It was hard not to feel that Paris was the place.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: The entirety of The Paris Bookseller is set in Paris between the first and second World Wars. This quotation, the first sentence in the novel, serves to establish that the European city was pinnacle to the modernist literary movement. The city’s sexually liberated cultural helped to foster creative experimentation and served as a haven for artists to create provocative creative work.

And Sylvia believed with all her heart, that this was the purpose of art, to be new, to make change, to alter minds.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: At the beginning of the novel, Sylvia is still considering pursuing writing; she wants to create social change and disrupt cultural norms. The author utilizes this moment to establish the ethos that motivates the protagonist’s investment in the artistic community. While she does not create her own art, in the narrative present, she...