Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe

Malaprop's Bookstore/Cafe

Malaprop’s Bookstore/CafĆ© is an independent bookstore founded in Asheville, NC in 1982. We bring books, writers, and readers together in an environment that nurtures community and the joy of reading. We carry a carefully curated selection of books for adults, children, and young adults, as well as a large array of gift items. Our cozy cafĆ© offers tasty treats from local bakeries and coffee roasted locally. Writer Ann Patchett, in an article for the New York Times, said of us: ā€œMalaprop’s was the heart and soul of Asheville, NC, when Asheville was a sleepy little hippie town, and it’s still its heart and soul now…, a position Malaprop’s maintained by being unabashedly true to itself.ā€

A character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s play ā€˜The Rivals’ (1775), Mrs. Malaprop consistently uses language malapropos, that is, inappropriately. The word malapropos comes from the French phrase mal Ć  propos, made up of mal, ā€œbadly,ā€ Ć , ā€œto,ā€ and propos, ā€œpurpose, subject,ā€ and means ā€œinappropriate.ā€ ā€˜The Rivals’ was a popular play, and Mrs. Malaprop became enshrined as a common noun, first in the form ā€œmalapropā€ and later as ā€œmalapropism,ā€ whose usage was first recorded in 1849. ā€œShe’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nileā€ and ā€œHe is the very pineapple of politenessā€ are two of the absurd pronouncements from Mrs. Malaprop that explain why her name became synonymous with ludicrous misuse of language.

https://www.malaprops.com/authors

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