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Cecily's Reviews > The Elegance of the Hedgehog
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by
by
Cecily's review
bookshelves: miscellaneous-fiction, solitary-protagonist, class-etiquette, identity
Jul 04, 2013
bookshelves: miscellaneous-fiction, solitary-protagonist, class-etiquette, identity
"A text is written above all to be read and to arouse emotions." Whether you like a book "is the only question that could give meaning to the narrative points of view or the construction of the story."
This is a French confection that is light and pretty and sharp, but actually much, much more skillful and substantial than it first seems. The plot is slight and broadly predictable, but it gently leads the reader along more philosophical lines, many of which probably went over my head, but which I enjoyed anyway.
Reading it on a long train journey across France was apt, even though we did not stop off in Paris itself.
Blurb
As the cover explains, there are two main characters, both lonely and literary: ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé, an old concierge at a prestigious apartment block, who has secret, very secret, passion for literature, and Paloma, the brilliant daughter of a government minister and a woman in permanent therapy, who plans to end her life, and torch her privileged but arrogant family's apartment on her thirteenth birthday.
It's overtly philosophical, but is at least as much about class, art (books, films, paintings), and about breaking free to be yourself - regardless of the price. Then again, everything I'm reading at the moment seems to have an aspect of breaking free: either the universe is speaking to me, or I'm speaking to myself.
Beware the ToC
Don't look at the table of contents until you've read several chapters; it will look odd and confusing, though the book is not.
It's divided into sections, each with a brief name, and although most of the chapters are numbered, some are unnumbered and in italics. Closer inspection shows all the italic ones to have one of two titles: Profound Thought No. x or Journal of the Movement of the World No. x. Intriguing. It then turns out that the numbered chapters are differentiated by being one of two narrators, ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé or Paloma, and the italic ones are all entries in one of Paloma's two journals (which are recorded in a non-serif font).
The only other thing to beware of is a rather silly and unoriginal toilet scene.
Class
Both ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé and Paloma are hiding their true selves, at great emotional cost. This is exacerbated by the strict social hierarchy and roles they feel constrained by: is modern France really so class-bound, or is ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé's thinking stuck in the past?
Why is ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé trapped in "the clandestiny of a solitary mind", so terrified the residents discover she loves Tolstoy, eschews television and is a bit of a gourmet? Her late husband had the TV on all the time, so the expected sounds emanated from her flat, "Alive, he freed me from this iniquitous obligation... Dead, he has deprived me of his lack of culture." Is she really the biggest snob of all, or suffering from cripplingly low self-esteem?
An old tramp (hobo) is not jealous of the rich, even those who never give him anything. ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé muses "I've never given poor people credit for having noble souls" and concludes and that it's other poor people who the poor despise.
Paloma's efforts to appear average are more understandable, and quite a common tactic of gifted children.
What changes everything is when one of the old residents dies and the apartment is bought by a wealthy Japanese man. The fact he is outside the French class system only serves to emphasise its importance in this story. The three misfits have the chance of change.
¸é±ð²Ô±ðé
¸é±ð²Ô±ðé is reader, of literature and philosophy, but also a film buff. She was born to poverty, was unattractive, barely educated, married, widowed, and has only one friend. "The feeble child became a hungry soul." She's bitter in a fairly non-specific way.
She feels faint at the idea of "so much intelligence" used "to serve so futile an undertaking" as phenomenology or building a great cathedral, but makes no effort to use hers. Much later, we discover a partial reason: (view spoiler).
One of the saddest thoughts is the final phrase of this: "I have read so many books... And yet, like most autodidacts, I am never quite sure what I have gained from them."
Paloma
Paloma reads, but is more of a philosopher-cum-analyst. She has an older sister, Colombe, who she sees as a noisy neat-freak, shallow, unemotional, fake, and annoying (the last of those is mutual). Some of this is normal sibling stuff, but it also feeds Paloma's ennui. Paloma craves peace, so Colombe plays music loudly, "She can't invade anything else because I am totally inaccessible to her on a human level".
The parents are wealthy socialists, but it's Paloma who balks at their barely acknowledged privilege and thinks it unjust that those who are good talkers have the most power and money, rather than those with more basic animal skills.
To contrast the difficult relationship with her sister and parents, she actively looks for beauty as a reason to live, especially the beauty of movement, and seeing grammar as a means "to attain beauty" (rather than "to speak well", as her teacher suggests). Until then, she also seeks out silence and somewhere to hide.
