[5] Barbery dedicates the book to her husband, Stéphane, a sociologist, with whom she wrote the book. [14], The French Voice program extended help to Gallimard in the translation of the novel to other languages and publication outside France. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (French: L'Élégance du hérisson) is a novel by the French novelist and philosophy teacher Muriel Barbery. For this reason, Renee goes to great lengths to hide the fact that she often spends her days reading Marx and Tolstoy. Twelve-year-old Paloma lives on the fifth floor with her parents and sister whom she considers snobs. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a moving, funny, atmospheric novel that exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us. Read the Study Guide for The Elegance of the Hedgehog…, Art as Soul Finder in The Elegance of the Hedgehog, View Wikipedia Entries for The Elegance of the Hedgehog…. It incorporates themes relating to philosophy, class consciousness, and personal conflict. The changes of narrator are marked by switches of typeface. [7] The novel consists of the "diaries" of the protagonists, and the heading styles and fonts change as it develops, signalling the change of the narrators' character. [1][7] Daughter of an important parliamentarian father (a former government minister), and a Flaubert-quoting mother,[7] Paloma has a penchant for absurdism. The Elegance Of The Hedgehog summary: The Elegance Of The Hedgehog summary is updating. The story revolves mainly around the characters of Renée Michel and Paloma Josse, residents of an upper-middle class Left Bank apartment building at 7 Rue de Grenelle – one of the most elegant streets in Paris. The novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog (2006) is composed as a collection of essays and diary entries narrated by its two protagonists, Reneé Michel and Paloma Josse. The The Elegance of the Hedgehog Community Note includes chapter-by-chapter summary and analysis, character list, theme list, historical context, author biography and quizzes written by community members like you. Walking a careful line between … She was born in Casablanca, Morocco, although her parents left when she was only two months old. In the passage from which the title is taken, Paloma writes Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog; on the outside, she’s covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary—and terribly elegant. The second novel (but first to be published in the United States) from France-based author Barbery teaches philosophical lessons by shrewdly exposing rich secret lives hidden beneath conventional exteriors. She is 12 and she writes about her plans to commit a suicide when she will be 13. [8] When Paloma eventually discovers Renée's identity, she describes the latter in her journal as having the "elegance of the hedgehog"—although like the spines of the hedgehog, she is covered in quills and prickly, within, she has in the words of the English translation of the book quoted by Viv Groskop "the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary—and terribly elegant".[1]. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Plot Summary of “The Elegance Of The Hedgehog” by Muriel Barbery. [10] In an interview with Time magazine, Barbery added that she created characters "who love the things [she does], and who allowed [her] to celebrate that through them". Likewise, she wants to be alone to avoid her tenants' curiosity. [11] The release of the novel helped increase the sales of Barbery's first novel, Une Gourmandise. Paloma Josse is a 12-year-old girl who lives in the upscale building for which Renee … With Josiane Balasko, Garance Le Guillermic, Togo Igawa, Anne Brochet. Copyright © 1999 - 2020 GradeSaver LLC. [8], Barbery developed the character of Renée because 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";[10] for the author, Renée "opened the door on a kind of social criticism". [23] Caryn 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". "[8] In an earlier review in the same paper, Groskop opined that the novel is a "profound but accessible book ... which elegantly treads the line between literary and commercial fiction". She keeps two diaries, one called "Journal of the Movement of the World" to record her observations of the world around her, and the other called "Profound Thoughts" to record her many and wide-ranging reflections on art, poetry, people and herself. The story revolves mainly around the characters of Renée Michel and Paloma Josse, residents of an upper-middle class Left Bank apartment building at 7 Rue de … The whole story takes place in an apartment building at 7 Rue de Grenelle in Paris in 2005. [10], The Elegance of the Hedgehog was first published in August 2006 under the title L'élégance du hérisson by the leading French publisher Éditions Gallimard. [7] Los Angeles Times' Susan Salter Reynolds wrote that "[The Elegance of the Hedgehog] is a high-wire performance; its characters teeter on the surreal edge of normalcy. She has never been to college because she considers herself to always have been poor, discreet, and of no significance. She is introspective, and truly kind, though she tries her best to avoid the inquisition of others. Their efforts to conceal their true natures, the pressures of the solitary mind, make the book hum".[24]. The Elegance of the Hedgehog Summary. Paloma is the heroine of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, a French best-seller by Muriel Barbery.The hedgehog, as we know, is a creature that's all bristles on the outside, and all cuddly on the inside. [11] The Elegance of the Hedgehog has been adapted into the film Le hérisson (2009). Subscribe » Seven years ago, I was in a dark place. However, only shortly after Renée realizes that the beauty of life and her connections with the world makes life worth living, she dies in the same way as Roland Barthes; she is struck down by a laundry van. The novel was adapted into a film The Hedgehog (Le hérisson) released in France in July 2009, starring Josiane Balasko as Renée Michel, Garance Le Guillermic as Paloma Josse, and Togo Igawa as Kakuro Ozu, with a score by Gabriel Yared. [4] Although they share interests in philosophy and literature, nothing happens between them until the death of a celebrated restaurant critic who had been living upstairs. This story appears in the December 2020 issue of Entrepreneur. Elegance of the Hedgehog (Barbery) - Author Bio. