The elegance of the hedgehog. WHAT A WORK! ❤️

It's narrated by two people: a 12-year-old girl who decides she's going to kill herself. She's very intelligent and shrewd.

The other character is the building's housekeeper, who everyone thinks is a fool.

The story takes place entirely in a chic building in Paris. The 12-year-old girl, the daughter of a diplomat, lives with her mother and sister (whom she considers frivolous) and enjoys being alone.

The housekeeper, who lives in a small apartment in the building and whom everyone thinks is illiterate, loves literature. and classical music. There's a scene where a (rich) resident talks about Marx to the governor.

Rich people who have never worked tend to appreciate Marxist ideals.

But how can a poor person understand that difficult language?

But this kind of rich person never talks about "revolution" for the poor to understand.

They talk to themselves.

And the housekeeper thinks, "I have to try harder to look more stupid than I am."

The 12-year-old girl is quite mature for her age and has several conversations with herself about life.

"My Everest is an intellectual challenge. I've set myself the goal of having as many profound thoughts as possible and writing them down in this notebook."

The girl has the impression that the governess isn't as young as she seems (on the contrary, she thinks she's quite intelligent), and the governess thinks the same.

In this book, there's a scene where the (poor) housekeeper talks about the desire of the rich to appear poor.

"It's not only ugly but insulting: nothing is more despicable than the contempt of the rich for the desires of the poor."

There's so much to think about, right?