One of Europe's most popular and best-loved authors, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt captivates the reader with his spirited, buoyant style and enchanting stories that move effortlessly from the everyday to the fantastical. The eight stories in this collection, his first to be published in English, represent some of his best writing and most imaginative storylines: from the love story between Balthazar, wealthy and successful author, and Odette, cashier at a supermarket, to the tale of a barefooted princess; from the moving story of a group of female prisoners in a Soviet gulag to the entertaining portrait of a perennially disgruntled perfectionist. Here are eight contemporary fables, populated by a cast of extravagant and affecting characters, about people in search of happiness. Behind each story lies a simple, if elusive, truth: happiness is often right in front of our eyes, though we may frequently be blind to it.
The Most Beautiful Book in the World: 8 Novellas
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Eight well-developed, engaging stories by French novelist Schmitt (My Life with Mozart) delineate the complex emotional lives of women and their nettlesome men. Two of the tales play into the delicious stereotype of married Frenchmen carrying on parallel lives with longstanding amours. In The Forgery, a man breaks up with his mistress of 25 years, leaving the now middle-aged secretary living in low-income housing with nothing but his gift of a Picasso that might or might not be real. In Every Reason to be Happy, a chronically anxious wife follows a suspicious-behaving manicurist and unearths the staggering double life her husband of 17 years has been leading with this other woman. Odette Toulemonde is an adoring working-class fan of a washed-up popular novelist who ends up turning to her to authenticate his feelings. The odd tale here is the title story, set in a Russian gulag among a group of women prisoners who, sharing a pencil, struggle to write to their daughters. Schmitt's stories capture a quirky, clever, feminist, very French sensibility. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Melancholy but edifying orator, light yet profound raconteur (like Diderot), Eric- Emmanuel Schmitt squeezes goodness from sorrow, places language, the word, on an altar, and derives from reality books that sell millions of copies."
-Il Giornale (Italy)
"The Most Beautiful Book in the World is as affecting as it is intelligent. [...] Eight stories, parables on the idea of a future, filled with redeeming optimism. Truth and beauty are here brought together. The Most Beautiful Book in the World [...] has all the visual beauty and power of major literary works."
-Jean-Rémi Barland, Lire Magazine (France)
"A born story-teller with a talent for telling ostensibly simple tales that nevertheless suggest a philosophy for life, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt [in The Most Beautiful Book in the World] takes the lid off the lives of eight women in eight contrasting portraits, each time with thought- provoking piquancy and suspense leading to an arresting and delightful end."
-La Libre Belgique (Belgium)
-Il Giornale (Italy)
"The Most Beautiful Book in the World is as affecting as it is intelligent. [...] Eight stories, parables on the idea of a future, filled with redeeming optimism. Truth and beauty are here brought together. The Most Beautiful Book in the World [...] has all the visual beauty and power of major literary works."
-Jean-Rémi Barland, Lire Magazine (France)
"A born story-teller with a talent for telling ostensibly simple tales that nevertheless suggest a philosophy for life, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt [in The Most Beautiful Book in the World] takes the lid off the lives of eight women in eight contrasting portraits, each time with thought- provoking piquancy and suspense leading to an arresting and delightful end."
-La Libre Belgique (Belgium)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Eight modern fairy tales for your enjoyment,
By
This review is from: The Most Beautiful Book in the World: 8 Novellas (Paperback)
The Most Beautiful Book in the World: 8 Novellas is a collection of eight modern fairy tales. In each of the novellas, a sense of the fantastic intertwines with the mundane, sometimes enchantingly, sometimes crudely but still beguilingly.