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (French: L'Élégance du hérisson) is a novel by the French novelist and philosophy teacher[1] Muriel Barbery. [17] In the United States, it will be among French novels receiving patronage from a major American writer, as yet unspecified. One of very few that I will re-read again and again. THE HEDGEHOG was the winner of the Seattle International Film Festival Space Needle Award for Best Picture as well as the FilmFest DC and Col-Coa Film Festival Audience Winner. This novel speaks not only of film, music, and literature, but also reflects on the more subtle and forgotten arts of … Wolf, Julia, et al. Unlock the more straightforward side of The Elegance of the Hedgehog with this concise and insightful summary and analysis! An editor She is an autodidact in literature and philosophy, but conceals it to keep her job and, she believes, to avoid the condemnation of the building's tenants. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. This engaging summary presents an analysis of The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, a thoughtful, witty look at the absurdity of human life. A precocious girl, she hides her intelligence to avoid exclusion at school. [20] French magazine Elle reviewer Natalie Aspesi pronounced it one of "the most exhilarating and extraordinary novels in recent years". But one day a man moves into the house. "[18] Louise McCready of The New York Observer praised Anderson's translation of the novel as "smooth and accurate". [1][11][12][18] Upon the novel's release, it had received significant support from booksellers. The Elegance of the Hedgehog. Sometimes even more: once one man, their guest, was talking about Go, Japanese game, similar to Chess, but he said that it was a Chinese game and mixed up some its rules; so Paloma intervened in the conversation and corrected the man, but then her father chided her. Paloma is the 12-year-old, soon-to-be-13, who comes from a rich well-educated family; she despises her family, their snobbery, and the life she is being forced to live. [15] In the United Kingdom, the rights were bought by Gallic Books, a publisher specializing in French translations. This leaves Paloma and Ozu devastated but leads Paloma not to commit suicide. The whole story takes place in an apartment building at 7 Rue de Grenelle in Paris in 2005. The Elegance of the Hedgehog study guide contains a biography of Muriel Barbery, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. "[10], Themes of class consciousness and conflict are also present in the book. (143) However, a drastic plot twist at the end of the tale opens to her an amazing new truth: beauty, that provides meaning to our lives. References to philosophy, for instance, abound throughout, getting increasingly dense as the story progresses. Renée, the building's concierge, is short, ugly, and plump. In it, writer Alison Flood contended that "fiction in translation is not an easy sell to Brits, and French fiction is perhaps the hardest sell of all". Paloma Josse, an advanced soon to be thirteen-year-old, belongs to one of the conventional families living in the posh apartment building where Renée works. She studied at the Lycee Lakanal (comparable to American high schools) in the outskirts of Paris and then entered the Ecole Normale Superieure de Fontenay-Saint-Cloud in 1990. [25] The rights for the film were bought by NeoClassics Film and it was released by the company in America on 19 August. Not affiliated with Harvard College. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Paloma is the only tenant who suspects Renée's refinement, and for most of the novel, the two "cross each other but don't see each other", in the words of Time Out reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Complex characters, interwoven lives, the creativity and compassion abound in this lovely French novel. Renee is depicting alternates with Paloma’s notes in her diary. Renee is shown as an very intelligent woman from the very beginning, but she prefers to conceal her knowledge, ‘cause she thinks that it’s not proper to a concierge to be smart. If you have any question about this novel, Please don't hesitate to contact us or translate team. [5][16] Novelist Alison Anderson translated L'Élégance du hérisson into English as The Elegance of the Hedgehog, and this version was released in September 2008 by Europa Editions. The book follows events in the life of a concierge, Renée Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence is uncovered by an unstable but intellectually precocious girl named Paloma Josse. Come visit Novelonlinefull.com sometime to read the latest chapter of The Elegance Of The Hedgehog. [16] It stayed on the country's best-seller for 102 straight weeks from its publication,[5] longer than American novelist Dan Brown's best-selling books. We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. But one day Renee was crossing the road in a good mood, thinking about that a beautiful day was, and she didn’t notice a car, going fast towards her. The Elegance of the Hedgehog (Book) : Barbery, Muriel : The lives of fifty-four-year-old concierge Rene Michel and extremely bright, suicidal twelve-year-old Paloma Josse are transformed by the arrival of a new tenant, Kakuro Ozu. She understands many facets of the world that are unseen by others, and deeply understands the way the world works, and the many perils and pitfalls of adulthood and the many hypocrisies of modern society, and therefore resolves in not an all melodramatic way, to commit suicide. Discussion of themes and motifs in Muriel Barbery's The Elegance of the Hedgehog. She lives on the first floor in the small flat, which seems to be typical for a woman of her job. ISBN-13: 9781933372600. Ozu comes to share Paloma's fascination with Renée: that the concierge has the "same simple refinement as the hedgehog". The characters are problematic: most are puppets, and those that aren’t are stereotypes". First released in August 2006 by Gallimard, the novel became a publishing success in France the following year, selling over two million copies. GradeSaver, 2 December 2018 Web. