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Love of Seven Dolls

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This slender little novel is possibly one of the most beautiful love stories ever written. Inspired by puppeteers Fran Allison and Burr Hillstrom (to whom it is dedicated), this haunting tale by Paul Gallico weaves a spell of wonder, pain and enchantment. It is a love story in which innocent love (personified by the gamin, Mouche) and cynical hatred (embodied by the evil puppeteer, Michel Peyrot) are locked in mortal combat for the ultimate prize of the man's soul. Peyrot, who goes under the stage name Captain Coq, had a nightmarish childhood and adolescence devoid of human love. His bitter view of his fellow man is only solidified by his experiences in a war. He decides that God deserves nothing but his mockery, so to mock his Creator the man carves puppets, forming them into all of the facets of his complex personality. There are seven dolls: Ali the clumsy giant, self-absorbed and jealous Gigi, world-weary Madame Muscat, kindly Monsieur Nicholas, the bookwormish Dr. Duclos, efficient and clever Carrot-Top, and the thieving fox Reynardo. At first carved to amuse the guards when Peyrot is a POW, the puppets begin to take on a life of their own. This is shown when the girl Mouche walks toward the Seine River to end her miserable life. The puppets call out to her and draw her into their magical world; she interacts with them as though they are living beings like herself. Mouche is so charming that she becomes part of the act. Unfortunately, the master of the puppets is a cruel man who has given himself over to an existence devoted to evil. He despises the girl for the very innocence that makes her such a successful part of his puppet show. To her face, Peyrot shows the depths of his cruelty, even raping her in a vain attempt to debase her to his level. Yet though he can ravage her body, he cannot touch her soul, which is healed anew every day by the love he shows her through his puppets. His inability to reconcile his hatred for general humanity with the unwelcome tenderness Mouche arouses in him leads to schizophrenia, which is manifested by the schism between himself and the puppets. After a time, he does not control them; they compel him to change. In the end, when Mouche prepares to leave, he reveals his plan to commit suicide through the dolls, who plan to destroy themselves. She then realizes who the puppets truly are, and her love for Peyrot brings him back from the edge of the pit into which he'd planned to fling himself. He weeps in remorse, his deformed soul at last becoming human. Feminists would doubtless be upset by her forgiveness of this man's cruelty, but women have long possessed an amazing ability to embrace men's imperfections.(Which is not to say that women are perfect.) Long before psychobabble such as Martian Men and Venusian Women surfaced, this story served to beautifully point out that men and women may be equal, but they are certainly not the same. This is a magical tale, woven by a master story-teller. I highly recommend it.

This charming love story is set against the colorful atmosphere of a travelling carnival, where things are not always what they seem. Mouche, a young girl orphaned after the second world war, has given up all hope of surviving on the streets of Paris. On her way to throw herself into the Seine, she passes a puppet booth, is stopped and then adopted by the troupe of rather life-like pupetts, who almost magically bring her back to the living world. But behind the curtains of the booth, the dark puppeteer, is a corrupted and bitter man who has much to learn from his own creations.

This lesser known work was the inspiration for the film, "Lili" starring Leslie Caron, and the broadway musical, "Carnival."
Both pale in comparison to the original.

Love of Seven Dolls is a literary gem. Set in Paris, Mouche, a despondent young girl, is walking to the Seine to throw herself off a bridge. On the way she passes a puppet booth where she meets, at first one puppet and then his six friends. She is brought back to life by these 7 dolls; each with their own delightful personality; each a part of the evil puppet master. This is all accomplished with the most beautiful language. The reader is beckoned to reread paragraphs for the sheer beauty of the words. This gem makes a much better gift than a bottle of wine. Try it.

After seeing the beautifully moving film, Lili, I had to read the novella it was based upon. That led me to Love of Seven Dolls. I expected something similar to Lili's colorful, soulful setting, but Gallico is anything but. His writing is a storm of emotions, action, and darkness - inexplicably compelling and enrapturing. The language isn't particularly polished or eloquent, but the feeling behind them is breathtakingly fierce. Through simple, almost juevenile words, Gallico takes you into the anti-hero Michel Peyrot's mind. He's half-mad and starved of any human kindness. The use of the seven puppets is a stroke of genius and perfectly illuminates Michel's sadly distorted spirit. The protagonist, Mouche, is abused, tender, and childlike, but is wise beyond her time as we see when we delve into her humility, forgiveness, gratitude.

I found some parts to be rather disturbing, but this is a study of the best and worst of humanity: Mouche's heroism and Michel's depravity. It's not simple or even realistic, but it mines psychological nuances uncannily, reminiscent of A Streetcar Named Desire. Recommended for mature readers.

I judge books by whether they make me cry (or laugh as the case might be) Love Story made me cry, so did Gone With the Wind and To Kill A Mockingbird...and so did The Love of Seven Dolls. It is not great literature perhaps, but Mouche's story touches the heart. Gallico manages to convince the reader as well as Mouche that the puppets and the puppeteer are separate entities until the end. I would recommend it highly.

