The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre

by Dominic Smith

In this luminous novel, Dominic Smith reinvents the life of one of photography's founding fathers. Louis Daguerre's story is set against the backdrop of a Paris prone to bohemian excess and social unrest. It is here, amid this strange and beguiling setting, that Louis Daguerre sets off to capture his doomsday subjects.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, France, Photography, Historical, Art, 19th Century

354 pages, Paperback

First published February 7, 2006

About the author

Dominic grew up in Sydney, Australia and now lives in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of five novels, including The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, a New York Times bestseller and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Dominic's writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Chicago Tribune, Texas Monthly, The Australian, and The New York Times. He has received literature fellowships from the Australia Council for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches writing in the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers. More information can be found on his website: www.dominicsmith.net.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Keeten · Rating 4 out of 5]

”’I consider myself a scientist as much as an artist,....’ Louis said, placing the phials beside each other.

‘And this is science? Asking strangers to pose naked for you?’

‘I’m a student of light,’ Louis said.

‘And a poet.’

‘No, I leave that to Charles Baudelaire. My job is to capture things before they disappear.’

‘Am I going to disappear, Monsieur Daguerre?’

‘No, I meant---capture things in their essence.’


Daguerreotype of Louis Daguerre.

Louis Daguerre is a lonely, brilliant man. He has never married, and as this tale unfolds, we will discover that he did fall in love once at the age of fourteen and never fell out of that love. He sustained it, remained steadfastly loyal to it, and never looked for it elsewhere. He checked the box for unrequited love and spent a lifetime trying to become famous so that the woman he lost would know he was worth losing.

He was always a strange lad.

”I see things others don’t; I always have.”

It is hard to be someone who sees a miracle in the mundane or beauty in the grotesque or a revelation in a particle of dust caught in a beam of sunlight. A conversation with Daguerre is a non-linear experience. ”We’re having a conversation that moves from leeches to marriage. That’s what I’ve missed about you. The fact that everything is linked to everything else---love to insects, dirt to heaven.”

I don’t know when I first realized that I was seeing things that other people didn’t see. I’m not talking about...I see dead people, nothing that strange. Everything has always been more of a source of mystery to me than it was to other people. I see connections in novels that other people don’t see. I don’t know how many times I’ve had people say on one of my review threads that I saw much more in a book than they did. Some of that is due to how old I am. I’ve logged a lot more hours of reading than most people on GR, so there are a lot more points of reference in my head. I do have to accept that I’m always going to see things differently. Fortunately, I’m not a crazy genius like Daguerre or I would have, over the years, become more and more removed from “reality.”


A daguerreotype of Edgar Allan Poe.

The daguerreotype of photography is named after him, of course. With the help of another scientist, he discovered how to chemically etch images into plate. A revelation! I think one of the things that I really like about Daguerre the most is that he was a scientist with the heart of a poet. Speaking of poets, Charles Baudelaire shows up a few times in the novel as a friend of Daguerre, but if you are a Baudelaire fan, don’t expect any insights into his character. If this were a movie, the actor playing Baudelaire would be demanding more lines.

Daguerre is beginning to have health issues, and a lot of that has to do with the poisonous chemicals he uses to make his photographs. ”This metal that would not yield to form, that resisted the clutch of the human hand and yet was absorbed by the skin upon touching. A gift from the cinnabar mines of Spain. A metallic sonnet, a love letter written by God and veined through the earth for millennia, fissured through slate and sandstone, waiting for its highest calling.”

He has absorbed too much mercury. He has this growing sense of doom, as if the earth was truly about to stop spinning or explode. Illusions, delusions, prophecy, or just too many chemical wrapped thoughts? With a French revolution destabilizing Paris, he decides that it is now or never if he wishes to see his life’s love one more time.

I was really taken with the unexpected poignancy of the novel. Dominic Smith managed to convinced me that a 14 year old’s love for a another was not just an infatuation, but actually true love.


Nudes of course were very popular. One of Daguerre’s bucket list items was to photograph a beautiful nude woman.

Daguerre not only changed photography, but he was also the inventor of dioramas. He was a gifted canvas painter and also used those skills to bring theatre backdrops to life. His name is one of the 72 great French people inscribed on the Eiffel Tower. I’ve contemplated many daguerreotypes. They were very popular during the Civil War. Almost every soldier paid to have himself immortalized in uniform. I would pay good money to see a picture of my ancestor Thomas Newton Keeten in his Confederate uniform, but if one ever existed it seems to be lost to history. The daguerreotype was the original selfie. Self-obsession is not a new concept, though I do feel that self love may have reached an all time high if the pictures of my friends I see in the Facebook feed every day is any indication. Narcissus doesn’t stare at himself in a pool of water anymore, but rather into the lense of his phone camera.