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Preamble, Marx: Chapters 1-2 and Profound Thought No. The events and ideas of the novel are presented through the thoughts and reactions, interleaved throughout the novel, of two narrators, Renée and Paloma. "The Elegance of the Hedgehog Summary". We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. The question that naturally rises from this timing is whether Kakuro Ozu serves an archetypal role. The novel centers around the concierge who works in a fancy and upscale apartment building on the prestigious Rue de Grenelle, one of the most elegant streets in Paris. But there is a room, which is always locked for everybody, except for Renee herself. The Question and Answer section for The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a great Muriel Barbery, 2007. For the time being she journals her observations of the outside world, including her perceptions of Renée. Summary. Dismayed by the privileged people around her, she decides that life is meaningless, and that unless she can find something worth living for, beyond the "vacuousness of bourgeois existence",[2] she will commit suicide on 16 June, her thirteenth birthday. Renee dies. It provides a thorough exploration of the novel’s plot, characters and main themes, including class, friendship and art. Directed by Mona Achache. Muriel Barbery is a French novelist and professor of philosophy. It is formed as the narrating of two main heroes: the concierge of this house, 54-year-old Renee, and the 12-year-old daughter of rich parents, who lives there, Paloma. THE ELEGANCE OF THE HEDGEHOG. It is not Paloma who is the hedgehog in the film, but Madame Renee Michel (Josiane Balasko), the 54-year-old concierge of the Parisian apartment building where Paloma lives with her family. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. The man notices from the first sight that two protagonists are not that easy as they want to seem. Its reception at festivals was positive and it won the Filmfest DC 2011, the Best of Fest Palm Springs 2011, the Seattle International Film Festival 2010, and the 2010 Col-Coa Film Festival. [9], The novel's two narrators, Renée and Paloma, alternate in each mostly short chapter, although the former dominates throughout. Critics interpreted the stance the novel took against French class-based discrimination and hypocrisy as quite radical,[1] although some French critics found that this made the novel an unsubtle satire of fading social stereotypes. Renee feels herself not just a concierge, but a woman first of all. In this novel, Renee Michel is a concierge who believes that every concierge is perceived as unintelligent by those for whom they work. Other characters developed by Barbery in the novel include Kakuro Ozu, the cultured Japanese businessman, and Manuela, a Portuguese cleaner. [9] Aspesi, however, tagged the novel's title as "most curious and least appealing". A cultured Japanese businessman named Kakuro Ozu, whom Renée and Paloma befriend, then takes a room in the same apartment building. Much of what is learned about the characters, therefore, has been revealed through the plot summary. [1] Anderson agreed, commenting that the novel became popular in France because it is "a story where people manage to transcend their class barriers". So he tries to find common ground with both of them. She regards her sister's scholarship as "cold and trivial" and deems her mother's culture as conventional and useless. We are in an elegant hôtel particulier in the center of Paris. [9] Paloma herself values Japanese works, and reads manga, haiku, and tanka. Its appeal is obvious, as are its flaws. Europa is an independent press based in Italy and New York, which focuses on translated works. I had left my job in trading — a career I’d spent all of college preparing for — and I was trying to … Entrepreneur - Lessons from this French novel keep me grounded and focused when times feel uncertain. After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. In the case of Paloma, the narration takes the form of her written journal entries and other philosophical reflections; Renée's story is also told in the first person but more novelistically and in the present tense. Would you talk about the ending of The Elegance of the Hedgehog, especially the last several pages?Explain Palome's feelings about "beauty," as related to Renee's. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. 