Love of Seven Dolls is perhaps the most beautiful story ever written. It is brief, sweet, and full of enchantment that renders several wonderful messages for the reader.

The story begins with the suicide attempt of a very lonely young woman in Paris. She believes that she is a failure because she is unattractive and has been expelled from her job. She feels lonely and without recourse in life except to end her life in order to alleviate the pain that engulfs every particle of her being. However hopeless the young girl feels, she does not pursue death because her life changes gradually with the relationship she establishes with seven wonderful puppets. The puppets become her friends, her comfort and solace in life as they find goodness and love through each other.

Evil however is embodied in the man behind the orchestrated voices of the seven puppets who uses the young woman to work for him in his puppets' shows. He takes advantage of her and travels with her and his puppets to perform in circuses around the Parisian countryside. The man is abusive of the young woman as he is with his loyal servant. He condescends upon both of his workers and makes them feel like invaluable persons. However, the young woman nonetheless continues her friendship with the seven puppets as she lovingly opens up to them and they become the goodness that permeates her life. Eventually, the young woman meets another circus man who courts her and proposes marriage. The young woman decides to marry him, but ultimately decides not to do so because, while all alone, she hears the seven puppets begin to speak among themselves deliberating on how they will continue their puppet acts without her. The seven puppets decide among themselves that their performances cannot go on without her, they cannot continue to live without the person that gave them so much life. The puppets decide to cease to exist. Upon hearing this, the young girl speakes to the puppets and convinces them not to end their lives as show puppets. At this point, the once wretched man behind the puppets comes forth and shows himself to the young woman. Without using the puppets he reveals himself to the young woman and his true nature that is indeed good, not evil; love, not hate. The young woman forgives his past abuses of her and realizes she has always loved the goodness that she felt was within him. She decides to stay with him and the seven puppets.

The story is enchanting moreso because the author uniquely weaves the concepts of goodness, evil, and God in such artistic wrting and the creation of characters. Goodness and evil, as Paul Gallico has written, is in everyone, in man and puppets alike, but it is in our ability to see through the evil and to forgive that we surrender to love.

I have read this book before and ordered a replacement for the original is falling apart. The story is very moving and inspiring in the vein of hope triumphing over despair.

The problem is that I have yet to receive it

Love Of Seven Dolls is a beautiful story, it should only take you a night to read. I was influenced by Lilly when I was a kid, revisited the film as an adult, and then led to read this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Love of Seven Dolls,which was presented to me by my beloved teacher at the age of 15,changed my life in the sense that it made me aware of who I am and what I seek in life.Like Mouche,the lonely naive girl,I have been searching to be found,secure and loved.The story moves constantly between hope and despair,helplessness and salvation.The beautiful descriptions and its atmosphere reminds me well of my favorite Pachelabel Canon in D,where one could also find the longing for universal cosmic love.

As tragedy is actually an unfinished comedy,I regard Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux as unfinished Love of Seven dolls.Both men,Michele and Erik have known secluded and bitter and miserable lives,but whereas Michele finally earned true love,Erik dies alone.I will never know rest till I can give Erik all the love Michele got from Mouche;after all,it was the only thing Erik craved.I believe Love of Seven Dolls is an important psychological lesson to everyone who has suffered rejections in life(not only in love):Never lose Hope!or like in Nana Mouskouri`s song "I have a dream"-you can take the future,even if you fail.The story teaches us the essential message that everyone deserves to love and be loved,and soulmates do exit. I am only hope I will find my Erik one day soon.

I don't think that this short novel is deserving of all the lauding reviews that it has been given by other reviewers. Although the book is indeed boundless in potential...there were some fundamental flaws that I found hard to ignore.

I found Mouche too whiny and passive a character. I understand that this is just a fiction...but really - her docility was just petrifying! I found it too unreal that someone would be raped, abused, chided, and kept as a profitable concubine by a schizoid ventriloquist by night, and then laugh and play with this same demon in the disguise of seven little dolls by day. Honestly, could a normal person miss this link? I actually ended up concluding that Mouche is insane herself, and that the book amply demonstrates how birds of the same breed will flock together. Paul Gallico tries his best to portray Mouche as having some kind of an angelic, untanishable innocence - - but the truth is that she is dangerously passive, and has a major paralysis in character.

My review would be incomplete if I didn't mention Golo, the Senegalese slave/messenger who is also helplessly passive. He is kicked around by the degenerate clown and he actually seems to be convinced that this is his rightful place in society. Some of the stereotypes made by the writer himself about Senegalese/African culture can only be called absurd, but then these are only prejudices of his day. This novel was written in the 1950s.

The ending was disappointing. I still felt as though Mouche had fallen in love with the seven dolls, and not with Peyrot. This book might be good in demonstrating existentialism, but I couldn't bare the incensing passivity of its characters.