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Gene Wilder

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My French Whore: A Love Story Kindle Edition

by Gene Wilder (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.4 167 ratings

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The beloved actor and screenwriter Gene Wilder's first novel, My French Whore, set during World War I, delicately and elegantly explores a most unusual romance. It's almost the end of the war and Paul Peachy, a young railway employee and amateur actor in Milwaukee, realizes his marriage is one-sided. He enlists, and ships off to France. Peachy instantly realizes how out of his depth he is—and never more so than when he is captured. Risking everything, Peachy—who as a child of immigrants speaks German—makes the reckless decision to impersonate one of the enemy's most famous spies.

As the urbane and accomplished spy Harry Stroller, Peachy has access to a world he could never have known existed—a world of sumptuous living, world-weary men, and available women. But when one of those women—Annie, a young, beautiful and wary courtesan—turns out to be more than she seems, Peachy's life is transformed forever.

Length

204
Pages
Language

EN
English
Kindle feature

Sticky notes
On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

St. Martin's Press
Publication date

2007
March 6
File size

195 KB
Kindle feature

Page Flip
Enabled
Kindle feature

Word Wise
Enabled
Kindle feature

Enhanced typesetting
Enabled
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Gene Wilder
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Gene Wilder has written a remarkable period piece. It's an elegantly woven story of intrigue, danger, sex and comedy -but for me the big surprise is that it's a truly moving and eloquent love story.
--Mel Brooks "The hero of MY FRENCH WHORE simply must be imagined as a young Gene Wilder…Wilder keeps the romance flowing…"--The Seattle Times
"If you loved 'Young Frankenstein', you'll be awfully fond of this."--The Washington Post "A simple straight-faced love story about a brave coward and a scarlet woman drives actor Wilder's touching debut novel."--Publishers Weekly "Slender...nimble..satisfying."--Kirkus Reviews "Gene Wilder's delightful fiction debut--a novel so witty, dramatic and romantic that the reader is left with an indelible mental movie...The love is sweet, the adventure keen, and Wilder's bubbly prose captures Peachy's unforgettable charm."--Los Angeles Times

