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The Elegance of the Hedgehog
- Narrated by: Barbara Rosenblat, Cassandra Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
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Publisher's summary
Renee Michel is the 54-year-old concierge of a luxury Paris apartment building. Her exterior (short, ugly,and plump) and demeanor (poor, discreet, and insignificant) belie her keen, questing mind and profound erudition. Paloma Josse is a 12-year-old genius who behaves as everyone expects her to behave: a mediocre pre-teen high on adolescent subculture, a good but not outstanding student, an obedient if obstinate daughter. She plans to kill herself on the 16th of June, her 13th birthday.
Both Renee and Paloma hide their true talents and finest qualities from the bourgeois families around them, until a wealthy Japanese gentleman named Ozu moves into building. Only he sees through them, perceiving the secret that haunts Renee, winning Paloma's trust, and helping the two discover their kindred souls. Moving, funny, tender, and triumphant, Barbery's novel exalts the quiet victories of the inconspicuous among us.
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Editorial reviews
The Elegance of the Hedgehog tells the story of a life spent in hiding. Madame Michel is the concierge of a luxurious Parisian apartment building, tending to the plants, signing for packages, and polishing the brass, retreating when she can to her rooms on the first floor. She keeps a television blaring where the tenants can hear it; she zealously polices her speech and gestures to keep from giving herself away. What is the secret she hides? Madame Michel is an intellectual. She knows Kant, but she's separated by class from other people who do, so she discusses his work with herself while we listen in. Her musings are voiced by Barbara Rosenblat, who lends an air of theatrical irony an auditory raised eyebrow to her descriptions of class blind spots and philosophical rabbit holes.
The other pole of the story is Paloma Josse, a 12-year-old tenant in the building, voiced by Cassandra Morris with an appropriate measure of sarcasm and outrage. Paloma is a wildly precocious girl raised in privilege who has all the gifts of intellect and all the faults of a pre-adolescent. She's grandiose she favors us with excerpts from a journal titled "Profound Thoughts". She's happy to throw stones at glass houses, and even plans to burn hers down, with the aim of teaching her family a pithy lesson about deprivation. She describes the currently deprived in terms that, while well-intentioned, condescend and distort. She is, in other words, a burgeoning intellect in serious need of the influence of an adult she can respect. An adult, perhaps, like the 54-year-old concierge on the first floor. But it takes more than a ride in an elevator to truly meet a woman who has spent her life in hiding. The novel takes two world views, both meticulously constructed from sound philosophical materials, and happily pulls them apart. Rosalie Knecht
Critic reviews
"An exquisite book in the form of a philosophical fable that has enchanted hundreds of thousands of readers." (Italian Elle)
"Kinetic minds and engaging voices." ( New York Times Book Review)
"By turns very funny and heartbreaking". ( Publishers Weekly)
"Life-affirming." ( Time)
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Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis (1839-1908) was the greatest writer ever to come from Brazil and one of the masters of nineteenth-century fiction. Susan Sontag calls him "the greatest writer ever produced in Latin America", surpassing even Borges. Harold Bloom says that Machado is "the supreme black literary artist to date". And Allen Ginsburg calls him "another Kafka". And The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas is his masterpiece, a dazzling, tragic, and profound novel that belongs next to the greatest works of his contemporaries Melville and Dostoevsky.
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A hidden masterpiece
- By C. Park on 08-09-18
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The Schooldays of Jesus
- By: J. M. Coetzee
- Narrated by: James Cameron Stewart
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
David is the small boy who is always asking questions. Simon and Ines take care of him in their new town, Estrella. He is learning the language; he has begun to make friends. He has the big dog, Bolivar, to watch over him. But he'll be seven soon, and he should be at school. And so, with the guidance of the three sisters who own the farm where Simon and Ines work, David is enrolled in the Academy of Dance. It's here, in his new golden dancing slippers, that he learns how to call down the numbers from the sky.