Cats and Dogs and Hedgehogs
Philosophy isn't always deep: "The only purpose of cats is that they constitute mobile decorative objects". Paloma's mother is "vaguely aware of their decorative potential, and yet she insists on talking to them as if they were people, which she would never do with a lamp or Etruscan statue."
Still, better a decoration than a burden: "If you've voluntarily saddled yourself with a dog... that is as good as putting a leash around your own neck."
"Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills... on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary - and terribly elegant."
The idea that humans are just animals is a recurring theme, and a belief shared by ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé and Paloma. For ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé, it confirms her worst opinions of herself, and for Paloma, it confirms her worst opinions of everyone.
Coming Together
It's only about halfway through that the two threads begin, tentatively, to connect and the real story starts.
(view spoiler)
Art
"Art is emotion without desire." I'm not sure I agree, but it's something to ponder.
Art, culture, literature keep the key players apart and later bring them together.
"Whence comes the sense of wonder when we encounter certain works of art?... The enigma is constantly renewed: great works are the visual forms which attain in us the certainty of timeless consonance... Certain forms... return again and again throughout the history of art."
Art "gives shape to our emotions, makes them visible and, in so doing, places a seal of eternity upon them
I'm rarely attracted to looking at a still life, but Barberry almost won me over with words: "it embodies a beauty that speaks to our desire but was given birth by someone else's desire because it cossets our pleasure without in any way being part of our own plans."
Sliding Doors
"I was fascinated by... these [Japanese] doors that slide and move quietly along invisible rails, refusing to offend space. For when we push open a door, we transform a place in a very insidious way... There is nothing uglier than an open door. An open door introduces a break in the room, a sort of provincial interference, destroying the unity of space... a door disrupts continuity, without offering anything in exchange other than freedom of movement, which could easily be ensured by other means. Sliding doors... without affecting the balance of the room, they allow it to be transformed. When a sliding door is opened, two areas communicate without offending each other. When it is closed, each retains its integrity. Sharing and reunion can occur without intrusion."
There are so many ways to think about that passage, and one of the good things about this book is that it doesn't dumb down; each reader can draw their own conclusions, and they may not be constant anyway. Rereading now, a couple of weeks after I first read it, I apply it in a very different way.
Film of the Book
There is a 2009 film that I haven't seen, merely called "The Hedgehog":
It's in French, so has probably resisted Hollywood pressure to change the ending, though I notice it has Paloma one year younger than in the book (why?).
Quotes
* "I have always been poor, discreet and insignificant."
* "Children believe what adults say" and later "they exact their revenge by deceiving their own children."
* "People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl."
* "Politics... a toy for little rich kids that they won't let anyone else play with."
* "Shrinks are comedians who believe that metaphors are something for great wise men."
* Terminal illness "weaves a dark web between hearts, a web where hope is trapped".
* "Nothing is more despicable than a rich man's scorn for a poor man's longing."
* "Sight is like a hand that tries to seize flowing water. Yes, our eyes may perceive, yet the do not observe; they may believe, yet they do not question; they may receive yet they do not search; they are emptied of desire, with neither hunger nor passion."
I had only a hazy idea of what sort of book this was, based on vague memories of favourable reviews by friends (initially, Steve's http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...). I'm grateful.
This is a French confection that is light and pretty and sharp, but actually much, much more skillful and substantial than it first seems. The plot is slight and broadly predictable, but it gently leads the reader along more philosophical lines, many of which probably went over my head, but which I enjoyed anyway.
Reading it on a long train journey across France was apt, even though we did not stop off in Paris itself.
Blurb
As the cover explains, there are two main characters, both lonely and literary: ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé, an old concierge at a prestigious apartment block, who has secret, very secret, passion for literature, and Paloma, the brilliant daughter of a government minister and a woman in permanent therapy, who plans to end her life, and torch her privileged but arrogant family's apartment on her thirteenth birthday.
It's overtly philosophical, but is at least as much about class, art (books, films, paintings), and about breaking free to be yourself - regardless of the price. Then again, everything I'm reading at the moment seems to have an aspect of breaking free: either the universe is speaking to me, or I'm speaking to myself.
Beware the ToC
Don't look at the table of contents until you've read several chapters; it will look odd and confusing, though the book is not.
