone, and together they visit the Musée d’Orsay. Cyprian chastises Sylvia for her growing feelings for Adrienne, stating that Adrienne might “get bored easily” (20). Soon, Sylvia decides to open a bookshop of her own: a French-language shop in New York. Before she goes to New York to implement this plan, however, she takes a significant detour to volunteer with the Red Cross in Serbia. During this time, she reads James Joyce’s Portrait of a Young Man and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass while she helps tend to troubled villages. She still dreams about running a cozy, welcoming bookshop like Adrienne’s, but her mother, Eleanor, tries to discourage her from this goal, cautioning Sylvia that rents are skyrocketing. Adrienne also writes to Sylvia and announces that Suzanne has gotten married to a man. Sylvia is confused but knows that there must be a utilitarian reason for such a loveless union.

When Sylvia returns to Paris, she visits Adrienne and learns that Suzanne has died. She begins to reconsider her original plan for a New York-based bookshop and instead decides to open an English-language bookshop in Paris. She and Adrienne grow closer, but Adrienne is still mourning Suzanne. Together, they find a good location for Sylvia’s shop near Adrienne’s. Eleanor sends Sylvia some money to get started. Sylvia uses the money to travel to London to look for stock and decides to call her shop “Shakespeare and Company.” Back in Paris, she and Adrienne continue preparing the new shop. They also exchange keys and consider the changing times as they head into a new decade. As an opening gift, Adrienne gives Sylvia a stack of exquisite stationary cards by Suzanne’s favorite printer. They kiss, but Adrienne cuts the contact short, as she is still grieving her recent loss.

Sylvia and Cyprian prepare for the shop’s grand opening. Adrienne has prepared a feast. She introduces Sylvia to their neighbor, a butcher named Michel. He looks forward to browsing the new shop. After he leaves, Sylvia and Adrienne discuss France’s legalization of romantic and sexual relationships between women and contrast this state of affairs with the repressive approach of the United States, which considers such relationships to be illegal. The two women open the new shop and greet friends and family, including Adrienne’s “Potasson” writer friends and her sister, Rintte. Several curious locals also come to investigate and offer well wishes. They encourage Sylvia to make a speech, and Sylvia proudly pronounces her shop to be “a place of exchange between English and French thinking” (49). After the party, Sylvia and Adrienne begin kissing. They go to Adrienne’s apartment and finally engage in an intimate relationship.

Sylvia falls deeply in love with Adrienne, which changes the way she perceives literature. She begins reading the serialization of James Joyce’s Ulysses in an American publication called The Little Review. The novel has become controversial for its detailed depictions of sexuality and the body. From home, Sylvia receives letters from friends and family detailing the United States’s increasingly oppressive policies toward romantic relationships between members of the same sex. Soon after, the celebrated Gertrude Stein comes into Sylvia’s shop with her partner, Alice. She tests Sylvia by inquiring about her taste in novels and literary journals; Gertrude voices distrust and disdain for “that Irishman” (59), James Joyce. She takes out a lending card from Sylvia, and Sylvia feels that this encounter is a rite of passage confirming her place in the Parisian literary community.

Sylvia adjusts to life as a bookseller, though her shop is not yet turning a profit. Valery stops by to visit and tells her that James Joyce is in Paris. Later, Michel comes by to request a book for his sister. She recommends Joyce’s Portrait of a Young Man, and Michel tells her that he has begun seeing a ballerina named Julie. He expresses respect for Sylvia’s safe relationship with Adrienne. Soon afterward, Sylvia attends a party with Adrienne and learns that Joyce and his common-law wife, Nora, are there in attendance; she feels nervous about meeting him for the first time. She visits with her friend Ezra Pound, and they discuss the fact that The Little Review, which is publishing Joyce’s work, is being waylaid in the post; its editors are in danger of incarceration. Ezra mentions an American lawyer named John Quinn who is helping to fight the censorship.

Sylvia introduces herself to James Joyce and tells him about her bookshop. They rejoin the party, and Sylvia notices that Joyce’s wife forbids him to drink before eight o’clock. Later, Adrienne voices her distrust of Joyce. However, to Sylvia’s dismay, she finds his wife attractive. Adrienne compares Joyce to a “crooked Jesus” (75) and states that he is a series of contradictions.

Sylvia’s friend Carlotta writes to her from New York and describes a bombing that has taken place. Sylvia considers the injustice and oppression that America is facing. She feels a need to act against it in some way. Later, Ezra tells Sylvia that Ulysses is being put on trial for obscenity, along with two editors and the owner of a bookshop that was selling The Little Review. All three are women. Sylvia and Ezra discuss Joyce’s work and speculate on the reasons why it is so inflammatory; Sylvia believes it’s because the women in his novel aren’t blamed for being sexual. However, Ezra is reluctant to engage in debate. He believes that Joyce himself is unbothered by the controversy, for he is financially supported by his patron, Harriet Weaver. Soon, Joyce enters the bookshop, and they all begin talking about the trial, along with John Quinn’s belief that it will be overthrown if he argues that the text is too dense and complicated to be pornographic. Sylvia believes that the best way to argue the case is to frame Ulysses as art.

Later, Sylvia and Adrienne accept an invitation to one of Gertrude Stein’s famous salons; however, they find on this occasion they are the only ones present. Gertrude wants to know more about their friendship with Joyce. Sylvia tactfully deflects her questions, suggesting that Joyce was inspired by Gertrude’s work. However, Sylvia begins to doubt Joyce’s honesty.

Sylvia, Ezra, and their friends discuss the upcoming trial and Quinn’s suggestion that Ulysses be published as a standalone volume, rather than as a serialization. However, no publisher is willing to take on the challenge. Michel arrives to announce that he and Julie have become engaged, and the group goes out to celebrate. On another day, Joyce visits Sylvia and tells her that his wife, Nora, is threatening to leave him. He is now spending more of Harriet’s money on excesses and is writing so much that he is damaging his health. Sylvia hopes that his novel will find a way forward.