Bright Summaries - The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Book Analysis): Detailed Summary, Analysis and Reading Guide

The story of The Elegance of the Hedgehog begins with the introduction of the two main characters. Through the pages of their personal journals, Rene Michel and Paloma Josse tell the reader the story of 7, Rue de Grenelle and give their thoughts and impressions in turn.

Rene Michel is 54 years old and is the concierge of a residence where eight rich families live. Even though she did not have the opportunity to continue her education when she was younger, Rene is extremely cultured. However, she forces herself to act like the stereotypical concierge that her employers expect: insignificant, stupid and ugly. Nevertheless, one she is safe from prying eyes at home, she throws herself gleefully into literature, philosophy, music, cinema and all other forms of art.

Rene talks about her childhood, her humble origins and her arrival in the building. She describes the people around her, starting with her friend Manuela, a Portuguese cleaner who comes to visit her twice a week. When they are alone together, in peace, they discuss various topics over tea and cakes, baked lovingly by Manuela. The concierge also depicts her employers in a very sarcastic manner. In fact, she has nothing but contempt for those who, in spite of being middle class and therefore supposedly cultured, are in reality extremely stupid.

A large part of the journal is dedicated to commentaries on the various books Rene has read. Karl Marx (German revolutionary socialist, 1818-1883), Edmund Husserl (German philosopher and logician, 1859-1938), Ren Descartes (French philosopher, mathematician and physicist, 1596-1650) and Leo Tolstoy (Russian writer, 1828-1910) are just some of her favourite authors, whose works and thoughts she sums up with a great deal of humour.

At 12 years old, Paloma Josse is a gifted, exceptionally intelligent little girl. Very disappointed by the apparent absurdity of life as evidenced by her family, her schoolmates and her teachers, she plans to burn down her parents apartment and commit suicide on the day of her 13 th birthday, in order to put an end to all of lifes nonsense. Before that, she is of the opinion that simply because youve made plans to die doesnt mean you have to vegetate like some rotting piece of cabbage and therefore decides to dedicate herself utterly to the writing of a double journal: the first, Profound thoughts, is a collection of all the interesting ideas that have occurred to her, while the second, Journal of the Movement of the World, focuses on the body and things.

After introducing herself, she paints the reader a very critical picture of her family and friends. She sees her family as completely devoid of emotions and interest. Her mother, a well-read woman, is desperately trying to forget the meaningless of life through antidepressants and the obsessive attention that she devotes to her green plants. Her sister Colombe, in spite of her brilliant results at university, is an imbecile, completely insensitive, fussy and loud. Her father is a Member of Parliament, but in her opinion he just puts up the faade of being an adult in order to hide his despair. Paloma takes every chance she gets to rebel against the stupidity of adults. The scene of the family meal is a good example: she does not think twice about calling out the shocking errors her parents guest makes when talking about the game Go. Although she manages to restrain herself with several of the errors she notes (Go was not invented by the Japanese but by the Chinese, and it is not comparable to chess in the slightest), she finally explodes after an erroneous comment about the player classification system and refuses to back down.

Over the course of her writing, Paloma also tells the reader about her passions: she is fascinated by manga and everything relating to Japan in general, and she also finds the French language and grammar incomparably beautiful.

After the death of Mr Arthens, who lived on the 4 th floor, his family decides to sell their apartment. Shortly afterwards, a new neighbour moves in and begins to occupy himself with many different projects, which piques the curiosity of all the other residents of the building. Mr Kakuro Ozu is a very friendly Japanese pensioner. To Renes complete surprise, she is the one who he is most interested in: he sees through her outer appearance as a concierge to the charming, refined and educated woman she is on the inside. Rene fears being found out after one of their encounters, when Kakuro finishes her reference to the first sentence of Leo Tolstoys Anna Karenina (All happy families are alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way). Some time later he gives her a beautiful edition of the book with a stunning binding, thereby showing that he has discovered her real identity. Rene grows frightened and cannot understand what he sees in her. However, encouraged by her friend Manuela, she accepts his invitation to meet up and they have a lovely time together.