It's divided into sections, each with a brief name, and although most of the chapters are numbered, some are unnumbered and in italics. Closer inspection shows all the italic ones to have one of two titles: Profound Thought No. x or Journal of the Movement of the World No. x. Intriguing. It then turns out that the numbered chapters are differentiated by being one of two narrators, ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé or Paloma, and the italic ones are all entries in one of Paloma's two journals (which are recorded in a non-serif font).
The only other thing to beware of is a rather silly and unoriginal toilet scene.
Class
Both ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé and Paloma are hiding their true selves, at great emotional cost. This is exacerbated by the strict social hierarchy and roles they feel constrained by: is modern France really so class-bound, or is ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé's thinking stuck in the past?
Why is ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé trapped in "the clandestiny of a solitary mind", so terrified the residents discover she loves Tolstoy, eschews television and is a bit of a gourmet? Her late husband had the TV on all the time, so the expected sounds emanated from her flat, "Alive, he freed me from this iniquitous obligation... Dead, he has deprived me of his lack of culture." Is she really the biggest snob of all, or suffering from cripplingly low self-esteem?
An old tramp (hobo) is not jealous of the rich, even those who never give him anything. ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé muses "I've never given poor people credit for having noble souls" and concludes and that it's other poor people who the poor despise.
Paloma's efforts to appear average are more understandable, and quite a common tactic of gifted children.
What changes everything is when one of the old residents dies and the apartment is bought by a wealthy Japanese man. The fact he is outside the French class system only serves to emphasise its importance in this story. The three misfits have the chance of change.
¸é±ð²Ô±ðé
¸é±ð²Ô±ðé is reader, of literature and philosophy, but also a film buff. She was born to poverty, was unattractive, barely educated, married, widowed, and has only one friend. "The feeble child became a hungry soul." She's bitter in a fairly non-specific way.
She feels faint at the idea of "so much intelligence" used "to serve so futile an undertaking" as phenomenology or building a great cathedral, but makes no effort to use hers. Much later, we discover a partial reason: (view spoiler).
One of the saddest thoughts is the final phrase of this: "I have read so many books... And yet, like most autodidacts, I am never quite sure what I have gained from them."
Paloma
Paloma reads, but is more of a philosopher-cum-analyst. She has an older sister, Colombe, who she sees as a noisy neat-freak, shallow, unemotional, fake, and annoying (the last of those is mutual). Some of this is normal sibling stuff, but it also feeds Paloma's ennui. Paloma craves peace, so Colombe plays music loudly, "She can't invade anything else because I am totally inaccessible to her on a human level".
The parents are wealthy socialists, but it's Paloma who balks at their barely acknowledged privilege and thinks it unjust that those who are good talkers have the most power and money, rather than those with more basic animal skills.
To contrast the difficult relationship with her sister and parents, she actively looks for beauty as a reason to live, especially the beauty of movement, and seeing grammar as a means "to attain beauty" (rather than "to speak well", as her teacher suggests). Until then, she also seeks out silence and somewhere to hide.
Cats and Dogs and Hedgehogs
Philosophy isn't always deep: "The only purpose of cats is that they constitute mobile decorative objects". Paloma's mother is "vaguely aware of their decorative potential, and yet she insists on talking to them as if they were people, which she would never do with a lamp or Etruscan statue."
Still, better a decoration than a burden: "If you've voluntarily saddled yourself with a dog... that is as good as putting a leash around your own neck."
"Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills... on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary - and terribly elegant."
The idea that humans are just animals is a recurring theme, and a belief shared by ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé and Paloma. For ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé, it confirms her worst opinions of herself, and for Paloma, it confirms her worst opinions of everyone.
Coming Together
It's only about halfway through that the two threads begin, tentatively, to connect and the real story starts.
(view spoiler)
Art
"Art is emotion without desire." I'm not sure I agree, but it's something to ponder.
Art, culture, literature keep the key players apart and later bring them together.
"Whence comes the sense of wonder when we encounter certain works of art?... The enigma is constantly renewed: great works are the visual forms which attain in us the certainty of timeless consonance... Certain forms... return again and again throughout the history of art."
Art "gives shape to our emotions, makes them visible and, in so doing, places a seal of eternity upon them
I'm rarely attracted to looking at a still life, but Barberry almost won me over with words: "it embodies a beauty that speaks to our desire but was given birth by someone else's desire because it cossets our pleasure without in any way being part of our own plans."
