Syncopation: A Memoir of Adèle Hugo

by Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

In nineteenth-century France, a woman’s role was explicitly defined: she was a daughter, then a wife, then a mother. This view was held by novelist and poet Victor Hugo, but not by his daughter, pianist and poet Adèle Hugo. Under such constraints, what’s a woman of passion to do? Syncopation, by Elizabeth Felt, breathes life into the unconventional thoughts of this controversial female figure. An elderly Adèle recounts her desperate attempts to gain personal freedom. Her memoir blurs the fine line between truth and madness, in a narrative that is off-kilter, skewed... syncopated.

Genres: Historical Fiction, France

240 pages, Paperback

First published April 20, 2012

About the author

Elizabeth Caulfield Felt is as an adjunct lecturer in English at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point where she teaches composition and children's literature. She is the author of the fictionalized autobiography, "Syncopation: A Memoir of Adèle Hugo," the wacky late-Victorian, murder-mystery, romantic-comedy "Wilde Wagers," the middle-grade "Snow White with a Twist," and a co-author of the children’s mystery "The Stolen Goldin Violin." She is currently working on a series of steampunk fairy tales.

Reviews

[Liliana Stojanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is based on an interesting premise - what if Adèle wasn't mentally ill, but just constrained by the times in which she lived? At the same time, Felt writes Adèle as interacting with her dead sister, and hearing music in the Notre Dame Cathedral when no service is taking place. This might seem contradictory, but to me it reads as spiritual (rather than a pathological take on psychosis). Her characterization of Adèle reminds me slightly of Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind. Selfish, independent, and strong-willed.

The portrayal of Pinson is definitely the most humanistic I have seen yet. Even so, he comes across as distant/cold towards the book's conclusion. But unfortunately, his actions made sense to me...

Given how convoluted the real history between Adèle and Pinson is, I’m impressed that Felt managed to create a coherent narrative from it. I definitely enjoyed this take, though I'm curious how Adèle in this story managed to avoid pregnancy while having frequent sex for over a decade. That required a suspension of disbelief, especially since she was just using vinegar. Lol.

[Sharon Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captivating storytelling. There are fine reviews already so I’ll be brief. My suggestion is to first read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman written in 1892 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Y.... That story brought me serendipitously to Adele Hugo’s life and work and will give insight to the complexities of being a woman in the 19th century.

[Helen Hollick · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has received a Discovering Diamonds Review:
Helen Hollick
founder #DDRevs
"...an engrossing story, flawlessly told and with characters that come to life and fill our imaginations to the brim. "

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a copy of "Syncopation: A Memoir of Adèle Hugo" through the Goodreads giveaway.

Delightful seems an appropriate word to describe this novel! I simply loved it!

It is playful, disrespectful of conventions, willingly disrespectful that is! That fact is well establish by the posthumous conversations that takes place after each chapter. Conversations between Adèle and her dead sister Didine who is her conscience as much as her anchor into sanity.

It is not a biography of Adèle Hugo... It is a "perhaps, maybe, could have been" of the life of Adèle Hugo. Seeds of truth in the vast unknown of her life. It has no pretention to be a true account and plays on that fact by introducing events that never took place and presenting them as figments of Adèle's imagination as she tells her story as she writes her memoir. The character of Adèle willingly and playfully deforms the truth to make the story more interesting and admits at feeling no shame for doing it. The funny thing is, that it feels that through this "created", false life of Adèle Hugo, the author might actually have reach the truth of the character. By inventing her a life, the author might have found a little of who Adèle Hugo really was...

The author presented us with a woman, an individual who stopped at nothing to remain free, even sometimes against her own welfare. I couldn't help but love and admire her. A feminist before her time? No, not quite, an individualist, someone who refused to conform to society and to her famous father's expectations, someone who needed to create and to express what she carried inside.

There is only one things that bothered me, the French isn't always correct. The syntax is often defective, Adèle being French it just feels wrong.