If you wish to see more of my most recent book and movie reviews, visit http://www.jeffreykeeten.com
I also have a Facebook blogger page at:https://www.facebook.com/JeffreyKeeten

[David Katzman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll admit it. I cried.

To write some back-cover copy, “This is a finely wrought tale of love lost, found, and then lost again.” And then misplaced somewhere in that damn garage. No, seriously, this is quite a lovely book. I chose The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre because I thought it was going to be the portrayal of an artist (the inventor of photography, Louis Daguerre) going mad, wandering Paris and experiencing hallucinations. Something I hope to do someday. I was mistaken. The “mercury visions” in the title are primarily referring to the surreal quality of the Daguerreotypes, the photo imprinting method Daguerre invented, which use mercury as a fixative. Daguerre does in fact go a bit mad from mercury poisoning, but he doesn’t hallucinate so much as fall into a state of mild to moderate dementia. Even so, I wasn’t disappointed. This is a well-crafted book.

An example Daguerreotype:



The story takes place in the first half of the 19th century in France. Smith manages to conjure this period convincingly and imbues it with a rich atmosphere. Baudelaire plays a supporting role, and I even believed that characterization.

Other than exploring love—specifically what happens when love is abandoned for needs that are more practical—the primary subject matter of the book is the place of photography in the world of art, and art’s value in general. For Daguerre, photography was a way to achieve fame and even immortality for both himself and for moments in time. Many artists consider art to be their route to immortality. And yet ironically, believing the world is about to end, Daguerre is driven to capture a final list of photographs in order to stash them in the crypts under Paris to preserve them after the Apocalypse. (As you might suspect, the Apocalypse is cancelled due to lack of advertising.) Who thinks of Daguerreotypes now? The implication is that art is a rather inadequate means to immortality. There is no way to achieve immortality when life is so fleeting. Instead, we’re better off pursuing love because that at least might fulfill us during our existence. A rather romantic notion, certainly.

However, Smith indicates several times that Daguerre would not have achieved the success and fame that he had if he hadn’t been scorned early in life by his great love. The implication is that love can actually make us complacent and less successful. We throw ourselves more aggressively into “achievement” perhaps if we fail at love. Some might; I suspect others give up pursuing their goals when they find misery in love. For Daguerre, it was like revenge—look how great I became. You could have had me yet chose not to. I appreciate the mixed messages about love, but one of the clear suggestions in this novel is that choosing financial gain over love is a sure route to life-long emptiness.

I can’t say that I agree with any one portrayal of love as representative for all—for others love fulfilled can also lead to lifelong misery—but it’s believable for the characters portrayed within this work and it’s a worthwhile cautionary tale to ponder. The ending is rather tragic and beautiful and unexpected, too.

Despite this being the type of book that I don’t seek out (realist, historical, and in some ways a love story), I looked forward to picking it up and got lost in it. Recommended.

[Marianne · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5★s
“I open the eye of the camera to something I sense is there but cannot fully name or see”

The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre is the debut novel by prize-winning Australian-born author, Dominic Smith. Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre’s claim to fame was as a pioneer in the field of photography, inventing the Daguerreotype. By the latter portion of his life, he knows that the mercury vapour has poisoned him physically, but is unaware of the mental changes it has wrought. He is gripped by a delusion, firmly believing that the apocalypse is nigh, so he makes a list of ten items he wishes to capture in Daguerreotypes (his doomsday list), to be stored in the Parisian catacombs:
1. A beautiful woman, naked
2. The sun
3. The moon
4. The perfect Paris boulevard
5. A pastoral scene
6. Galloping horses
7. A perfect apple
8. A flower (type to be determined)
9. The king of France
10. Isobel Le Fournier
The last is the woman with whom he has been in love since the age of twelve, and to whom he has not spoken for over forty years.

Smith’s tale alternates between two time periods: the late 1840s, in Paris and Orleans, as Daguerre assembles his doomsday list and searches for Isobel; from 1800 to 1839, in Orleans and Paris, recounting significant events in Louis’s life. Smith’s extensive research is apparent on every page. Smith said he aimed “to capture the flavour of the real Daguerre’s life and the historical context in which he achieved his fame” and this he has done. Both young Louis and the sixty year old man whose brain had been poisoned by mercury vapour are well depicted, as is mid-nineteenth century Paris.