Sliding Doors
"I was fascinated by... these [Japanese] doors that slide and move quietly along invisible rails, refusing to offend space. For when we push open a door, we transform a place in a very insidious way... There is nothing uglier than an open door. An open door introduces a break in the room, a sort of provincial interference, destroying the unity of space... a door disrupts continuity, without offering anything in exchange other than freedom of movement, which could easily be ensured by other means. Sliding doors... without affecting the balance of the room, they allow it to be transformed. When a sliding door is opened, two areas communicate without offending each other. When it is closed, each retains its integrity. Sharing and reunion can occur without intrusion."
There are so many ways to think about that passage, and one of the good things about this book is that it doesn't dumb down; each reader can draw their own conclusions, and they may not be constant anyway. Rereading now, a couple of weeks after I first read it, I apply it in a very different way.
Film of the Book
There is a 2009 film that I haven't seen, merely called "The Hedgehog":
It's in French, so has probably resisted Hollywood pressure to change the ending, though I notice it has Paloma one year younger than in the book (why?).
Quotes
* "I have always been poor, discreet and insignificant."
* "Children believe what adults say" and later "they exact their revenge by deceiving their own children."
* "People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl."
* "Politics... a toy for little rich kids that they won't let anyone else play with."
* "Shrinks are comedians who believe that metaphors are something for great wise men."
* Terminal illness "weaves a dark web between hearts, a web where hope is trapped".
* "Nothing is more despicable than a rich man's scorn for a poor man's longing."
* "Sight is like a hand that tries to seize flowing water. Yes, our eyes may perceive, yet the do not observe; they may believe, yet they do not question; they may receive yet they do not search; they are emptied of desire, with neither hunger nor passion."
I had only a hazy idea of what sort of book this was, based on vague memories of favourable reviews by friends (initially, Steve's http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...). I'm grateful.
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Quotes Cecily Liked
“People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“The only purpose of cats is that they constitute mobile decorative objects.”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“They didn't recognize me," I repeat.
He stops in turn, my hand still on his arm.
"It is because they have never seen you," he says. "I would recognize you anywhere.”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
He stops in turn, my hand still on his arm.
"It is because they have never seen you," he says. "I would recognize you anywhere.”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
“As far as I can see, only psychoanalysis can compete with Christians in their love of drawn-out suffering.”
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
― The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Reading Progress
July 4, 2013
– Shelved as:
to-read
July 4, 2013
– Shelved
Started Reading
August 21, 2015
–
Finished Reading
September 5, 2015
– Shelved as:
miscellaneous-fiction
September 24, 2024
– Shelved as:
solitary-protagonist
September 24, 2024
– Shelved as:
class-etiquette
September 24, 2024
– Shelved as:
identity
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Jul 10, 2013 11:01AM
Thanks for the link, Cecily! Hope this turns out to be an enjoyable read for you. If not, at least there are others who can share the blame.
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Ha ha!I'm not a blaming kind of person - at least, not where the intentions were good.
I haven't read it recently enough to write about it intelligently, but I remember loving this book.
Thanks, Tristan. I just picked up a copy in a charity shop, but I'm not sure when I'll get round to reading it.
I listen to the audiobook last summer - delightful book. I particularly enjoyed the alternating first-person.
I was charmed by it - and read most of it on a train through France, which seemed appropriate. I have a backlog of reviews though (everything on my Currently Reading shelf, most of which I've actually finished), plus I'm about to go away for a few days. Just as well I write notes, or the review would really be a problem.
Having finally written my review, I remain charmed by it. I may even search out the film.
What a brilliant, comprehensive review, Cecily! You described the characters and themes perfectly, I thought. And I'm glad either the universe or the little voice inside your head has got you seeking out that "breaking free" motif in good books.
Thanks for putting it on my radar.
'The idea that humans are just animals is a recurring theme, and a belief shared by ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé and Paloma. For ¸é±ð²Ô±ðé, it confirms her worst opinions of herself, and for Paloma, it confirms her worst opinions of everyone.'My favorite line from a very cool review.
I loved the quote about sliding doors. I must show it to my brother. He and I have completely different attitudes to doors. I like them open, and he likes them shut. He spends the day with me about once a month. We follow one another around, opening and closing doors like clockwork dolls :O)
Thanks, Joseph. "Cool" is a rare appellation for me. ;)
Caroline, I'm sure Paloma, or maybe her mother's shrink, would have fun comparing you and your brother.
