About
To our surprise we found that she does not have a web presence. We feel this is bad, both for the author and for her fans. We therefore intend to build a fansite on this domain that will provide information about the author and her wonderful books, and will be interactive and open for comments from other fans.
The site is affiliated with Google and Amazon. You can support the site by using the links provided here. Just to be clear on this issue: This site is not expected to make us money! This is a hobby site for us – we do not expect to be paid for the hours spent on this. The very few dollars we may make on these ads will hopefully contribute towards the costs associated with developing the site, for the software used and to cover the costs of hosting the site.
We hope the site can help to make the literary qualities of Muriel Barbery more visible on the internet, and perhaps make a few more people read her books! She is an eminent writer, and deserves it.
We also hope we can contribute to making her even more visible to fans. If you have questions or comments, book reviews or stories you want to submit, or want to sponsor the site or post and ad here, get in touch with us!
Welcome to the Muriel Barbery fansite! Contact us at Cindy (at) murielbarbery.com
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
On facebook, there is also a fansite for the movie “Die Eleganz der Madame Michel” , which one is based on the book Le Hérisson by Muriel Barbery. You can find there lots of information and pictures. If you´re interested in it, join us!
http://www.facebook.com/madamemichel.senator
I used to know a Renee Michel (who lived in Amiens France around1997) but she would be younger than the character in this novel. We have lost contact. She had MS. I wonder if I could ask the author if she named this character after my friend, or just invented the name?
Thank you for your help ??
My cat’s name is Leo. When I started reading ‘Hedgehog’ in the bookstore, I wanted to purchase this novel. So far this story of 2 very different feminine personalities is intriguing. I haven’t finished the story yet, but I especially enjoyed the relevance of synchronized diving to the perfection of life and that is, the imperfection of life through human beings’ actions. I am excited to find out more about these 2 characters. Thank you bookstore! If it wasn’t for you, I don’t know that I would have come across this story.
The Elegance of the Hedgehog Unravelled
Because this novel ends where it does, while Mr. Ozu is still grooming Paloma, I am placed in the bizarre position of being a Precrime office and whistle blower on a work of fiction, and/or the “creator” of the anti-hero. I have either uncovered Mr. Ozu’s (and the author’s) machinations or this is a wiitch hunt.
After I read the book, it continued to resonate with me. I had internalized the characters and was then able to ignore the tangents, distractions, and obfuscations and allow my subconscious to read between the lines; and then there was Lolita.
I trusted my intuition and began to connect the dots.
This feel off-kilter and incredibly fresh; to be at once a relatively passive consumer/reader and also to have such creative input. It’s probably what happens to conspiracy theorists or a nosey neighbour.
In Courtly Love the knight is the hero. In the Romantic movement the poet is the hero. Vladamir Nobokov and Muriel Barbery are part of the Manrotic (my anagram) movement where the prospective hero is removed when they threaten to disrupt the anti-hero plot or even uncover the anti-hero.
I await some future vindication when all will be revealed, or if not, I will remain impressed with the alchemy of my imagination and disappointed that it was not made manifest.
I loved the Elegance of the Hedgehog. I really enjoyed reading it and the characters. I really wish however that the small paragraph about having a child with Downs Syndrome is revised for any future editions which are published. I know many children with Downs Syndrome and my fabulous daughter Rachel has Downs Syndrome. She does not dribble and she understands a huge amount – she is only 3. I do not know one child with Downs Syndrome who dribbles and who doesn’t understand anything. For a well researched book this was one glaring part which I feel was obviously not researched and is absolutely not true. I feel truly lucky to be Rachel’s Mum, she brings us absolute joy every day. In a book searching for true meaning to life and true beauty I think this is a painful error. To see Rachel enjoying, exploring the world and especially her love of flowers is truly beautiful.
This book was pure joy. It made me laugh and it made me cry. It combined so many elements that appealed to me, and was so beautifully written that I believe Renee Michel the concierge in the novel would have enjoyed it herself if she was real.
In the 1950′s I had a pen-friend from Casa Blanca, Morrocco who was called Martine Barbery (if I remember rightly) and I was wondering whether she might be an elderly relative of Muriel Barbery. We lost contact and I would love to renew our correspondence after all these years. I’m waiting for the book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog to arrive to read it in French…always better than any translation.
Kindest regards,
Eleanor Dyer de Uribe (maiden name Dyer)
from the Colombian Andes
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