The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

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Description

The enthralling international bestseller. We are in the center of Paris, in an elegant apartment building inhabited by bourgeois families. Renée, the concierge, is witness to the lavish but vacuous lives of her numerous employers. Outwardly she conforms to every stereotype of the concierge:... read more

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Summary

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Cast of Characters/Important People

Manuela: Add a description of this character.
Colombe
Kakuro Ozu: A Japanese businessman.
Maman
Madame Michel
Renee Michel: A 54-year-old widowed concierge.
Paloma Josse: An advanced 12-year-old, belongs to one of the conventional families living in the posh apartment building where Renée works.
Madame de Broglie
Pierre Arthens
Lucien
Olympe Saint-Nice

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Memorable Quotes

“Literature's mission is to make the fulfillment of our essential duties more bearable”
“You would be surprised by what ordinary little people come out with”
“Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.”
“I may be indigent in name, position, and appearance, but in my own mind I am an unrivaled goddess.”
Renee Michel

First Sentence

"Marx has completely changed the way I view the world," declared the Pallieres boy this morning, although ordinarily he says nary a word to me.

Marx (Preamble)
1-2

Camellias
1-18

On Grammar
1-18

Paloma
1-23

Glossary

Appanages: The grant of an estate, title or offices given to a young male sovereign.
Incunabulum: a single sheet of printed material; a book; Latin for swaddling clothes or cradle.
Phenomenology: Philosophy or method of inquiry based on the premise that reality consists of objects and events as they are perceived or understood in human consciousness and not of anything independent of human consciousness. primarily concerned with making the structures of consciousness, and the phenomena which appear in acts of consciousness, objects of systematic reflection and analysis.