The Elegance of the Hedgehog
 The hardback cover of the novel | |
| Author | Muriel Barbery |
|---|---|
| Original title | L'Élégance du hérisson |
| Translator | Alison Anderson |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Novel |
| Publisher | Gallimard |
Publication date | August 2006 |
| Publication place | France |
Published in English | September 2008 |
| Media type | Print (hardback, paperback) |
| Pages | 325 |
| ISBN | ISBN 9781906040161 Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character |
| Preceded by | Une gourmandise (A Delicacy)' |
The Elegance of the Hedgehog (French: L'Élégance du hérisson) is a novel by French novelist and philosophy teacher Muriel Barbery. The story accounts the autodidact concierge Renée Michel, whose concealed literary intelligence is discovered by a suicidal but precocious Paloma Josse, daughter of a bourgeois family living in a posh apartment in Paris that Renée is appointed to work in.
First released in August 2006, the novel became a publishing success the following year, selling over a million copies in France alone. It was translated into several languages, having sold its translation rights to 31 countries. Both the novel and Barbery have been praised by the critics.
Plot
The story revolves around two important characters: Renée Michel a widower concierge, who for many years supervises a stylish apartment building in 7 Rue de Grenelle in Paris, habituated by mostly bourgeois families and individuals. Renée "disdains [the] élitist notions of class and social order",[1] however, as an autodidact she conceals her cleverness to avoid the outrage of her tenants if discovered. She guises by preparing concierge-type food and watching rubbish TV, alone and accompanied only by her cat.
Another character, Paloma Josse, a precocious girl dismayed by the privileged people around her, decides that life is meaningless and wants to upset her family by burning down the house and then committing suicide on her 13th birthday.
Both characters' lives overlap after the death of a celebrated restaurant critic, living upstairs. A cultured Japanese businessman named Kakuro Ozu, whom Renée befriends, takes a room in the same apartment building. As the story unfolds, Ozu shares Paloma's fascination with Renée: that the concierge has the "same simple refinement as the hedgehog". Towards the end of the novel, Barbery "brings Renée out of her shell and guides young Paloma toward realizing that not all adults sacrifice their intelligence and humanity to vanity".[1]
Characters
Renée Michel
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Renée Michel is a 54-year-old widowed concierge. Self-educated Renée loves philosophy, reads works of the German philosopher Immanuel Kant and Russian writer Leo Tolstoy—she even named her cat Leo—adores 17th-century Dutch paintings, likes Japanese art-house films, and listens to the music of English composer Purcell.[2] Renée, who conceals her true identity to conform to the image assigned to concierges, describes herself by way of introduction as "a widow, short, ugly, chubby; I have bunions on my feet and, on certain difficult mornings, it seems, the breath of a mammoth."[1] Her outward appearance is summarized as "prickly and bunioned".[2]
When Paloma eventually discovers Renée's identity, she describes her in her journal as having the "elegance of the hedgehog", although, unlike the spines of the hedgehog, she is covered in quills, but within, "she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary – and terribly elegant".[3]
Paloma Josse
Paloma Josse is an advanced 12 year-old girl, belonging to one of the conventional families living in the posh apartment building where Renée is caretaker.[3][4] She keeps a diary called "Journal of the Movement of the World", where she records her observations of the world around her. An excerpt from her diary reads: "What other reason might I have for writing this—ridiculous journal of an ageing concierge—if the writing did not have something of the art of scything about it? The lines gradually become their own demiurges and ... I witness the birth on paper of sentences that have eluded my will and appear in spite of me on the sheet, teaching me something that I neither knew nor thought I might want to know."[2]
Minor characters
- Kakuro Ozu — a cultured Japanese businessman, who lives in the building. Ozu shares Paloma's fascination with Renée's hidden intelligence.