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SEXUAL PERVERSION PRESENTED AS BRILLIANT
- By Amazon Customer on 09-29-18
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44 Scotland Street
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- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The brilliant Alexander McCall Smith became an international sensation with his New York Times best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels. His award-winning wit, made famous through that series, is fully on display in 44 Scotland Street.
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Smith's answer to Maupin
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The Door
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- Narrated by: Siân Thomas
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Intense, brilliant and moving, The Door is a compelling story about the relationship between two women of opposing backgrounds and personalities: one, an intellectual and writer; the other, her housekeeper, a mysterious, elderly woman who sets her own rules and abjures religion, education, pretense and any kind of authority. Beneath this hardened exterior of Emerence lies a painful story that must be concealed.
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Challenging, but an engrossing, literary work.
- By Earnest on 09-05-17
By: Magda Szabó, and others
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The Razor's Edge
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- Narrated by: Michael Page
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Great War changed everything and everyone, and Larry Darrell is no exception. Though his physical wounds from the war heal, his spirit is changed almost beyond recognition. He leaves his betrothed, the beautiful and devoted Isabel; studies philosophy and religion in Paris; lives as a monk, and witnesses the exotic hardships of Spanish life. All of life that he can find - from an Indian Ashrama to labor in a coal mine - becomes Larry's spiritual experiment as he spurns the comfort and privilege of the Roaring 20s.
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An Classic of Love and the Desire for Meaning
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A Tale of Love and Darkness
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- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 23 hrs and 52 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
It is the story of a boy growing up in the war-torn Jerusalem of the 40s and 50s in a small apartment crowded with books in 12 languages and relatives speaking nearly as many. His mother and father, both wonderful people, were ill-suited to each other. When Oz was 12 and a half years old, his mother committed suicide - a tragedy that was to change his life. He leaves the constraints of the family and the community of dreamers, scholars, and failed businessmen to join a kibbutz.
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His life was interesting, but not his memoir
- By DR Harle on 01-27-19
By: Amos Oz
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Buddenbrooks
- The Decline of a Family
- By: Thomas Mann
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 26 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
First published in 1900, when Thomas Mann was 25, Buddenbrooks is a minutely imagined chronicle of four generations of a North German mercantile family - a work so true to life that it scandalized the author’s former neighbours in his native Lübeck.
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Where Have You Been All My Life, Thomas Mann?
- By Virginia Waldron on 03-30-17
By: Thomas Mann
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Wicked Autumn
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- By: G. M. Malliet
- Narrated by: Michael Page
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold's in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women's Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max's training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.
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Just OK
- By Jeanne on 08-05-21
By: G. M. Malliet
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The Sunday Philosophy Club
- An Isabel Dalhousie Mystery
- By: Alexander McCall Smith
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New York Times best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith, winner of the first-ever Saga Award for Wit, has entertained millions with his beloved No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency mysteries. Now this phenomenally popular author introduces a fresh series, brimming with the charm and humor his stable of dedicated fans can't get enough of.
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Advice For Prospective Listeners
- By DCinMI on 02-18-13
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Amulet
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A tour de force, Amulet is a highly charged first-person, semi-hallucinatory novel that embodies in one woman's voice the melancholy and violent recent history of Latin America. Amulet is a monologue, like Bolaño's acclaimed debut in English, By Night in Chile. The speaker is Auxilio Lacouture, a Uruguayan woman who moved to Mexico in the 1960s, becoming the "Mother of Mexican Poetry", hanging out with the young poets in the cafés and bars of the University.
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Read The Savage Detectives first
- By Alicia Grega on 12-05-13
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The Bad Seed
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There's something special about eight-year-old Rhoda Penmark. With her carefully plaited hair and her sweet cotton dresses, she's the very picture of old-fashioned innocence. But when their neighborhood suffers a series of terrible accidents, her mother begins to wonder: Why do bad things seem to happen when little Rhoda is around?
