Lost Generation: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s

by Michael Shelden

Genres: Nonfiction, Audiobook, History, Literature, Biography

Audiobook

Reviews

[Laurel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Paris and the 1920s. What's not to love?

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

I listened to this as a follow up to David McCullough's book The Greater Journey which chronicles the ex-pat community in Paris from 1830's to 1900ish. Sheldens work is very accessible and each lecture progresses the series like a chapter book. Heavy on Hemingway and Fitzgerald.
I have been reading and enjoying the spare prose of Hemingway for years without truly understanding him on a deeper level now I have good reason to revisit some of his work. Listen to this series of lectures if you want to have a good framework for better understanding The Lost Generation. I am thrilled to have discovered Michael Sheldon.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved these lectures on the various people and events that revolved around the height of the Lost Generation being formed in Paris. Shelden obviously favors Hemingway, but then again, so do I so this worked for me.

[Roberta Westwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good

Half university lecture series, half good non-fiction book. Flowed so well I forgot it was a series of lectures until we transitioned from one to the next. A deep look at Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Joyce, along with Beach and Stein, and the literary world in Paris. Did a better job at explaining the falling out between Fitzgerald and Stein than I’ve encountered before, and just how cheap Paris was during this time… two things I really appreciated.

[Brenda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent review of some of the key players from "The Lost Generation", i.e., Hemingway, Fitzgerald and many of the surrounding characters. Shelden keeps the information conversational and interesting. Compared to some other experts of the era, he held my focus and helped me understand why this era is important to literature.

[Hashim Alsughayer · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's the best 101 course you could get about the Lost Generation.
Now I know it does not cover all the different aspects of that amazing literary period, but at least you will get to pass the first step in your research.

[DL Link · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great lectures. Loved professor Sheldon. Would love to take one of his classes.

[Sheryl Ostrye · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read if you are a fan of Hemingway and Fitzgerald and their contemporaries.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-

[Katherine]

This was my first experience with The Modern Scholar series.

I found the lectures to be very informative and thought provoking.

I think this era holds a certain element of mystique for people of our generation, which has now been accentuated recently by the film Midnight in Paris and the retelling of The Great Gatsby. Anyone who is interested in this unique time in the history of American literature should listen to these lectures. They are very accessible and the listener does not necessarily need to have an in-depth knowledge of the works / writers that are discussed. However, if the listener has read the works and has studied the lives of these authors, the lectures will provide a deeper understanding and different perspective. If the listener is discovering these for the first time, then the lectures will whet the appetite to learn more and read the works to see what all of the fuss is about. At the very least, I would imagine every listener will be tempted to buy A Moveable Feast (if they do not already own it). These lectures will provide a foundation for understanding the context in which it is written and allow the listener/reader to form his/her own opinion about the works created during this very interesting period in history.

[Jan Chlapowski Söderlund · Rating 3 out of 5]

* * * - I liked the book.

Michael Shelden narrates a series of lectures about a few American cultural personalities meeting in and being influenced by the city of Paris. What I have against the lectures, is that the only persons covered in detail are Ernest Hemingway, Scott Fitzgerald, Sylvia Beach (founder of the bookstore Shakespeare and Company) and Gertrude Stein. There must have been a few more that are worth mentioning more than just in passing? Other authors and cultural personalities are mentioned, but only as parantheses.

The authors described are done so in a disarmingly romantisised way. They are portrayed as larger-than-life, as if destined for fame from the start without any of the initial insecurity or humanity they are bound to have been filled with. It is a homage or ode to their greatness. Elevating each and every action, word and passing glance to a superhuman level. Even though this strips them of any kind of human familiarity, it is quite charming in its own slightly pompous way.

Definitely worth listening to, spreading some light on the immediate post-War period from a American cultural perspective. Now I want to hear about all the other artists of this epoch!

[Lisa C · Rating 3 out of 5]

This work had a very different feel from my first experience with modern scholar lectures. The previous series of lectures was very much like listening to a professor give his weekly lecture. This work was much more of a performance -- a storyteller who knew that his audience would be listening partially for entertainment, and he adapted his style accordingly. He had a genuine enthusiasm for his subject. Unfortunately for me, I don't. I very much enjoyed the first 3-4 lectures, which focused on the atmosphere in Paris and explained why writing worked so well at that time and in that place. The latter part of the series focused on Hemingway and Fitzgerald in particular, and while interesting, didn't hold me quite as well. In particular, I'm rather sick of artists and the "they have to focus on themselves in order to express themselves artistically" attitude which the professor seemed to subscribe to.

[Valerie J K · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a lecture series on American expatriates, members of the Lost Generation who lived and wrote in Paris in the 1920s. It read more like a book than a lecture series, and I was fascinated with the characters: Sylvia Beach, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Scott & Zelda Fitzgerald, and Earnest Hemingway. I've been reading Fitzgerald's Tales of the Jazz age, and this series gave me background and insight into his short stories as well as his novel The Great Gatsby. I admire Hemingway's role as a dedicated worker who produced and valued substance.

One of my favorite quotes from Hemingway regarding the scene..."They are nearly all loafers, expending the energy that an artist puts into his creative work in talking about what they were going to do and condemning the work of all artists who have gained any recognition. By talking about art, they gain the same satisfaction that the real artist does in his work..."

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting history and relationships in France.