It is beautifully written, it is playful, unconventional, inventive! Definitely a book I'll highly recommend!

[Cynthia Mcarthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is billed as Adèle Hugo’s personal memoir, written only as Adèle could write it: scattered, sometimes tortured, passionate and very much told from inside her own head. It begins with her early childhood, when her mother is banned by her jealous and overbearing husband – Adèle’s father, Victor – from visiting her best friend because they are in love, and continues through the joy of Adèle’s relationship with her older sister, Didine; the ambivalence she held for her brothers (who get away with anything because they are men); her somewhat extreme promiscuity from an early age; her antipathy for her on-again, off-again and angst-filled fiancé; and her middle-of-the night escape from her controlling father’s chains. Adèle tells us her story via anecdotes written in the third person, but from her personal point of view, as she was so introverted as to almost never see another person’s perspective. As she writes her memoir, Didine reminds her every few chapters that it didn’t happen that way at all. Adèle’s response? She doesn’t want to bore the reader.
In her time, Adèle was considered mad, and as I read this book and became intimately attuned to Adèle’s story, I found myself constantly wavering between considering her sane but repressed and believing her completely out of touch with reality and those around her. The author does an excellent job of presenting Adèle to the world as a woman ahead of her time yet held back by the social conventions of the era. A very enjoyable read.

My review courtesy of the Historical Novel Society.

[Cynthia Mcarthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is billed as Adèle Hugo’s personal memoir, written only as Adèle could write it: scattered, sometimes tortured, passionate and very much told from inside her own head. It begins with her early childhood, when her mother is banned by her jealous and overbearing husband – Adèle’s father, Victor – from visiting her best friend because they are in love, and continues through the joy of Adèle’s relationship with her older sister, Didine; the ambivalence she held for her brothers (who get away with anything because they are men); her somewhat extreme promiscuity from an early age; her antipathy for her on-again, off-again and angst-filled fiancé; and her middle-of-the night escape from her controlling father’s chains. Adèle tells us her story via anecdotes written in the third person, but from her personal point of view, as she was so introverted as to almost never see another person’s perspective. As she writes her memoir, Didine reminds her every few chapters that it didn’t happen that way at all. Adèle’s response? She doesn’t want to bore the reader.

In her time, Adèle was considered mad, and as I read this book and became intimately attuned to Adèle’s story, I found myself constantly wavering between considering her sane but repressed and believing her completely out of touch with reality and those around her. The author does an excellent job of presenting Adèle to the world as a woman ahead of her time yet held back by the social conventions of the era. A very enjoyable read.
My review courtesy of the Historical Novel Society.

[Sharlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway.


This book is a page turner! I have to admit I was quite in the dark about who Adele Hugo was and I have to admit I Googled her before reading this book. One could make the easy connection between Victor Hugo and Adele as a relation but who was Adele? Imagine my surprise to discover she one of Hugo's daughters and was placed in an institution! This memoir is an excellent attempt at an explaination as to why she ended up there.

Working with real people as characters, Caulfield Felt is able to weave a tale of independence which turns to tragedy...or does it? I may ponder this for a long time. Adele is portrayed as a strong will, opinionated woman who does not want to be considered someone's property so refused to wed...but this does not mean that she does not love or is cold.

The only downside to this book that I could even remotely see is the odd use of French that does not have a translation or a flow with the use of the language so that the reader who does not understand it can follow without Googling. (I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't have to do that.) With that said, please, do not let that deter you from picking up this book and reading it.

I do not wish to give away any of the books secrets but will be recommending this to many people for a long time.

[Monette Bebow-Reinhard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Syncopation is a passionate and remarkable piece of work. That I only give it three stars is more a reflection of my taste than the quality of the writing. After reading the author's notes at the end, I understood the odd contrivance of the third person memoir with the cryptic 1st person notes scattered throughout, but it did not give me further appreciation of them. For me, reading a memoir means certain things, and though the author said she did it in third person so that she could visit other viewpoints, I found when she did this, it was jarring to the story. I found the cryptic notes both distracting and unnecessary. Why call it a memoir at all? Why not just tell a story, add your author notes (maybe at the beginning) and everyone knows it's fiction.

