Shakespeare and Company, Independent Bookstore
Shakespeare and Company is an English-language bookshop in the heart of Paris. Since opening in 1951, it’s been a meeting place for anglophone writers and readers, becoming a Left Bank literary institution.
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Independent Bookstore Books View all Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte 26 € Yearly Subscription View all Year of Reading by Shakespeare and Company 285 € Rare Books View all Claudine à Paris Colette 400 € Gifts & Merch View all Writer's Essentials Bundle 46 € “Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance.” JAMES JOYCE, ULYSSES Gifts & Merchandise View all Bookshop Façade T-shirt 45 € Bloomsbury Tote Bag 45 € Supposedly Fun Things display View all The Dinner Party Viola van de Sandt 22 € The Dinner Herman Koch 16 € Symposium Muriel Spark 16 € Just a Little Dinner Cecile Tlili 18 € View all Supposedly Fun Things display Our Bestsellers View all Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 14 € On the Calculation of Volume I Solvej Balle 18 € Howl Howard Jacobson 27 € Mother Mary Comes To Me Arundhati Roy 23 € View all Our Bestsellers Newsletter Sign-up for our newsletter Sign up to our monthly newsletter for information about the bookshop, upcoming events and our latest recommendations. A year of Reading with Shakespeare and Company 12 titles from among our booksellers' favourite contemporary fiction, new non-fiction, thought-provoking poetry and overlooked classics; accompanied by a variety of Shakespeare and Company surprises. More details New Titles View all A House in Sicily Luisa Adorno 21 € Canon Paige Lewis 23 € Fieldwork as a Sex Object Meena Kandasamy 21 € The Pilgrimage John Broderick 18 € View all New Titles Our Staff Picks View all Death of the Author Nnedi Okorafor 16 € My Brother Jamaica Kincaid 16 € Cousin Bette Honore de Balzac 16 € The Scramble for Africa Thomas Pakenham 26 € View all Our Staff Picks Events 28 May 2026 , 19:00 Edward Chisholm on Murder in Paris '68 We're delighted to be joined by the author of A Waiter In Paris to discuss his investigation into the 1960s Parisian underworld and an unsolved murder that brought the country to its knees. In conversation with Adam Biles. Free & open to all. Places limited. Arrive early to avoid disappointment 02 June 2026 , 19:00 Meena Kandasamy on Fieldwork as a Sex Object We're thrilled to welcome back Meena Kandasamy to discuss her incendiary new novel of incels, influencers and AK-47s from the ‘one-woman, agitprop literary-political movement’ (Independent). In conversation with Adam Biles. Free & open to all. Places limited. Arrive early to avoid disappointment. View All Podcasts George Saunders: Fiction, Free Will, and the Question of Redemption Narrative Amid Trauma: Emily LaBarge in conversation Murder, Mannerism and the Medicis with Laurent Binet View All History 1/2 "I created this bookstore like a man would write a novel, building each room like a chapter, and I like people to open the door the way they open a book, a book that leads into a magic world in their imaginations." — George Whitman Shakespeare and Company History Booklet Krista Halverson 12 € Shakespeare and Company is an independent, English-language bookshop located on the banks of the Seine, opposite Notre-Dame. It has been a meeting place for writers and readers in Paris for more than seventy years. In 1951, Shakespeare and Company was opened by George Whitman on rue de la Bûcherie. It was given its name by Sylvia Beach, who called the shop the “spiritual successor” to her own. Beach’s bookstore, on rue de l’Odéon (1919-1941), had been a gathering place for the great expat writers of the time, including Hemingway, Stein, Fitzgerald, Eliot, and Pound—and it was Beach who first published Joyce’s Ulysses, when no one else dared. George’s bookstore quickly became a center for anglophone literary life in Paris. James Baldwin, William Burroughs, Anaïs Nin, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Wright, Julio Cortázar, and Henry Miller were early visitors. From the first day—writers, artists, and intellectuals were invited to sleep for free among the shelves. Since then, more than 30,000 people have stayed in the bookshop, which itself has grown from a single narrow room on the ground floor to the labyrinth of books and nooks readers know today. George’s only child, Sylvia Whitman, now runs the bookshop with David Delannet, her partner in life and business. They’ve embarked on several new adventures, including adding a café, a literary festival, a writing contest, and a publishing arm. Shakespeare and Company continues to host regular literary events, which are available for free on the shop’s podcast. Guests have included Zadie Smith, Don DeLillo, Carol Ann Duffy, Colson Whitehead, Leïla Slimani, Rachel Cusk, George Saunders, Karl Ove Knausgaard, and Jeanette Winterson. George’s novel, this bookshop, is today still being written by a dedicated team of booksellers and by all the people who continue to read, write, and sleep at Shakespeare and Company. Thank you for your support. Read on Newsletter Sign-up for our newsletter Sign up to our monthly newsletter for information about the bookshop, upcoming events and our latest recommendations.
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