The title story, for instance, transports the reader into the midst of a women's gulag during Soviet rule. Tatyana and others who bunk together are determined to smuggle out messages to their children -- all daughters, coincidentally or not. The women naturally worry about what they should write their children who are now most likely wards of the State. With a limit on the precious amount they may write, they agonize over what is most important. Then, the prisoner considered by the others to be "the most scatter-brained of them all, the most sentimental, the least headstrong" stuns everyone by being the first to get her message down. She is at utter peace with her choice of words. The others can't help feeling jealous and very curious. What did she write? "The Most Beautiful Book in the World" packs a nice emotional punch. The conclusion, in its Epilogue in the year 2005, imparts a fitting epiphany about how we human beings can communicate immensities with but a few choice words. It is a lovely comedy in the classic definition of the term: there is a triumph over adverse circumstances. Immediately before the gulag folktale, the collection's longest selection (thirty pages) has its turn. The title character in "Odette Toulemonde" has "a talent: joy." Odette excitedly goes to a bookstore to buy the new book of her favorite author, Balthazar Balsan, and to have him autograph it for her. Odette, a lower middle class widow with two jobs gets so tongue-tied when she meets him that she can't even speak her own name properly. Balsan's books, she believes, showed her that " ' in every life, no matter how miserable, there are reasons to be happy, to laugh, to love.' " Balthazar, a wealthy man with a troubled marriage and young son who is taking too much after his old man, goes through his own identity crisis soon after this book signing. In true fairy tale form, he and Odette meet again. But when their attachment may be going too far, Odette tells Balthazar, " 'Our paths may cross, but we can no longer meet each other." Will that be the end of them, or are they destined for more? "Odette Toulemonde" tries to point the way to balanced living. In "Every Reason to be Happy" a woman discovers her husband isn't the man she thought and she has to decide how she will handle the startling revelations. In "The Forgery" the ability to trust is tested by two women with very different results. And what would any set of fairy tales be without "A Barefoot Princess" who may not be what she seems? The leitmotif being forwarded in THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOOK IN THE WORLD by the author, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, is, arguably, that regardless of our histories, regardless of our economic status, regardless of our pettiness and self-centeredness, life often hands out teachable moments that can either make or break us. Truth, beauty, and especially happiness are ours if we possess the strength to see them everywhere. Playwright, novelist, and short story/novella writer Schmitt, informs the reader in his Postscript, dated August 15, 2006, that he used free minutes between directing the screen version, Odette Toulemonde (original French ONLY Version No English Options)(for which he had also penned the screenplay), to write these stories. He explains that he'd been carrying them around in his "mind for a long time." So, Schmitt didn't have the luxury of endless hours in which to fine-tune his pacing or his prose. Although the plot ideas were pre-thought, his execution was impromptu. This unfinished quality accents each of the eight stories, and this insight about how these stories were written adds an intrinsic value to their recurrent "draft" feeling. The back cover lauds Schmitt as "one of Europe's most popular and best-selling authors." Europa Editions is the first to publish short stories/novellas of his, translated by Alison Anderson. Schmitt'is fables -- his fairy tales -- give a tantalizing taste, but leave this reader wanting more. Some of his plays are available in English (Schmitt Plays: One (Contemporary Dramatists) (v. 1)), as is one other collection of novellas (Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran & Oscar and the Lady in Pink) but what about his novels and other short stories? Perhaps we'll see more of this author in partnership with Europa Editions?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The stories in this book are definitely beautiful...,
This review is from: The Most Beautiful Book in the World: 8 Novellas (Paperback)
Isn't the title of this book compelling? Wouldn't it enable you to pick it up and read it? Well, that is what I did when I saw this at the bookstore shelves. The Most Beautiful Book in the World features eight memorable stories centered on women and the choices they make in their lives, some for the better, but others for the worse. Either way, their decisions end up changing someone's life, just not necessarily their own. "Wanda Winnipeg" stars a rich and glamorous woman with a humble past. "A Fine Rainy Day" features a cynic married to a man who loves life. "Odette Toulemonde" is about a woman in love with an author who has received negative reviews (the most romantic story in the book). These, along with "Every Reason to be Happy," "The Barefoot Princess," and "The Most Beautiful Book in the World," are stories centered on personal growth and making a difference in one's or other people's lives. But there are two stories that have a darker theme. "Forgery" has a woman who, disillusioned with life after an affair gone wrong, decides to take her anger and revenge out on a tenant, with ironic results. My favorite story in the book is "The Intruder." This story is dark, compelling, complex and quite moving. Its haunting ending will floor you. All in all, this is a fine collection. Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt is a great writer and I'm glad that Alison Anderson has translated his stories for us to read. I very much recommend this.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly the most beautiful book in the world,
This review is from: The Most Beautiful Book in the World: 8 Novellas (Paperback)
When I saw this book, I loved the cover and the title. Since, you should never judge a book by its cover I thought no I'm not going to buy this. However, I suprised myself and couldn't stop thinking about how intriging the book looked. So, a week later I convinced myself to buy it. This was one of the best books I have ever read. There is beauty in ever story. This is not the fairy tale beauty, but the beauty of reality. Every story is bitter sweet and awakening. I loved every page and read it in one day. I could not put it down! <3
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