People of the Seine Summary and Analysis

Hemingway describes the various ways one can walk to the Seine River in Paris and stroll down the quais, the riverside streets that run along the river. On these streets are bookstalls where he sometimes finds books in English. One bookseller often has books left behind by the residents of a nearby inn, which she sells cheaply, having no interest in finding out if they are valuable or not. Other stalls have books in English, which they generally treat as worthless, most of them having been left behind in hotel rooms. Hemingway describes the booksellers with an ironic amusement. They treat the English books as objects only, uninterested in their contents.

Along the river itself are fishermen with long cane poles catching a fish called goujon, which Hemingway finds delicious. He sometimes buys some wine...