From Publishers Weekly

A simple, straight-faced love story about a brave coward and a scarlet woman drives actor Wilder's touching debut novel. (His memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger, appeared last year.) It's 1918, and Paul Peachy, an unassuming train conductor and amateur actor in Milwaukee, finds his marriage has run out of steam, and decides to enlist as a dough boy. At nearly 30, Paul has seen little of the world, as his naïve and candid dispatches from the French trenches make clear. Paul, who speaks German, is brought in to interrogate notorious German spy Harry Stroller. Soon sent into the front line, Paul deserts and, in an extraordinary sequence, passes himself off as Harry Stroller. Taken to the local schloss and treated like royalty by the German officials, Paul is given a French whore, Annie Breton, for comfort, and he gradually comes to care for her once she reveals herself to him more than physically. Despite some ensuing heroism, the game's soon up for Peachy, and the novel takes the form of the final, eloquent notebook of a man still finding out who he is. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Gene Wilder has been acting since he was thirteen and writing for the screen since the early 1970's. His first book, about his own life, was KISS ME LIKE A STRANGER. MY FRENCH WHORE is his first novel. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Karen. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter One March, 1918 I used to be a conductor on the train that ran back and forth from Milwaukee to Chicago. Two or three times a year I acted in our local community theater, playing small roles mostly, but occasionally I was given a featured role. When the Milwaukee Players were putting on a play called A Brave Coward, by Winslow Clarke, I was given the part of a cowardly soldier during the Civil War who chooses, for the first time, to do something heroic. This was the biggest role our director had ever given me. Our community theater gave only three performances for each of our plays, and on the last night of A Brave Coward I was in the men’s dressing room applying some Skolgie’s theatrical glue onto a mustache I’d made out of crepe hair, pressing it hard above my upper lip, when our director walked in. His name was John Freidel, but all the actors called him “sir” because we were a little afraid of him. He walked past the other men, who were getting into costumes and going over their lines, and came up to my chair. “You’re late, Peachy,” he said. “Sorry, sir, I came right from work. The train was late.” “Sir” could be very sarcastic when he was giving notes, but I hadn’t heard him yell at anyone yet. He was a tall man and I thought his knee would hurt when he kneeled down next to me on the hard wooden floor, but I certainly wasn’t going to interrupt him. He spoke confidentially, but he was very intense. “You’ve been way too soft these last few nights, Paul. Terribly gentle and polite. A coward isn’t a coward all the goddamn time, you know? You’re starting to act like you’re scared to death. Will you loosen up for me tonight?” “I’ll try, sir,” I said. “When the curtain goes up, forget the goddamn audience! Pretend it’s just a rehearsal. Will you do that for me, Paul?” “I’ll try.” Twenty minutes later my heart was in my throat. I heard the stage manager whisper “Go!” and the curtain went up. There was silence for a moment as the audience waited, and then the first line was spoken. Thank goodness the play went well, and I know the audience liked me because they clapped especially loud when I took my bow during the curtain calls. I looked out into the audience while I was bowing and saw our director sitting in the front row. He gave me a smile and a little nod of approval. When the play was over I kept my mustache on, which I had purposely made the color of my wife’s auburn hair. I kept trying to picture Elsie when she saw it. Elsie and I had only been married for four and a half years, but the romantic part of our relationship seemed to have faded away, like the yellow roses in our backyard at the end of summer. I lived with Elsie and her mother in three rooms on the second floor of a small but clean house in the German-Polish section of Milwaukee. On the bus ride home a pretty girl and a soldier were sitting across the aisle from me, holding hands. The girl smiled at me. Without thinking, I touched my mustache and smiled back at her. Her boyfriend turned and gave me a hard stare. I dropped my head, pretending to be reading my theater program. When I got home I raced up the stairs and unlocked the kitchen door. There was a soft light coming from the half-open door of our bedroom. I stuck my head into the doorway. “Look who’s here!” I said, as rakishly as I could. Elsie was asleep, propped up against two big pillows, her long auburn hair spread out around her. A gas lamp was burning on the nightstand. The sound of my voice woke her. “Oh, Paul,” she said, still half asleep. “I’m sorry, honey—I didn’t know you were sleeping. How do you feel?” “I was waiting up, and then I just dozed off,” she said. I made a tiny leap, trying to feature my mustache. “Look who’s here!” I said. “What time is it?” Elsie asked, trying to see the little table clock on my side of the bed. “It must be a little past ten,” I said. “How do you feel, Elsie?” “Is my mother’s light out?” she asked. There wasn’t any light coming from the adjoining bedroom. “Yes, it’s out,” I said. Still trying to get Elsie to notice my mustache, I made another little John Barrymore leap in the air and said, “Look who’s here, Elsie.” “Paul, if you’re going to eat something, please hurry.” “I’m not hungry, Elsie.” “You must be starving,” she said. “No, I had something on the train. Honestly, I’m not hungry. How do you feel?” “If you cared how I felt, would you have left me tonight?” “Well . . . I did care, even though I left, so the answer must be ‘Yes.’ You look so pretty with your hair that way.” “I don’t feel pretty.” “Isn’t life funny, because you do look so pretty?” “Thank you.” I walked up and sat beside her on the bed. “I brought you something, sweetheart.” “You didn’t bring me another pastry?” she asked. “Oh, Paul, why do you do that?” “It must be love,” I said, taking her hand. “You’ve still got makeup all over your face. Did you know that?” “I must have forgotten—I was so excited after the play, and I wanted to get home before you went to sleep.” I leaned down and kissed her, then took off my trousers and underwear and socks, leaving on my shirt. I turned down the lamp and got into bed. “Don’t touch me like that, Paul.” “Why?” “I don’t feel like it,” she said. “Why?” Elsie turned away. I lay next to her for a while, until I finally fell asleep. The next morning I was punching tickets on the ride back to Milwaukee. The car was stuffed with soldiers and their girlfriends or wives. Mostly girlfriends, I think. Standing or seated, all the couples seemed to be kissing. A few of the older men and women were trying not to look. As I walked down the aisle my attention was caught by a passenger’s newspaper. Six Thousand German Guns Open Fire at 4:50 A.M. 2,500 British guns reply. Copyright © 2007 by Gene Wilder. All rights reserved.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000Q80SSA
Publisher ‏ : ‎ St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (March 6, 2007)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 6, 2007
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 195 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 204 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,204,185 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,894 in Humorous Literary Fiction
- #5,306 in Military Historical Fiction
- #5,495 in U.S. Historical Fiction

Customer Reviews:
4.4 167 ratings

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Pat Pugh

A novel that plays like a lost perfect little film

Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2017

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Upon hearing the news that the charismatic actor Gene Wilder had passed, I found myself surrounded by stories and interviews online that served to tell me that Gene had written a few novels.

Purely out of nostalgia and curiosity did I purchase this little novel. Curiosity only took me so far as to leave it sitting on a pile of books to be read. For almost a year. Cut to today where I began it this morning, and finished it this same day's afternoon.