Despite some stunning prose: “They sat motionless as it unfolded, as the cloudscape grew backlit and the trees gave off the shimmer of ice granules trapped in bark. The snow shadows gained definition in a sunburst, blued and deepened by a rise in contrast. Louis stood and moved slowly to the camera. He made a few Adjustments to the camera and looked out at the radiant sky. Here was the way the vault of heaven would crack open on the final day, with those dazzled and portentous clouds, with shunts of granulated light. It resembled nothing so much as a sea of glass. He imagined saints driven through with sabres, chariots of righteous angels, a red dragon rising through coal smoke”, this novel does not achieve the standard of his most recent novel, The Last Painting of Sara de Vos, but as a debut, it demonstrates his potential. An interesting read.

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis Daguerre (1787-1851) was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. Also recognizes as one of the fathers of photography.

Paris, 1847: Daguerre’s body is faltering, a byproduct of working with chemicals for more than a decade. However, he continues his pursuit of a new daguerreotype. At the same time, he continues to be infatuated with the only woman he has ever loved, Isobel Le Fournier. He saw her the last time 40 years ago. She was 22 years old, and he was 19.

As the story alternates between present time and the time when he was 14 and Isobel was a girl maid working at his father’s estate. “They struck up an arrangement out of mutual need: Louis needed a woman to study, to fall in love with, and Isobel needed distraction from her household chores.”

After leaving his parents’ house in the country, as a young man he arrives in Paris, where he finds an apprenticeship as a scenic painter. A dozen years after his apprenticeship, Louis becomes the head designer for the second-largest theater in Paris.

1823: He feels happy with his life. He feels connected to everything that matters. “He feels part of a widespread fraternal emotion – the simple pleasure of being alive in a century whose great ideas were progress and perfect-ability.”

His initial steps toward photography were accidental. But now he has a vision, “the idea that nature could sketch herself using nothing but sunlight. (…) He surrounded himself with books on the history of optics and light manipulation.” He traces the first attempts to the mines of Freiberg in 1556. “Then there were the 1802 experiments of Wedgwood and Davy, two Englishmen who claimed to have found a method of copying paintings upon glass, using the agencies of light and nitrate of silver. They called the effect sun drawing.“

As he reads, he senses a major discovery, fugitive images looming to be captured.

August 19, 1839, at the Academy, the process referred to as the daguerreotype is presented. “Within an hour of the presentation, Paris was crazed with photomania. (…) Within a week of this event, the country and the world knew him by name. (…) Within a year, his process was being used on five continents, in service of almost every field of human endeavor…”

As Louis Daguerre was born two years before the French Revolution, which lasted 10 years, the story gives some glimpses of the revolution through peasant looting and burning estates belonging to aristocracy. The time period of this story is strongly presented through the people who made their mark during that time. It also gives some other glimpses of the time period such as social conditions and fashion. The execution of the time period is very interesting. It reveals how much research the author must have done and his skill in presenting it. “Despite the revolution and the call for an egalitarian society (equality for all people), gentlemen still favored three or four waistcoats, a lineage of gold buttons, Polish trousers; the women continued to wear barege and merino gowns, gold fringed velvets, their hair up in chignons.”

The characters of Louis and Isobel (though fictional character), both are richly developed. The author skillfully captures the flavor of the real Daguerre’s life and the historical context in which he achieved his fame. The end brings a moving touch to the story.

@FB/BestHistoricalFiction

[J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clever depiction of Louis Daguerre -- a historical figure -- set against the backdrop of an authentic 19th century France results in this alluring historical novel by emerging novelist Dominic Smith. The beauty of this piece is in the balance between the story -- about a man's obsession with capturing forever a fleeting moment -- and the storytelling.

Daguerre, having invented the daguerreotype, finds that his brain has been poisoned by the mercury process he discovered. Believing the apocalypse is near, he sets out to capture on film 10 images before it commences. His quest leads him to a chance encounter with the daughter of his childhood sweetheart and life-long love, Isobel Le Fournier. Isobel broke Daguerre's young heart by marrying an older man, more stable than Daguerre, whom she viewed as a dreamer. Rejecting him in the manner she did drives Daguerre to attain success and fame, but alas, without Isobel (who from afar watches Daguerre's star rise with more than a little regret), it means little.

