Renée is the concierge of a grand Parisian apartment building, home to members of the great and the good. Over the years she has maintained her carefully constructed persona as someone reliable but totally uncultivated, in keeping, she feels, with society's expectations of what a concierge should be. But beneath this façade lies the real Renée: passionate about culture and the arts, and more knowledgeable in many ways than her employers with their outwardly successful but emotionally void lives. Down in her lodge, apart from weekly visits by her one friend Manuela, Renée lives resigned to her lonely lot with only her cat for company. Meanwhile, several floors up, twelve-year-old Paloma Josse is determined to avoid the pampered and vacuous future laid out for her, and decides to end her life on her thirteenth birthday. But unknown to them both, the sudden death of one of their privileged neighbours will dramatically alter their lives forever.
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Resistance is futile ... you might as well buy it before someone recommends it for your book group. Its charm will make you say yes. --Guardian
Clever, informative and moving ... this is an admirable novel which deserves as wide a readership here as it had in France. --Observer
This breathtakingly singular novel...is totally French yet completely universal. --Good Housekeeping
Clever, informative and moving ... this is an admirable novel which deserves as wide a readership here as it had in France. --Observer
This breathtakingly singular novel...is totally French yet completely universal. --Good Housekeeping
About the Author
Muriel Barbery teaches philosophy. The Elegance of the Hedgehog is her second novel. Her first book, The Gourmet, is also published by Gallic Books.
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a difficult book to categorise and that, in itself, makes it interesting. Is it a deeply philosophical story about the beauty of art, the loneliness of the artistic soul and the French class system? Or is it a pretentious and unconvincing story about unlikely characters?
Renée is a 54-year-old concierge in an apartment block catering to wealthy Parisians. She is patronised and belittled by the residents, but is complicit in the way she is treated, since she makes a concerted effort to disguise her true nature and her love of art and literature. Paloma is the troubled 12-year-old daughter of one of the families who live in the apartment block. She, too, hides her intellect from her family and, convinced of the futility of life, has resolved to kill herself on her 13th birthday. Their stories are told in alternate chapters (helpfully, each voice is characterised by a different typeface) and the first part of the book deals with their philosophical musings and their disdain for virtually everyone around them.
We, the readers, can see how much they have in common, but they are each so self-obsessed and introverted that a meeting of minds seems unlikely. Then one of the residents dies and the apartment is sold to a Japanese gentleman who, in a matter of moments, perceives and understands their separate loneliness and prickly defensiveness. He is the catalyst who breaks through their shells and encourages them to reveal their true natures.
The second half of the novel, which deals with this awakening, is more satisfying. Instead of chapters of interminable solipsistic philosophy, we get a story. Eureka! Although this meant, for me, that the book became a pleasure to read rather than a chore, I was still left with the feeling that it was all rather too pat and therefore unbelievable. Both Renée and Paloma emerge from their shells remarkably quickly. Would Renée, who has submerged her true identity so thoroughly and successfully, have succumbed so easily to revealing herself to others? Would she and Paloma have established such a close friendship in such a short time?
On balance, while there are flaws, I'm glad I read this book. I took from it the message that we should seek the moments of beauty in life and treasure them. Accordingly, I found myself turning to the poetry of Keats when I'd finished the book, which cannot be a bad thing.
Renée is a 54-year-old concierge in an apartment block catering to wealthy Parisians. She is patronised and belittled by the residents, but is complicit in the way she is treated, since she makes a concerted effort to disguise her true nature and her love of art and literature. Paloma is the troubled 12-year-old daughter of one of the families who live in the apartment block. She, too, hides her intellect from her family and, convinced of the futility of life, has resolved to kill herself on her 13th birthday. Their stories are told in alternate chapters (helpfully, each voice is characterised by a different typeface) and the first part of the book deals with their philosophical musings and their disdain for virtually everyone around them.
We, the readers, can see how much they have in common, but they are each so self-obsessed and introverted that a meeting of minds seems unlikely. Then one of the residents dies and the apartment is sold to a Japanese gentleman who, in a matter of moments, perceives and understands their separate loneliness and prickly defensiveness. He is the catalyst who breaks through their shells and encourages them to reveal their true natures.
The second half of the novel, which deals with this awakening, is more satisfying. Instead of chapters of interminable solipsistic philosophy, we get a story. Eureka! Although this meant, for me, that the book became a pleasure to read rather than a chore, I was still left with the feeling that it was all rather too pat and therefore unbelievable. Both Renée and Paloma emerge from their shells remarkably quickly. Would Renée, who has submerged her true identity so thoroughly and successfully, have succumbed so easily to revealing herself to others? Would she and Paloma have established such a close friendship in such a short time?