- Manuela — Renée's real friend, a Portuguese cleaner who cleans the toilets in the apartment block.[2]
Writing, style, and themes
According to Barbery, she was "inspired by the idea of a reserved, cultured concierge who turned stereotypes on their head and at the same time created a compelling comic effect". The character of Renée, in Barbery's view, "opened the door on a kind of social criticism".[5] Barbery adds that she created these characters "who love the things [she does], and who allowed [her] to celebrate that through them".[1]
The novel's two narrators, Renée and Paloma, alternate in each chapter, although the former dominates throughout.[3] The entire novel comprises of the "diaries" of both protagonists. Throughout, the heading styles and fonts changes, signalling the change of the narrator's character.[6]
Most critics believed that Barbery's narrative presentation is essayistic. Accordingly, the chapters are more essays than fiction, "so carefully build[ing] in explanations for the literary and philosophical references that she seems to be assessing what a mass audience needs". In the early pages of the novel, "Renée offers a mini-treatise on phenomenology".[3]
Barbery incorporates several themes into the novel. Philosophy, for instance, is much referenced throughout, getting thicker as the story rolls on.[1] In an interview, Barbery admits that she "followed a long, boring course of studies in philosophy. I expected it to help me understand better that which surrounds me: but it didn’t work out that way. Literature has taught me more. I was interested in exploring the bearing philosophy could really have on one's life, and how. I wanted to illuminate this process. That's where the desire to anchor philosophy to a story, a work of fiction, was born: to give it more meaning, make it more physically real, and render it, perhaps, even entertaining."[5] There are as well literary citations referencing comic books and movies.[5] Themes of class-consciousness and conflict are also present in the story, "which some French critics have deemed a heavy-handed satire of waning French social stereotypes".[1] Critics wrote that the novel is "quite radical in its stand against French classism and hypocrisy".[4]
Publication
Originally written in French, The Elegance of the Hedgehog was first published in France in August 2006 under the title L'Élégance du hérisson by the leading French publisher Éditions Gallimard.[7] The initial print run of the novel was 4000, but went to over a million by the following year.[8]
Translation to other languages and publication of the novel outside France had help from the French Voice program. In partnership with the PEN American Center, the organization funds the translation and publication of up to ten contemporary French and Francophone works each year. Between 2005 and 2008, The Elegance of the Hedgehog was one of 30 works chosen by the organization, spearheaded by a committee of professional experts in its selection process.[9]
The novel's translation rights have been sold to 31 countries, and it has been translated to a half-dozen languages.[10][1] L'Élégance du hérisson was translated by novelist Alison Anderson into English, in the title The Elegance of the Hedgehog, released to Europa editions. In the United States, it received patronage from a major American writer.[9] In the United Kingdom, the rights were sold to the publisher Gallic Books, which specializes in French translations.[7]
Reception
Now an acclaimed literary work, Elegance of the Hedgehog critics and press alike regard the novel as a publishing phenomenon.[4][6][7][11] The novel earned Barbery the 2007 French Booksellers Award, the 2007 Brive-la-Gaillarde Reader's Prize, and the Prix du Rotary International in France.[6]
The novel was a best-seller in France,[3] amassing sales of 1.2 million of hardback copies alone.[10] It stayed on the country's best-seller for 102 straight weeks since its publication,[1] longer than American novelist Dan Brown's books.[6] According to British newspaper The Guardian writer Viv Groskop, the philosophical element in the novel partly explains why it was attractive in France, where philosophy remains one of their compulsory subjects.[4] Anderson agreed, commenting that it became popular in France because the novel is "a story where people manage to transcend their class barriers".[7] Despite these speculations, the novel received warm response in Korea,[1] and has also sold over 400,000 copies in Italy.[6]
A week after the novel was published in the United Kingdom, The Guardian ran an article about French best-sellers published in English, with focus on The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Writer Alison Flood contends that "fiction in translation is not an easy sell to Brits, and French fiction is perhaps the hardest sell of all". The novel is predicted to struggle in the United Kingdom to find a readership because, according to promotions buyer Jonathan Ruppin, "the plot is what [British readers] want more than anything else" and the novel's storyline is not its central aspect. Nevertheless, the novel had received positives reviews in commercial websites, during which the article was published.[7]
The Elegance of the Hedgehog was well-received by critics. Praising the novel in his review for The Guardian, Ian Samson writes, "The Elegance of the Hedgehog aspires to be great and pretends to philosophy: it is, at least, charming."[2] In an earlier review in the same paper, Groskop noted that the novel is a "profound but accessible book ... which elegantly treads the line between literary and commercial fiction".[4] Michael Dirda of The Washington Post complimented Barbery, saying, "Certainly, the intelligent Muriel Barbery has served readers well by giving us the gently satirical, exceptionally winning and inevitably bittersweet Elegance of the Hedgehog."[11] Carey James of The New York Times hailed the novel as "studied yet appealing commercial hit", adding that it "belongs to a distinct subgenre: the accessible book that flatters readers with its intellectual veneer".[3]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Crumley, Bruce (2008-08-27). "Muriel Barbery: An Elegant Quill". Time. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ a b c d e Samson, Ian (2008-10-25). "Just say yes". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ a b c d e f James, Caryn (2008-09-05). "Thinking on the Sly". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ a b c d e Groskop, Viv (2008-09-14). "Confessions of a clever concierge". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ a b c Lamanda, Laura (2007-08-25). "Nouvelle Philosophe: Interview with Muriel Barbery". La Repubblica. Europaeditions.com. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ a b c d e Kuitenbrouwer, Kathryn (2008-10-25). "Little Miss Prickly". Theglobeandmail.com. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ a b c d e Flood, Alison (2008-09-11). "Too spiky for British readers?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ Clarke, Suzanna (2008-10-13). "Elegance of the Hedgehog unveils intelligent characters". The Courier-Mail. Queensland Newspapers. Retrieved 2003-02-21.
- ^ a b "The Elegance of the Hedgehog to Receive Support from the French Voices Program". Frenchculture.org. 2008-03-21. Retrieved 2008-10-28.
- ^ a b "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Gallicbooks.com. Retrieved 2008-10-27.
- ^ a b Dirda, Michael (2008-09-14). "Michael Dirda on 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog'". The Washington Post. p. 2. Retrieved 2008-10-27.