At the peak of his artistic popularity, as his madness grows, Daguerre hires Chloe, a middle-aged woman who works in a Paris brothel, to pose for him -- the nude he wishes to capture on film. When he learns she is the daughter of his beloved Isobel, he tries to rescue her from the life she has "chosen" -- never touching her and looking at her nudity only through the lens of his camera. Ignorant that he is her mother's childhood love, Chloe tells Daguerre that her mother forbid her from marrying the man she loved for much the same reason her mother eschewed her childhood love to instead marry a man she did not love -- she wished her daughter to be well-provided for. Now she claims she is incapable of loving any one man, consenting instead to loving her many patrons.

In the end, Daguerre finds his lost Isobel, now widowed, and the love story is brought to a conclusion that some may find unsatisfying but which is the only logical conclusion.

While there may not be any major surprises to "Visions" there are many "a-ha" moments that lure the reader to continue turning the pages. Smith uses no bells and whistles, no tricks to bait the reader, but instead uses good storytelling technique and a passion for language to create a sense of period and to establish relationships between all the main characters. Readers who enjoy well-crafted sentences and beautiful prose will find it easy to immerse themselves between the covers of "Visions."

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so into this book until the end. I hate when I read a great story and read a disappointing end. It was all right, but the "love" storyline superseded the "photography" storyline and that's just not what I planned on reading. You could have substituted anyone for Louis Daguerre and acheived the same ending. The history was fascinating, the setting ideal, and Smith certainly knows how to tell a story. But it's like he changed his mind halfway through and went a completely different direction. Dagurre has mercury poisioning--I had nearly forgotten by the end of the novel.

[Maddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A love story at heart or should I say an unrequited love story set in the unrest and turmoil of 1800's Paris. Daguerre is at the end of his life and now famous for being the father of photographic invention, he looks back at his childhood love with melancholic fever but instead he finds her daughter, now an adult and dancing and whoring her way through Paris. The story is complex and at the same time beautiful because our protagonist sees beauty in every aspect of nature hence his obsession with capturing it for future viewing. I really enjoy Smith's writing, he has the ability to write in different eras and he does this well, looking forward to the next one.

[Tundra · Rating 3 out of 5]

A moving story created around the life of Daguerre in the turbulent years surrounding Napoleon in France. The history and passionate pursuit of the creation of captured images, which lead to the discovery of photography, is a fascinating story. There is also a great sadness in this story as Louis slowly declines in health and fails to connect with the women he spends his entire life obsessing over. The audio captures this atmosphere well but I did think the story was overly drawn out analysing their relationship.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

This author has a love of language and it’s not often that I read a book where the English language is written with such eloquence. Spoken English does not have the flow and romanticism of French and Italian, however in the written form with an abundance of descriptive words it can give a story the romanticism of either of the other languages. I loved this read, the author has created a living Louis Daguerre to his very soul as an artist and inventor. Louis has observed so much upheaval in France, revolutions and the era of Napoleon but who seems to have lived unscathed by it all. However, the dismissiveness by both his parents, the use of so many poisons required for his Daguerreotype images, his unrequited love as a young man for a servant girl from his household that became a lifetime obsession, the bohemian life of Paris and the uses of Opium, Absinthe etc all played a part of creating an illusion of life rather than the reality of life, not dissimilar I suspect to that of Lautrec and Van Gogh. The chance meeting of Isobel’s daughter throws Louis into a loop back into the past , he writes Isabel a letter, his doomsday madness takes over his life and as it is nearing the perceived time and as another public upheaval starts he and “Pidgeon” leave Paris to where Isabelle lives and where he hopes for a reconciliation for both Isabelle’s daughter and himself. The author has concluded this story with a beautiful and warm ending.

[Matt Wood · Rating 2 out of 5]

This fictitious account of the life of Louis Daguerre is at a vivid and sensuous tale. Small nuggets of fact coated with a candy sheen of fiction.

[Stephen Gallup · Rating 4 out of 5]

I selected this historical novel because it's written by the same guy who wrote The Beautiful Miscellaneous, which I particularly liked. I knew nothing about the inventor of the daguerreotype, and still can't explain the difference between daguerreotypes, tintypes, and other primitive forms of photography (despite owning several ancient photos of my ancestors). On the other hand, I did, in my early 20s, enjoy shooting and developing high-contrast black-and-white photos. So I appreciate the excitement shown here when Daguerre's first images begin miraculously appearing on his plates.