Really great review, Cecily!
You've piqued my interest in this book.
Susan, I happy to pique. It's a tricky book to categorise, and doing so would risk putting some people off. Try it and see!
Barbery's prose shines at the oddest moments in the book. She drops these stellar lines amid mundane conversations. Cecily, your review, as always is a pleasure to read.
Thank you, Sookie. As I said on your own excellent review, I think I was fortunate to read this when I could focus on it for a decent length of time, and was relaxed and receptive. If I'd read it in snatched periods during a normal working week, I think I'd have enjoyed it less.
What an excellent well-structured review Cecily. Rather an odd title though!Presumably it comes from:
"Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills... on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary - and terribly elegant."
On reflection though I guess that hedgehogs are rather elegant. I watch them cruising through my garden at night and yes, I guess, they are rather of that inclination!
Thanks you so much, Lynne. Yes, the title relates to that paragraph: I'm pretty sure it's the only mention of hedgehogs (I was looking out for them, for that reason). The original French title is the same: L'Élégance du hérisson.
Personally, although I like hedgehogs, I've never thought of them as elegant, not even Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle and Friends: And Other Favorite Tales, but they're indisputably covered in quills.
Thanks for the link Cecily. I really am a primitive as I've never read any of the works by Beatrix Potter.I had unusual parents. My father wanted me to read the classics at seven (can you imagine that) and my mother had me reading all the Enid Blyton books. I recall reading the Sudden western books when I was thirteen because my uncle decided that I needed this. They were at the time very good. I only read Winnie the Pooh when I was twenty and as for Alice in Wonderland in my thirties. Still the pleasure from reading books has always been available and that is the main thing.
Gosh! Your upbringing sounds a little eccentric (no bad thing), but it certainly doesn't make you a primitive! And presumably you'd vaguely heard of Mrs Tiggywinkle?
Really? And you were raised in England, in a middle-class and/or educationally inspirational home? That's unusual (not that those are the only home where I'd expect her name to be known). Presumably, you have heard of Beatrix Potter and some of her other creations, even if it's only The Tale of Peter Rabbit?
Cecily,I have a rather odd background. My parents were of two different classes but then only the English would think of that. My mother's father owned a building company up in Newcastle and then moved down to London. She played the piano and all that "good stuff" and was expected to stay at home and meet a nice young man and get married. No, that didn't suit her. My mother was rather fiery in temperament. My great grandmother was Spanish which probably accounted for it. My mother went down to London and worked in the French Institute as a maid of all things. My father was visiting there. I never could work that out. He was from a gentile family in Harrogate. He fell for my mother as soon as he saw her. He always said that it was her sleepy eyes that did it and pursued her for two years until she married him. Personally I think that it was a big mistake even though he loved her dearly. They had two different intellectual levels. His was far superior to my mother's.
His father/grandfather owned a gun carriage company in Driffield, Yorkshire and were squires there and were related to the Spode/Copeland (the latter is my maiden name) family.
It's all a rather fascinating story and I would love to write about it one day!
That is certainly odd - in a fascinating way. And you've already written about it. But there's clearly scope for much more. My own upbringing now seems relatively (boringly?) conventional in comparison.
Cecily wrote: "That is certainly odd - in a fascinating way. And you've already written about it. But there's clearly scope for much more. My own upbringing now seems relatively (boringly?) conventional in compar..."But then what is a conventional upbringing?
Good question! I have no experience of one, just a hazy set of ideas of something fluffy, comfortable, earnest, and a little bit dull.
My impressions may bear no relation to anyone's real life, though.
Is it a amalgamation of all philosophy or debunking it.?
Rajan wrote: "Is it a amalgamation of all philosophy or debunking it.?"Well, it's not combining ALL philosophy, but nor is it debunking. Just discussing and exploring.
I always love your reviews Cecily. It is like reading a story, so beautifully poetic in their own way. Stunning. Thank you.
Karen wrote: "I always love your reviews Cecily. It is like reading a story, so beautifully poetic in their own way. Stunning. Thank you."I remember this book with great affection, but in a very vague way. Your kind words and own review were a welcome reminder of what I enjoyed. Thanks, Karen.
