‘Rue de Stratford-on-Odéon‘: Adrienne Monnier's belated tribute*

Monnier's bookshop soon became a meeting place for the literary elite: Colette, Walter Benjamin, Louis Aragon, André Breton, Jacques Prévert, André Gide, Paul Valéry, Blaise Cendrars, Nathalie Sarraute and Guillaume Apollinaire, who returned directly from the front – they all found not only books, but also an intellectual sanctuary here. Monnier revolutionised the way literature was handled: she was one of the first to introduce public readings – a completely new concept at the time – and developed a library model with an annual subscription that was far ahead of its time. Her conviction: you should be able to read a book before deciding to buy it.

Adrienne Monnier in front of her bookshop and lending library ‘La Maison des Amis des Livres’ (probably 1915)

When her friend and later companion Sylvia Beach opened ‘Shakespeare and Company’ as an Anglo-Saxon counterpart at 8 Rue Dupuytren on 19 November 1919, Monnier was at her side in an advisory capacity. But it was only when Beach moved to larger premises at 12 rue de l'Odéon on 27 July 1921 – directly opposite ‘La Maison des Amis des Livres’ – that the real magic began. This is how the legendary ‘l'Odéonie’ came into being.

Directions to the bookshops ‘La Maison des Amis des Livres’ and ‘Shakespeare and Company’ and price list

Between the two bookstores, a unique space for modern literature and new ideas developed in the interwar period. James Joyce, Sherwood Anderson, Thornton Wilder, John Dos Passos, André Maurois, T.S. Elliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and many others met here. For almost three decades, cultural life pulsated here with meetings, public readings, exhibitions and musical evenings.

James Joyce and Sylvia Beach in front of ‘Shakespare and Company’ at 8 Rue Dupuytren

The publication of James Joyce's ‘Ulysses’ in 1922 and its French translation in 1929 made Adrienne Monnier and especially Sylvia Beach famous beyond France's borders. Joyce himself affectionately coined the nickname ‘Rue de Stratford-on-Odéon’ for the Rue de l'Odéon – an appreciation of the literary centre that had emerged here.

While a plaque commemorates ‘Shakespeare and Company’ today, it took the persistence of biographer Laure Murat and seventeen years of struggle before the Paris City Council approved a plaque for Monnier on 17 November 2020.

On 10 September 2021, it will be unveiled in a formal ‘Cérémonie de dévoilement de la plaque en hommage à ADRIENNE MONNIER’ – a late tribute to the woman who, as the actual inventor of this revolutionary business idea, laid the foundation for literary Paris in the interwar period.

The plaque commemorates the fact that Monnier not only received Apollinaire, the Surrealists, Gide, Claudel, Colette and Violette Leduc here, but also published the first French translation of ‘Ulysses’.

Unveiling of the plaque in memory of Adrienne Monnier on 10 September 2021 at 7 rue de l'Odéon

Adrienne Monnier founded the House of Booklovers here in 1915, a bookshop and lending library.

Jacques Prévert created a literary monument to her in the form of a poem – a declaration of love for Adrienne Monnier and her bookshop on the Rue de Stratford-on-Odéon.

La Maison des Amis des Livres. Jacques Prévert

Une boutique, un petit magasin, une baraque foraine, un temple, un igloo, les coulisses d'un théâtre, un musée de cire et de rêves, un salon de lecture et parfois une librairie toute simple avec des livres à vendre ou à louer et à render, et des clients, les amis des livres, venus pour les feuilleter, les acheter, les emporter. Et les lire. (…)  Adrienne, avant de fermer boutique, toute seule avec ses livres, comme on sourit aux anges, leur souriait. Les livres, comme de bons diables, lui rendaient son sourire. Elle gardait ce sourire et s'en allait. Et ce sourire éclairait toute la rue, la rue de l'Odéon, la rue d'Adrienne Monnier.

Les Amis des Livres. A boutique, a small shop, a fairground stall, a temple, an igloo, the wings of a theatre, a wax museum and dreams, a reading room and sometimes a simple bookshop with books for sale or for rent and return and customers – the friends of books who have come to leaf through them, buy them, take them home – to read them. (...) Adrienne smiled before closing the shop, all alone with her books, as one smiles and smiles at angels. The books returned her smile, like good devils. She kept that smile and disappeared. And that smile lit up the whole street, Rue de l'Odéon, Rue d'Adrienne Monnier. (Translation: Klaus Lintemeier)

P.S.

This article appeared in an earlier version as a guest article on 01.12.2024 in the ‘Paris and France Blog’ by Dr. Wolf Jöckel. Thank you very much for the first publication!

Literature

Beach, Sylvia (2008): Shakespeare and Company: Ein Buchladen in Paris. – Suhrkamp Verlag. (Die englischsprachige Ausgabe von 1991. Die gebundene Ausgabe von 1959).

Buchner, Carl H. (2023): Aufzeichnungen aus der Rue de l'Odéon: Schriften 1917–1953. Erinnerungen der legendären Pariser Buchhändlerin Taschenbuch. – herausgegeben von Carl H. Bugner. – Insel Verlag.

Jean, Bernard (1980): Mon beau navire. – Buchet/Chastel.

Maher, Kerri (2022): Die Buchhändlerin von Paris: Die berühmteste Buchhandlung Frankreichs, das »gefährlichste Buch des Jahrhunderts« und eine Liebe im Paris der 1920er. – Insel Verlag.

Monnier, Adrienne (2009): Rue de l’Odéon. – Édition Albin Michel.

Murat, Laure (2024): Passage de l'Odéon: Sylvia Beach, Adrienne Monnier et la vie littéraire à Paris dans l'entre-deux-guerres. – Gallimard.