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loved it
- By CoCo B.M.J on 07-23-19
By: William March
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More Die of Heartbreak
- By: Saul Bellow
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Overall
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Story
Kenneth Trachtenberg, an eccentric and witty native of Paris, travels to the Midwest to spend time with his famous American uncle, a world-renowned botanist and self-described "plant visionary". After numerous affairs and failed relationships, the restless Uncle Benn seeks a settled existence in the form of marriage - but tying the knot again opens the door to a host of new torments.
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A great book
- By John A. on 03-16-22
By: Saul Bellow
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A Closed Eye
- By: Anita Brookner
- Narrated by: Prunella Scales
- Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
Born to elegant but frivolous parents, Harriet grows up ignored and unguided, and retains a curious innocence that neither her marriage to Freddie Lytton, nor her friendship with the beautiful Tessa can dispel. Freddie is far older than she is - a companion rather than a lover - and slightly disapproving of Tessa and her irresponsible, attractive husband, Jack. Yet all four are bound together: by their backgrounds, their children, by Harriet’s unspoken feelings for Jack and by the tragedy that lies in wait for all of them.
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The Late Great Ms. Brookner
- By David P on 05-15-16
By: Anita Brookner
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An Available Man
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Overall
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Story
When Edward Schuyler - a modest and bookish 62-year-old science teacher - is widowed, he finds himself ambushed by female attention. There are plenty of unattached women around, but a healthy, handsome, available man is a rare and desirable creature. Edward receives phone calls from widows seeking love, or at least lunch, while well-meaning friends try to set him up at dinner parties. The problem is that Edward doesn’t feel available. He’s still mourning his beloved wife, Bee, and prefers solitude and the familiar routine of work, gardening, and bird-watching.
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Lovely book, easy read, wonderful characters
- By Molly-o on 02-17-12
By: Hilma Wolitzer
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What Is Not Yours Is Not Yours
- Stories
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In "Books and Roses", one special key opens a library, a garden, and clues to at least two lovers' fates. In "Is Your Blood as Red as This?", an unlikely key opens the heart of a student at a puppeteering school. "'Sorry' Doesn't Sweeten Her Tea" involves a "house of locks", where doors can be closed only with a key - with surprising unobservable developments. And in "If a Book Is Locked There's Probably a Good Reason for That Don't You Think", a key keeps a mystical diary locked (for good reason).
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clever
- By jared rogerson on 03-15-18
By: Helen Oyeyemi
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What listeners say about The Elegance of the Hedgehog
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Kindle Customer
- 02-05-23
Lovely Story
I enjoyed the story, but felt it dragged in places. It was worth the time!!
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- Cynthia
- 04-04-23
mixed
I loved the narration of this audio book, but I think I was expecting something different from the story itself. take it or leave it
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- Anonymous User
- 02-03-24
Introverts Unite!
I felt I would get along with the kindred spirit characters in this story, except that the young girl was too much of a little nihilistic sociopath/ know it all to seem realistic or likable. The story is mostly like journal entries of two unrelated characters, and the big payoff is they end up interacting in a predictably symbiotic fashion. I didn’t have much time to get emotionally attached to the characters, because the author spent a lot more energy trying to show how smart and worldly they were by having them dive deep into philosophy. I noticed my mind would drift during those parts. The narrations were quite good.
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- Daniel K
- 05-30-24
A beautiful story
Great story, great voices.
it gets you thinking about finding your tribe in this life, loneliness, kindness, community, and so much more.
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- Here-and-faraway
- 12-19-11
Enjoyable and Poignant
I know this book never would have never held my attention had I read it myself. The two narrators really brought it to life for me. Elegance of a Hedgehog is an engaging and often-times humorous story about misfits finding one another and trying to make not only sense of, but peace with the world that they live in. There are a few flaws (some of the characters' philosophical musings are bone dry), but overall the story really held my interest.
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- Elizabeth
- 06-28-09
Rewards Patience
This is an unusual read, but one that pays off if you stick to it. Nice philosophical insights on life's inequities.
