The Parisian Cafe: A Literary Companion

by Val Clark

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Editorial Reviews

What is a Parisian café? A Renoir painting, a passage from Hemingway, a photograph by Brassao. All help to define the romantic but elusive idea that is the Parisian cafe in the minds of people the world over. The art and literature presented in this charming volume add up to a seductive presentation of the cafe experience, capturing the ideal of grace and sophisticated leisure that is the Parisian cafe. The wide range of writing from renowned authors such as Marguerite Duras, Albert Camus, M. Somerset Maugham, and Ernest Hemingway together create a vivid impression of this icon of Western, indeed, world culture. Art in a variety of media, from painting and photography to drawings, etchings, and posters from an array of artists including Brassao, Man Ray, Kertesz, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, and van Gogh complements the writings to bring the reader a complete portrait of one of the most charming aspects of the city of light.

Customer Reviews

Transport yourself to the Parisian Cafe, 2005-04-03
by Avid Reader

This is an artistic and literary presentation of the Parisian café. The beautiful photographs and matching quotes are an inspiration to the reader who readily senses the author's knowledge of the subject and her devotion to those cafes that were the haven for great painters, photographers, and writers. As one traverses the pages of this elegant, petite volume, one becomes, in one's imagination, a frequenter of those cafes, enjoying their seductive ambiance, while sipping coffee, chatting with artists and friends, admiring the decor without and within, and hoping to find, in this world, a café that can bestow upon him such joy and offer him a home away from home.

Everyone has two countries - his own and Paris, 2003-05-15
by Bernard M. Patten (Seabrook, TX United States)

Wow! I found this little gem at the bookstore at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. The cover attracted me because it looked like a scene I had seen many times when I lived and wrote in Paris. Any writer who has spent time in Cafe le Dome or Le Select will get multiple nostalgia attacks looking over the pictures and reading the quotes from Shaw, Papa Hemingway, Camus and the other greats. The review title above about everyone having two countries comes from Thomas Jefferson who loved Paris. Too bad he is dead, for he too would have also loved Val Clark's wonderful little book.

Celebrating the fullness of being, 2003-02-14
by M. Hebert (Brooklyn, NY)

A Literary Companion, indeed! As a writer, lover of Paris and cafes--I found this book delightful, and the perfect companion for a cold winter day. For like the cafe it celebrates, it has the ability to lift my spirits the moment I "enter" its sumptuous pages. Val Clark has done a masterful job in matching up the evocative photographs of Doisneau and Brassai, the art of Van Gogh, Manet, Bemelmans and much more--with the words of writers and artists that endure because they resonate with that fullness of being that the cafe nurtures. This little book pays loving homage to that sensibility. Thank you Val Clark!

The Parisian Cafe: A Literary Companion, 2003-01-04
by Peter Donahue (Birmingham, AL)

Val Clark's selection of images and quotations evoking the literary life of Paris cafes is like sitting down to a cafe creme at Les Deux Magots with your favorite writers. Clark has scoured literary sources both familiar and overlooked to compile an ecclectic assemblage of testimonies on the allure of Paris cafes. She pairs these testimonies with images (photographs, oils, watercolors) so naturally that it seems the writers and artists had collaborated: Langston Hughes and Vincent Van Gogh, Irwin Shaw and Andre Kertesz, Henry Miller and LeRoy Neiman, and many, many more. The Introduction gives an insightful and appreciative overview of the essential role of cafes in Paris literary and artistic life. Like a good cafe, this charming books offers a respite from our hectic work-a-day lives. A delight!

A beautiful book, 2003-01-03

This is a great book! Val Clark has assembled a wonderful collection of photos and quotes that transport the reader to the Paris café scene of Hemingway, Anais Nin and Albert Camus. Flipping through the pages of this beautifully laid out book will send any reader into another world entirely. I would say that it is an ideal coffee table book, except that two friends have already asked to borrow it from my coffee table!