336 pp. The book follows events in the life of a concierge, Renée Michel, whose deliberately concealed intelligence is uncovered by an unstable but intellectually precocious girl named Paloma Josse. Paloma Josse. It has been translated into more than forty languages, and published in numerous countries outside France, including the United Kingdom (Gallic Books, London) and the United States (Europa Editions, New York), and has attracted critical praise. [11], Most critics considered Barbery's narrative presentation to be essayistic; the individual chapters are more akin to essays than fiction, as The New York Times' Caryn James expresses it, "so carefully build[ing] in explanations for the literary and philosophical references that she seems to be assessing what a mass audience needs". He gets acquainted with the girl in the lift, later he invites her to play with his niece or just to talk with each other. [5] Her outward appearance is summarized by The Guardian reviewer Ian Samson as "prickly and bunioned". Renee’s favorite book is Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy; she even names her cat Leo. Also Renee is fond of good music and films: she deeply ponders over every sound of song, every moment in film, especially when talking about Japanese films. The Elegance of the Hedgehog - Part 2, On Grammar: Chapters 1-6 and Profound Thought Nos. [9] Praising the novel in his review for The Guardian, Ian Samson wrote that "The Elegance of the Hedgehog aspires to be great and pretends to philosophy: it is, at least, charming. It reads more like a tract than a novel, but lacks even a tract's certainty of purpose. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide (BrightSummaries.com) at Amazon.com. [22], 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. Divided into eight luxury apartments, all occupied by distinctly bourgeois families, the building has a courtyard and private garden. [11] According to reviewer Viv Groskop, the philosophical element in the novel partly explains its appeal in France, where philosophy remains a compulsory subject. She perfectly knows every subject at school, she is knowledgeable almost about everything that her parents and their guests talk about. Both Renée and Paloma concentrate and reflect on the nature of true beauty, art, and the meaning of life and death. [21], A review in The Times Literary Supplement went further, calling the book "pretentious and cynical, with barely any story. [7], Barbery incorporates several themes into the novel. The international bestseller that has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. [12] Promotions buyer Jonathan Ruppin predicted that the novel would struggle to gain a readership in the United Kingdom because, according to him, in the UK market "the plot is what people want more than anything else" and the novel's storyline is not its central aspect. Inspired by Muriel Barbery's beloved New York Times bestseller, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, comes the touching coming- of-age story THE HEDGEHOG. [5][14][19], The novel was a best-seller and long-seller in France,[7][14] amassing sales of 1.2 million copies in hardback alone. Literature has taught me more. will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. I wanted to illuminate this process. She thinks that life doesn’t have any sense and when people grow older, they just start to follow the stupid rules and stereotypes. Her perspective is that "[t]o be poor, ugly and, moreover, intelligent condemns one, in our society, to a dark and disillusioned life, a condition one ought to accept at an early age".[1]. [5] Barbery confesses to having "followed a long, boring course of studies in philosophy", and comments that "I expected it to help me understand better that which surrounds me: but it didn't work out that way. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a novel by writer Muriel Barbery. She effects this by pretending to indulge in concierge-type food and low-quality television, while in her back room she actually enjoys high-quality food, listens to opera, and reads works by Leo Tolstoy and Edmund Husserl. [14], A week after the novel was published in the United Kingdom, The Guardian ran an article about French best-sellers published in English, focusing on The Elegance of the Hedgehog. [1] She added that "clever, informative and moving, it is essentially a crash course in philosophy interwoven with a platonic love story". Finally both the girl and the woman start to trust the man. [12] The initial print run of the novel was 4000 copies, but by the following year, over a million had been produced. The Elegance Of The Hedgehog Summary. Penguin Group USA. Written by Julia Wolf and other people who wish to remain anonymous. [12] The novel also received a warm response in Korea,[5] and sold over 400,000 copies in Italy. by Muriel Barbery & translated by Alison Anderson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 26, 2008. Literary fiction at its best. [12], An acclaimed literary work, The Elegance of the Hedgehog has been considered by critics and press alike as a publishing phenomenon. The Elegance of the Hedgehog Summary. In partnership with the PEN American Center, French Voice funds the translation and publication of up to ten contemporary French and Francophone works each year. In the earliest known review, for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Maurizio Bono writes that "[t]he formula that made more than half a million readers in France fall in love with [The Elegance of the Hedgehog] has, among other ingredients: intelligent humor, fine sentiments, an excellent literary and philosophical backdrop, taste that is sophisticated but substantial". As the reader understands, he is a Japanese. Also he spends time with Renee: he invites her to watch a film with him, then to celebrate his birthday in the restaurant. [12], The Elegance of the Hedgehog was well received by critics. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a novel by the French novelist and philosophy teacher Muriel Barbery. Paloma is the daughter of an upper-class family living in the upscale Parisian apartment building where Renée works. [1] A review in The Telegraph conjectured that "[i]f [the novel were] a piece of furniture, it would be an IKEA bestseller: popular, but not likely to be passed down the generations". It’s a library with a huge number of books in different topics: beginning philosophical and ending with fiction. [3] Planning to burn down the apartment before dying, she also steals her mother's pills. You can help us out by revising, improving and updating Paloma changes her mind and doesn’t want to die anymore. 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