The Endurance of the Hedgehog

Whatever Muriel Barbery’s intention when she wrote The Elegance of the Hedgehog, it has become the personal manifesto of thousands of readers worldwide since it was first published in 2006 in France. Now available, in paperback, in an English translation from Europa Editions, Barbery’s book is remarkable for the wide range of people who have found inspiration, encouragement, strength and solace from the wisdom expressed by its two main characters, Renée Michel, a stereotype of the frumpy, 50-ish female concierge at a posh Paris apartment building, and Paloma Josse, an introspective, fiercely intelligent 12-year-old resident who has decided that she is done with this world.

Excoriating critics of the insipid, vain and meaningless lives of the upper classes, exemplified by the residents of 7, rue de Grenelle where they live, Renée and Paloma defend themselves with a reverse form of snobbery. They cultivate secret lives protected by an armor of resentment and ridicule. Privately, Renée indulges in literature (Tolstoy’s War and Peace and Anna Karenina are favorites), film (subtle social commentaries made in the 1950s by Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu and American blockbusters like Blade Runner), art (still lifes by 17th-century Dutch masters are at the top of her list) and classical music (she can identify the Confutatis in Mozart’s Requiem when it accompanies the flush of a toilet as camouflage). Believing she must downplay her intelligence, Paloma takes refuge in Japanese Manga and two journals she keeps, one of her profound thoughts and one that records significant “Movements of the World,” examples of human behavior that reveal great truths...

...It turns out that Ozu and Renée share very precise loves in the realms of art, music, literature and fine pastry. He sees behind the frumpy concierge mask she wears by day and sets out to, gently, unmask her. Through Ozu, Renée and Paloma form a bond, and soon a sense of possibility replaces their internal chaos. At one point, Renée decrees, “Those who seek eternity find solitude.” But as she and Paloma discover, those who find eternity do so through the deep and enduring power of the friendship.

The full review is at: STUDIO-ONLINE » The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

While the book speaks of prickly creatures in the metaphorical sense of living in a secretive defensive mode, this little video stars an actual hedgehog who has nothing to hide -