On balance, while there are flaws, I'm glad I read this book. I took from it the message that we should seek the moments of beauty in life and treasure them. Accordingly, I found myself turning to the poetry of Keats when I'd finished the book, which cannot be a bad thing.
92 of 95 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If there was ever a book that deserved sticking with, this is it. I have to admit that at first I really hated it, for all the reasons that the other reviewers who hated it gave - pretentious language, arrogant characters, boring philosophical pontification, BUT I persevered, mostly because it's my book group read, and I found myself warming to the book more and more as I got further in to it. Generally the main characters in a book go on a journey, and that's true of this book, but I think that I, as the reader, also went on a journey, perhaps even more so, as my attitude towards the characters changed until I truly loved both Renee and Paloma. As another reviewer said, the plot comes alive after the arrival of the Japanese gentleman, and I became competely gripped from this point on. Toward the end I was actually pleading out loud to the book to make things turn out the way I wanted, and having just finished reading, I'm still wiping away tears. I once read a book called 'splashes of joy in the cesspool of life' and I think that title somewhat sums up the theme of this beautiful book - beauty in the midst of tragedy. I could so easily have given up on this book, but I'm very glad I stuck with it.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By Victoria
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Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review
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Like some other reviewers on here, I am not entirely sure how or why this book has become a bestseller (though I do find myself thinking this more and more often!!) It isn't bad as such, but I agree that you are left wondering what the point of it all is. I found both central characters quite unlikeable - their intellectual ramblings got on my nerves and slowed the pace of the novel to a halt.
The novel follows a concierge of an apartment block for the rich who hides her intelligence behind what she conceives to be the archetypal stereotype of her social role, and a thirteen year old brainbox of a rich kid who is planning to kill herself and torch the family home on her thirteenth birthday. It is rather quaint and quirky, and some of the prose is rich (and I must say, very nicely translated.) But the novel generally left me feeling like it was trying too hard to make profound philisophical statements about not much at all. Perhaps on a second reading it would improve in my estimation, but on the whole, I just didn't get it.
The novel follows a concierge of an apartment block for the rich who hides her intelligence behind what she conceives to be the archetypal stereotype of her social role, and a thirteen year old brainbox of a rich kid who is planning to kill herself and torch the family home on her thirteenth birthday. It is rather quaint and quirky, and some of the prose is rich (and I must say, very nicely translated.) But the novel generally left me feeling like it was trying too hard to make profound philisophical statements about not much at all. Perhaps on a second reading it would improve in my estimation, but on the whole, I just didn't get it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating book
This book is very well written, with some beautiful phrases and an unusual style. I didn't quite click at first that there were two separate narrators - Renee the concierge and... Read more
Published 10 days ago by Hilary Thomas
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love this book.
This book is well worth reading, gives insights into how we view people and situations, I would highly recomment it
Published 11 days ago by Mrs P Lawrence
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's OK
I bought this English translation as we are working through the original French version in an adult education French class. Read more
Published 15 days ago by John Richard
1.0 out of 5 stars
I didnt undestand the hype!
I purchased this book to read with my Book Group, and was looking foreward to something a bit different. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Gwyneth Young
5.0 out of 5 stars
Muriel Barbery can write
An unusual story about two intelligent people. Maybe smarter than the norm people. One a soon to be teenage girl and the other a concierge in a Parisian apartment building. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Annsofi Wiles
1.0 out of 5 stars
Complete ruination by audio readers of the most fantastic book
The book itself - amazing, couldn't put it down, I loved it, even better second time round. BUT - the AUDIO book, which I obtained to share with a partially-sighted friend,... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Betty
3.0 out of 5 stars
Can't help the comparison
This has taken a while to review, as I found it such hard-going at first. There are way too many incidental characters, people who have a very small part to play; the philosophical... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ponytail
5.0 out of 5 stars
marvellous
One of the best books I have read in a long long time. In fact I got this book from the library and loved it so much I got myself a copy. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Franjapani
3.0 out of 5 stars
Something lost during this cross-Channel voyage
This book, published in France in 2006, sold well over a million copies in that country, has won numerous awards and has been translated into more than thirty languages. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Dr R
5.0 out of 5 stars
Unusual book
I read this book for my book club and it had been highly recommended by one of the members who had already read it. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mrs. A. J. Brown
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