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- Kaui
- 07-04-15
A delightful read, brilliantly narrated
This is my second time with the Elegant Hedgehog. This time, I have Anna Karanenina under my belt and I listened to a brilliant audiobook version. I believe these two facts and my vastly more available personal resources (my kids are much older now) have combined to create a most enjoyable read of this beautifully written masterpiece. The erudition, class parody and philosophical analysis are all delightful. Highly recommend.
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- Isabella
- 06-20-10
Loved it!
I am surprised by some of the reviews. This was a fun, light book, a great read for long car trips. I did read one review somewhere that said not to read the book, but to listen to it, which I did. The narration was terrific. Give it a chance.
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- Humility
- 09-22-15
Thought provocation for the patient
What made the experience of listening to The Elegance of the Hedgehog the most enjoyable?
The way it wrapped up. It was well, it succeeded in being beautiful.
How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?
I think the beginning could have been condensed a bit to make it less insufferable. And less abject, unfiltered worship of the Japanese.
Which character – as performed by Barbara Rosenblat and Cassandra Morris – was your favorite?
The concierge.
If you could take any character from The Elegance of the Hedgehog out to dinner, who would it be and why?
The food critic obviously, because he probably knows the best places to eat.
Any additional comments?
Okay this is less a narrative and more of a bunch of philosophy and poetry with a few drops of exposition woven together to form a sequence of events with character development. In the beginning, everyone is insufferable and hypocritical and its filled with long pseudo-intellectual philosophical rants and what not. And it has all the entertainment value of listening to a bunch of pseudo intellectuals huff themselves up by mumbling fancy poetry and half baked philosophy while putting down other intellectuals. This is just the writer setting up the characters, unfortunately due to the style of this book, this takes hours. And requirs patience to get through.
There are also a few scares that the book is going in a really annoying direction, such as when the child lead makes her first 'movement of the world' post. Thankfully those scares turned out to be false alarms.
After the first few hours, a long and amusing rant about commas made me think that perhaps this was a satire. Its really not. Eventually as life unfolds and the characters meet, and learn and grow, their philosophical rants, grow more intelligent, more aware and more positive. And the intelligence, skill, art and as the writer probably most want to hear, the beauty of the book bears fruit.
And eventually it climaxes with everyone learning, well this is worth noting. It climaxes with a refreshingly positive moral and conclusion regarding the nature of life backed by intelligent philosophy and some beautiful language.
Though I'll say not in its favor near the end the poetry and metaphor was often very weak. Lacking a firm allegorical resonance. Which is a nice was of saying it often strayed into the realm of nonsense.
Other than that the only other black mark on it in my opinion is the way the whole book would suddenly and quite perceptively shift whenever the Japanese or anything from Japan got mentioned. The worship of the Japanese was pretty much fanatical. Which I think was detrimental to the core moral. But I'll allow the possibility that this was meant to reflect the tendency of pseudo-intellectuals to worship the Japanese, and that conceding on this view it would give it a way to reach the pseudo-intellectual should they read this book.
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- Gary
- 10-11-14
Learn more from this than a nonfiction book
In general, I much prefer nonfiction books because they make you understand each of the pieces that go into the whole system in order to understand the big picture. This book is better than nonfiction because it makes you understand holistically in order understand the pieces.
Ostensibly, this book is about a concierge in a fancy condominium in Paris hiding her intellectual true nature in order to blend in as invisibly as possible. The real theme of the book is along the lines of "is there meaning to life or are we just an accident of the universe". The author brilliantly interjects philosophical lines of thought into the story by clever interactions with the characters and some digressions. The ending surprised me, and not to give a spoiler of any kind, after having listened to it, I realized that was the only ending possible.
I need to broaden my horizon and stop listening to mostly just science, technology, history and philosophy books, and find more books as good as this one because they challenge the listener even more while simultaneously elucidating the listener.
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