Aside from that aspect of the story, the part that resonates with The Beautiful Miscellaneous is the way the main character channels frustrated energy from one endeavor into making his mark elsewhere. In this story (perhaps not in reality?), young Louis loves a woman who is three years older, and because of that age difference she won't allow herself to take him seriously. Their lives are then upended by the French Revolution, at which point they lose contact. Following his natural inclinations, Louis finds work as an apprentice painter of scenery in the theatre. His artistic talent is apparent, but nobody offers him a break and he continues to coast along. Then one night at the theatre he happens to meet Isobel, his great love from a few years earlier. At this point their age difference is less significant. A more mature relationship might have been possible. However, she is now engaged to another man, and pregnant. Recoiling, brokenhearted, he begins pouring his soul into art.

He can draw and paint, but very early in life he'd sensed the possibility of discovering another art form. His epiphany had been the projected image of a tree caused by sunlight shining through a small "aperture" in the curtain over his bedroom window. His first step is the invention of the diorama.



However, discoveries in chemistry provide the means to capture actual images from real life and make them permanent. He avidly follows and improves upon the work of other experimenters. One element in particular, mercury, turns out to be critical in fixing the images. As we now know, mercury is highly toxic. He breathes its fumes as he bends over every new photograph, and on one occasion he even has beads of the stuff slipping around in his lacerated palm.

At the outset, the narrative alternates between the latter-day Louis, who is well-known and generally admired for his accomplishment, and the youth he'd once been. The transitions are smooth and timely, and convey the story economically. But now matters are converging. Because of mercury poisoning, he's subject to occasional very disturbing seizures as well as to a conviction that the Apocalypse is imminent. He has one final objective: photographing a list of subjects representative of the world he has known. And one item on that list is Isobel, whom he has not seen in 40 years.

I try to avoid spoilers, but in this case I'll hint at one in saying towards the end of the book there is an uptick in what might be called sentimentality. While there's nothing wrong with emotional content, treatments in fiction similar to this often feel cheap and maudlin. I have that problem in mind when choosing the authors I read. However, as in The Beautiful Miscellaneous, Dominic Smith ventures into terrain where he could easily fall into traps, and he avoids them. I believe I've found a new author who merits following.

[Lilies Remain · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautifully melancholy tale based upon Louis Daguerre and his life. I find myself most at home in these morose-tinged novels. Nostalgia at it's best is represented here. Romantic longing is perfectly conveyed; and so is the acceptance of death. I loved this book immensely.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dominic Smith's work is a cut above the pedestrian dust bunnies that pass for historical novels these days. You won't catch him in anachronisms, and he has an elegant turn of writing that well suits the period here, the 1840s in France. It's as if he stands behind one of Daguerre's early cameras and takes a portrait of the artist himself, shadowy, quicksilver and dreamy.

[Gail · Rating 4 out of 5]

I know this was an historical novel, based on a fascinating visionary of his time. And it was a beautiful love story. The inbetweens of his life, his illness from mercury poisoning and reuniting with his only love weaved together a beautiful story.

[Kristen Long · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Love is not like choosing a partner for whist. It has a life of its own. Our duty is merely to follow its call.”

While suffering from mercury poisoning, Louis Daguerre–father of the daguerreotype– has a vision of Armageddon and becomes convinced that the world is ending very soon. But before the end, he has a list of daguerreotypes that he wants to take, including one of the woman he has always loved. The completion of his list, with the help of a poet and a prostitute, takes him all over Paris. The question remains–will he find his love?

I rarely give a book five stars, but this one just sang to me. Smith employed words in such a beautiful way and was able to describe things in a succinct yet poetic manner. It was enjoyable to learn about a character from photography history, and the setting, Paris, is one of my absolute favorite places on the planet. The city literally feels like it breathes history and culture. It is one of my favorite things to read books about the history of places that I’ve been or that I’m currently at, and I loved being able to picture the view from Notre Dame as Louis was there, L’Hotel de Ville, or one of the many bridges.

I would love to read another one of his books!

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Louis Daguerre fell in love with women and light on the same day”---pg. 17

‘The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre’, by Dominic Smith is a wonderful and haunting story, well and beautifully told. Dominic Smith is a ‘phraseologist’ of the first stripe. Let me borrow the words to further illuminate this novel, my own being inadequate.

“An unforgettable novel from an award-winning writer, ‘The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre’ is the story of enduring love, fame unraveling, and a prodigious mind coming undone.”---from the back flap

“A lyrical journey into the world of a man lost to nostalgia and undone by beauty. Dominic Smith has generously rendered an artist in desperate pursuit of the sublime.” ---Paul Jaskunas, author of ‘Hidden’, from the back cover.