While the writing is grand, I saw a bit of author cowardice in this format, and also in her desire to transform the 'real life' character of Adele Hugo into what she wants, because to do so makes writing easier. My main problem, taste-wise, with books like this, is that I found no real tension, and found no real desire to keep turning the page.

Reading this book won't waste your time, because the writing is so lovely. Just be aware that it is set in France and is a book mainly about love affairs, and loss.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

Last Tuesday, I reviewed a historical novel on Victor Hugo and his daughter Léopoldine. And here is another one! Both books start from the same fact: Victor Hugo’s daughter, Léopoldine, drowned in a boat accident shortly after her wedding.

The parallel stops here. Just as Victor was deeply shocked by his loss, Léopoldine’s sister, Adèle, was also inconsolable. She does not seem to have really enjoyed her father’s séances where he tried to connect with his dead daughter, but Adèle seems to have been nevertheless very perturbed by the death of her very close sister. She soon started to show signs of mental illness and was eventually sent to a facility around Paris.

In this semi memoir semi historical novel, Adèle writes her own journal. At the end of many chapters, she communicates in imagination with Léopoldine, who reacts to her sister’s writing. In reality, Adèle did keep a diary for several years. Here we see her rewriting her life and events as she wishes to present them, not necessarily as they really happened.

Adèle’s free spirit clashed with the....

see my full review here:
http://wordsandpeace.com/2013/05/16/i...

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

So please let me start off by saying that I received this book free through Goodreads.
Once again it was the familiar scenario where I eagerly open my mail box everyday until the package arrives. The book seemed to take forever (but that is how it always is) and I stared to read it right away. It was an interesting novel, however to be honest I was expecting something...more. I love the idea, don't get me wrong its just I feel slightly cheated. The book took a unfamiliar character and presented her to the reader for their pleasure. I personally have never read anything about the character prior so it was an educational yet gilded experience. The entire book seem to have this over fictionalized, gilded essence to it; one that even the author mentioned at one point and time. In some books this can help tremendously in building the ambience of the story but in this book I found it tended to over glamourize the story. A familiar story, with an unfamiliar character in a time of revolution and change. It was an interesting topic, but the execution needed a little more to it.

[Tinney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was a pure pleasure to read. The author has created a fascinating character in Adele Hugo, a woman who was both brilliant and unconventional. Adele's fierce intelligence dominates every page. Her voice is distinctive and vivid, the powerful voice of a creative human being whose society stifles her. Secondary characters, too, stand out as fully-developed individuals, and relationships are complex and believable. The author also gives a good sense of the times and places involved, and the musical metaphor that weaves through the book is subtle and effective. There's nothing predictable about this book - it's full of surprises. I recommend this book to readers who want something out of the ordinary.

[Lexie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recieved this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway.

I really ejoyed this book. A must read for any feminists out there, because the core of this book is about a woman being defined by herself. Though this book is not 100% true to life, the author treats the subject of the book with a lot of respect and fills in any holes in her past nicely.

[Marl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this book through Goodreads. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Sometimes we forgot how far we have come as women. "Wives were to obey their husbands and children speak only when spoken too." I am very thankful for women like Adele that tried to be their own person.

A great book and a very enjoyable read.

[Scolumbus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story kept my attention until the end. I didn't know anything about Adele Hugo or the Hugo family before reading the book. It was frustrating to experience Adele's repression within her family and society yet I was rooting for her to succeed in her quest for independence and hoping that she would find happiness. Very well written.

[Aftan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an excellent read. It was written with a tortured grace as only Adele Hugo could. Perfect for cuddling up and reading over a weekend as it wasn't too long and drawn out. Elizabeth Felt did a fantastic job!

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Both my roommate and I enjoyed this book a great deal!