Immediately I was gripped by my own memories of the actor's slower and more casual way of eloquently speaking with every written word in this little novella spoken in the same voice. Our hero, Paul Peachy, was a role for Gene that he simply never played. At times you get hints of the characters he's portrayed throughout his career, and comical little elements that were perhaps intended, or just happenstance to the story. What I found in reading My French Whore is that I was able to watch a film that was never made, but played without flaw.

As this is a short novel, only about 150 pages, it reads quickly and simply. In the modern age of bulky novels with condensed fonts and stuffed content, it was a pleasure to read something that not only had the breadth within its pages to let the words breath, but the same open air to the story that allowed it to compel, and drive a reader onward. No it was not a woven complex story that had me wondering the whole time just what was going on, this was a story that never left you wondering what was next, but had you stationary on the moment, enjoying each along with Peachy, until the novella ends. Perfectly. Simply.

I'll say this, though, there are three small errors, two of them being editor slips where the wrong word was used, and one where our hero disclosed information that was apparently between the pages that would have helped explain a certain moment better had it been written. Nothing that detracts, it was just odd briefly at the beginning.

Gene will be missed. We will always have his characters from films and now his novels which will play like lost films now discovered. This is a perfect and simple little story. I'll read it again and again until my own days come to an end.

13 people found this helpful

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Jennifer A. Ray

Ineresting World War I vignette

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2008

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Leaving his uninterested wife, Paul Peachy joins the armed services and is soon deployed to France during World War I. When his camp is decimated by the Germans, he finds himself at the wrong end of a number of rifles, but some quick thinking and a fluency in the German language serve to buy him some time.

He assumes the identity of an infamous German spy, Harry Stroller, and is not only accepted into the German camp, but is eagerly welcomed. Indeed, his `host' even introduces him to a lovely young French whore named Annie, who captures the unlikely hero's heart.

But how long can Peachy maintain his subterfuge? Surely it is just a matter of time before someone who knows the real Harry Stroller shows up...

I am going to come right out and say it - neither the story nor the title of this book much interested me, but when I saw it was written by Gene Wilder, my curiosity got the best of me and I simply had to buy MY FRENCH WHORE. Once I began reading the story, I soon forgot who the author was, finding myself completely immersed in the story Mr. Wilder spins with apparent ease, as if he is relating the facts of something that actually occurred rather than delivering a vignette borne of his own imagination.

Gene Wilder shows a decided talent for stringing words together in such a way that the story plays in the readers' minds like a movie or even a memory.

I stated previously that neither the story nor the title caught my attention, but I avow the story more than satisfied this reviewer. An unusual piece, MY FRENCH WHORE is a kind of `day-in-the-life' story that encompasses several days in the life of Paul Peachy and the adventures he lived in France during World War I, all the while finding in the most unexpected of places the woman who would forever hold his heart.

The ending is surprising, and I won't tell so much as to give it away. Suffice it to say that Paul Peachy is an undeniably noble man, and MY FRENCH WHORE offers an ending befitting his character.

**4.5 Bookmarks, courtesy of Wild on Books Reviews**

11 people found this helpful

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Brian Scott Mednick

Gene Wilder Makes a Charming Fiction Debut

Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2007

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Gene Wilder is a man of many talents. Yes, he is a brilliant comic actor (the best this country has ever produced, if you ask me). He also is a gifted watercolor artist, director, and writer. "My French Whore," his first novella, is a charming World War I tale about an American soldier who finds himself in extraordinary circumstances as he fools the Germans into thinking he is a famous spy.

This is an idea Wilder had for a screenplay back in the late 1960s, but he abandoned the project. As a first novella, "My French Whore" is suitably entertaining and well-written with an ending that is subtle, moving, and restrained. The book reads like a very good short story, with the central character having a lot of the characteristics we have come to know in the roles Gene Wilder plays - indeed, I kept picturing Paul Peachy as a young Wilder.

I think it a crime that Gene Wilder has basically retired from acting. He is just too talented not to be appearing in films anymore. But he enjoys his quiet life writing these days and is already set to publish his second work of fiction entitled "The Woman Who Wouldn't." "My French Whore" is not a great book by any means, but it is a witty, breezy read and good enough to make one look forward to Wilder's next book.

40 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Short, Quaint, Fantastic

Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2010

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My French Whore is a fantastic short comedy/romance novel set during World War I. If this had been written by someone else, I probably wouldn't have liked it nearly as much, but I couldn't help but imagine a younger Wilder playing the role of his protagonist Private Peachy in a Mel Brooks film. Every word on paper is read as if Wilder's voice is narrating it. It is very short, and for most of you could probably be read in 1-2 hours. I'd be shocked if this book isn't adapted for the screen.

One person found this helpful

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A. White

A Good Read

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2023

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Nice simple prose, a good storyline, evenly paced. Sparse characterization and not the right title but is still worth a read.

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