The Paris Novel

Stella and Lucie go to Hotel de Soubise to view the archives. The man who works there finds Victorine’s records, which state that she died in 1927 at 83 years old and that she lived in a suburb of Paris called Colombes. They head back to the bookshop to report their findings to the others, planning an expedition to Victorine’s family home. Daniel tells Stella that she received a telegram from her boss in New York, Miss Shrifte, telling Stella to take all the time away that she needs.

Stella and Lucie go to Colombes and head to the town hall, where the clerk gives them an address. When they arrive at the house, a woman named Madame Bonnet is living there. Lucie speaks to her in French and translates for Stella—Madame Bonnet’s parents moved into the house in 1930, after Victorine’s death, but she says that her mother, whom she will visit the following weekend, might know something about Victorine. She asks Stella and Lucie to return in two weeks, and Stella feels dejected.

They return to the library, and the librarian has more information on Victorine, including where she lived during the time she modeled for Olympia—a neighborhood that, at that time, was dilapidated and dangerous. She says that Victorine presented her work at the Salon six times and that her first exhibit was a self-portrait. The librarian insists that Stella find it. Stella is fascinated, thinking of how much it will reveal about Victorine to see how she painted herself. She wonders if she will like what she finds.

That night at the bookstore, Stella and Daniel look over what the librarian found, the descriptions of where a teenage Victorine lived. The men who wrote about Victorine spoke negatively of her and said that she was a prostitute, making no mention of her artistic endeavors. Stella is determined to find her self-portrait to understand how Victorine saw herself.

Jules visits the bookstore and invites Stella to come along with him on a trip south to visit a painter. Encouraged by George, she agrees to go. On the way there, Jules mentions that the painter they are visiting is Richard Olney. Stella feels angry, thinking that George put him up to bringing her so that she could ask about Celia’s lover. Jules says that George urged him to bring Stella along but had not mentioned Stella’s mother or father—he insists that George did it because he cares about her. He gives Stella the choice not to come along or mention her mother to Richard. They arrive at their hotel, and Jules gives her a suitcase filled with his late wife’s old clothing.

Stella gets settled into her hotel room and opens the suitcase. She is startled when she smells apricots and vanilla—the same scent that had been on the black Dior dress. She realizes that Séverine, the dress’s previous owner, was Jules’s late wife. Stella is stunned, wondering if Jules set this up intentionally. She wills herself not to panic, remembering how she had previously jumped to conclusions. She tries on the clothing in the suitcase, and it fits her perfectly.

She meets Jules in the lobby, and he admits that he was stunned when he first saw her wearing his wife’s favorite dress, but their meeting at Les Deux Magots was indeed a coincidence. He wanted to tell her about the connection to Séverine sooner but could not find the appropriate moment. Stella asks how her clothes ended up in the shop, and Jules simply says that it’s a long story.

Stella wakes up in her hotel, apprehensive about meeting Richard Olney and asking about her father. When she and Jules leave to meet him, she presses him about how Séverine’s dress ended up in the shop. Jules says that he had made preparations to exhibit the clothes in his late wife’s closet in a museum. Upon finding Séverine’s dress in the shop, along with more of her clothing, he had realized that Jean-Marie’s fiancée, Eugenie, had been secretly selling them without his permission. He has not yet talked to Jean-Marie about this and believes that his son likely does not know. Stella asks if she should talk to Richard about Celia and her lover, and Jules says that if she does not ask, she may come to regret it. When they arrive at Richard’s house and Jules introduces her, Richard immediately asks if she is related to Celia. The three of them drink wine and cook together. During dinner, Richard eventually asks about Celia. Stella mentions that she never knew her father, and Richard immediately tells her about the night he met the chef.

Celia’s lover, Django, was a well-known chef whom Richard had admired. As he recounts the evening at his house and the way he and the chef had cooked together, Richard says that although Django spent the night after, they never saw each other again. Richard says that he painted him instead, and Stella realizes that Celia had bought the painting—it hung in their living room during Stella’s childhood. Stella is eager to know more. Richard tells her where Django might be working now but suggests that he may not be easy to track down, so Stella should not get her hopes up.

Stella wakes up in Jules’s chateau in Vezelay after their visit to the south. She meets Jules in the dining room, and he asks her to come look through Séverine’s closet with him. She’s drawn to a Vionnet dress that Séverine had worn when she met Jean-Marie’s fiancée, shortly before she fell ill. Jules urges Stella to keep it and encourages her to look through the rest of her clothes. Jules notices that Eugenie has taken another of her dresses.

They drive back to Paris and talk about Eugenie on the way. Jules asks Stella if she’s happy being a Tumbleweed, and Stella admits that she misses her privacy. He offers her a small flat near the bookstore where he normally stores paintings. Stella is hesitant but tells her that she should see it before she makes her decision. The flat is tiny and filled with paintings, and Stella loves it. When Jules introduces her to the concierge, the woman remarks that he has brought “une autre” (198)—another one, which makes Stella uncomfortable. Stella hesitates but resolves to stay there until Jules returns from a trip to London in a week or two.

Stella returns to Shakespeare and Company. George impatiently asks what Richard said about Celia and her chef, and Stella tells him his name and where he possibly works. Stella expresses her reticence to find him, which irritates George. Stella settles back into life at the bookstore, even though she no longer sleeps there. She thinks about her old life in New York and realizes that it no longer feels like home. After 10 days in the apartment, Stella spontaneously decides to cut her hair short, feeling apprehensive but like a new person. When she returns to the bookstore, Daniel and Rachel compliment her.

Stella continues to wait anxiously until she and Lucie can return to Colombes to see Madame Bonnet. When the day arrives, Madame Bonnet says that her parents bought the house after Victorine and her companion, a woman she had lived with, passed away. The neighbors took whatever they wanted from the house, and the rest was burned in a bonfire, including the paintings. Stella is horrified, but Madame Bonnet directs them to an older man in the neighborhood who might know more. Stella and Lucie ask him about the house, and he says that he remembers the bonfire; one of his friends darted into it to take one of the paintings. The friend has since passed away, and a young American lives in her home. They go ask the American if anything was left behind in the house when he bought it, and he says that the house was full of “junk”; he called Goodwill to pick some of it up and took the rest, including a few paintings, to the flea market in Porte de Vanves.

George tells Stella that the paintings may already be gone and urges her to call Jules since he may be able to track them down. Stella is reluctant to call him, still wondering about the concierge’s comment, but she calls anyway. He arrives at the bookshop, and Lucie relays the story of their visit to Colombes and how Victorine’s paintings may be at Port de Vanves. Jules thinks that their chances of finding the paintings are good, and they plan to go early the next day.

Jules, Stella, and Lucie arrive at Portes de Vanves, and Stella panics when Lucie wanders off alone, but she finds her looking at a portrait that she thinks is Victorine. At first, Stella is not convinced that it is her—the woman in the portrait looks self-assured and wealthy, whereas Victorine had lived in “the lowest streets of Paris” (215). Stella studies the woman’s face, and Lucie points out a faint signature: “V. Meurent.” Stella feels overjoyed by what she has found; the Victorine in this painting looks mature and triumphant. Stella decides that she is ready to go to Enghien-les-Bains, the restaurant where Django works.