A Moveable Feast
Hemingway and Stein remember their shared Paris circle from opposite sides of a long friendship and quarrel.
Read our takeThe Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Gertrude Stein
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
Gertrude Stein tells the story of her Paris life and artistic circle in the voice of her partner, Alice B. Toklas.
- 1933
- 272
About Gertrude Stein
The story, briefly
Spoiler-freeDespite its title, this is Gertrude Stein’s account of her own life, written as though Alice B. Toklas were telling it. The book moves through their Paris home and salon, where painters and writers including Picasso, Matisse, Hemingway, and Fitzgerald gathered. It is both a record of the modernist art world and a playful act of self-portraiture.
What the book covers
The book begins with Toklas’s early life and arrival in Paris, then turns toward her life with Stein. From their home on the rue de Fleurus, the couple meet and host many of the painters and writers who shaped early twentieth-century modernism.
Stein uses Toklas’s voice to describe Stein’s own work, friendships, arguments, travels, and growing reputation. The unusual point of view is part of the book’s joke and part of its argument about who gets to tell a life.
Why we recommend it
The rue de Fleurus salon from inside
It places the reader in the Paris home where Stein and Toklas received painters, writers, friends, and rivals.
Another account of Hemingway’s circle
Several people from A Moveable Feast appear here from Stein’s very different perspective.
A memoir with an unusual narrator
Stein writes about herself in Toklas’s voice, making the form part of the book’s meaning.
What this book explores
Book editions
Hardcover
- Hardcover
- Harcourt, Brace and Company
- 1933
- Paperback
- Penguin Classics
- 2001
- 9780141185361
Reader reviews
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Read our takeIf you like Gertrude Stein
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Sherwood Anderson
Her loudest American champion — he wrote the introduction to her Geography and Plays, and it was his letter that first brought Hemingway to her door.
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Louis-Ferdinand Céline
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References
References
The sources below include the primary text, editions, scholarship, archival materials, and other records that informed this page. They document The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, its publication, and its place in literary history.
1The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
MemoirGertrude Stein, 1933Used forThe primary text represented by this page, used for descriptions of the work’s contents and for any quoted passages shown here.
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Why these sources are here
The primary text is the baseline reference for every book page. Additional references document publication history, interpretation, and historical context where that evidence is available.
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