Audio GuideShakespeare and Company
Iconic, English-language bookstore stocking new & used titles in bohemian surrounds since 1951.
Bookshop
Paris, France
Tucked away in the very centre of Paris, just a short stroll from the soaring towers of Notre-Dame Cathedral, lies one of the city’s most treasured retreats for book lovers: Shakespeare and Company. Set on a peaceful street in the Latin Quarter—in Paris’s fifth arrondissement—the comforting scent of well-worn paper mingles with the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, as gentle whispers from readers drift through the air. For more than seventy years, this eccentric English-language bookshop has been a cherished refuge for the curious and the creative.
However, its story begins even earlier, in the aftermath of the First World War. In nineteen nineteen, Sylvia Beach—an American with a vision to share English literature with fellow enthusiasts—opened the first Shakespeare and Company. Her shop quickly became a meeting point for exiles, poets, and artists, capturing the creative heartbeat of Paris. Literary giants such as Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, and Gertrude Stein would spend hours here, deep in conversation about art and life. In an extraordinary act of bravery, Sylvia published the very first edition of Joyce’s “Ulysses” after others had refused.
Difficult times followed. The Second World War and the occupation of France forced the closure of the original shop. Yet, in the early nineteen fifties, another American named George Whitman breathed new life into the tradition by opening an English-language bookshop on rue de la Bûcherie. To honour Sylvia Beach, he named it Shakespeare and Company. George was famous for his generosity: he offered weary travellers a bed to sleep among the bookshelves, asking only for a few hours of help in the shop each day and that they read a book—a custom that survives to this day.
Soon enough, Shakespeare and Company became the beating heart of the city’s post-war bohemian revival—a place where dreamers would meet. Writers and musicians from the Beat Generation, including Allen Ginsberg and even Jim Morrison, found a haven here. The shop holds regular poetry evenings, Sunday teas, and literary festivals, continuing to bring together people with a passion for books from all corners of the globe. Nowadays, under the care of Sylvia Whitman, George’s daughter, this family tradition endures, its doors always open to readers and would-be writers alike.
For those in search of the true essence of Paris’s literary and artistic life, Shakespeare and Company continues to be a vibrant and historic sanctuary—a book-filled space where stories are shared, imagined, and lived.
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