“…By the time it reaches its final pages, ‘The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre’ has become a genuinely moving experience.”---Anthony Giardina, author of ‘Recent History’, from the back cover.

That said, can anyone define for me the phrase/term: ‘rag-cloth romantics’?---pg. 6

Recommended: For the poet in all of us.

[Evelyn Porter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filled with historical detail that brings 19th century Paris alive. An interesting novel about the man responsible for developing the 'daguerreotype' (the precursor to our modern day photograph) and his muse. A good read for those interested in art and photography.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, admittedly this was pretty much two different books, but I liked them both!

[Mary Danger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book...it combines my interest in early photo history, the streets of Paris in early 19th Century turmoil and the story of a complicated man and artist. Hmm, maybe I'll read it again.

[Judy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Somehow, Smith managed to take a good idea and turn it into a boring tale.

I quit somewhere mid-way thru the book.

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre was a surprise package for me. I didn't know what it was about and had little expectation going into it so just rode with the book. This novel tells the story of Daguerre, one of the father's of photography. After a decade working with the lethal mercury he suffers a prophetic hallucination. The world will end in one year and he must photograph ten objects before the apocalypse, including the mysterious Isobel Le Fournier.



I do love the concept of taking a sliver of history and weaving a fictional narrative around it. The writing in this novel is simple, easy to read and evocative creating a fascinating plot driven by the historical figure of Daguerre. I did note that this book is distinctly different at the beginning, middle and end. Each portion of the story was unique focusing on different aspects of the plot. I certainly did not predict where the end was going from the beginning or even the middle. 



The characters are interesting and keep the reader is invested in the story. Daguerre is a fascinating character intent on fulfilling his goals before the world ends and his affinity for mercury, what gave him his fame, was fascinating especially as the reader knows that the element he loves so much is doing him much harm. Pigeon is a great character playing the role of a beautiful bohemian making her way in life. The mysterious Isobel is a fascinating character that the reader spends the first half of the book wanting to know more about, learning more and more as the chapters slowly reveal her role in this book. I did find some of the characters started to frustrate me further into the novel but just as they began irritating the plot changes it's course again. 



This novel is a bit of a slow-burn rollercoaster, if that even makes sense? The beginning is very promising and draws the reader right in, particularly with chapters cutting to Daguerre's childhood. The plot seems to dip a little in the middle before heading in a completely different direction and finishing strongly. This novel was very easy to read and was highly enjoyable. It is also easy to under-estimate due to the subtle complexities of the plot. I do highly recommend this read and I plan to read more of his work in the future, starting with the award-winning The last Painting of Sara de Vos. I give The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre three paint pallets, where Daguerre started his journey. 

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

when his novel Bright and Distant Shores was shortlisted for the 2011 Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards (see my review). I liked his style. He’s a storyteller first and foremost, and he crafts beautiful prose that carries his tale really well. I decided to check out his debut novel.

Like Bright and Distant Shores, The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre is set in the past, which suits Smith’s descriptive style of writing. It’s a fictionalised life of Louis Daguerre (1797 -1851), the Frenchman who invented the daguerreotype, an early form of photography. (Such is his importance, Daguerre’s name is one of 72 inscribed on the Eiffel Tower along with other French scientists and engineers). The novel traces his fascinating quest to find the means of transfixing a transient image for eternity, but also a second quest consequent on the first. The opening chapters reveal that Daguerre is suffering from mercury poisoning and is intent upon a quest to photograph 10 special items before he dies. (The real Daguerre actually died of a heart attack).

It’s an accomplished debut novel. There is a (perhaps somewhat improbable) love story but the life sketched (loosely based on real life) is convincing. Daguerre lived through the turmoil of the French revolutionary period and the Industrial Revolution and Smith paints a persuasive portrait of Parisian life at that time. He shows the raffish lifestyle of the theatrical milieu; the crowds flocking to the dioramas Daguerre exhibited; backstreets and boudoirs; even a morgue. Charles Baudelaire the poet makes an appearance too: he and Daguerre share the same philosophy of wanting to capture the fleeting experiences of ‘modern’ life.

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2011/09/26/t...

[Dominique Lamssies · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have to admit to a certain biased when I sat down to read this. I read a lot of Batman comics and horror fiction, so when you say your characters are crazy, I expect you to put your money where your mouth is.

Unfortunately, Smith did not in this book. Daguerre being "insane" due to mercury exposure is a way for Smith to make the prose broken when it's convenient for him and put in a bunch of one liners that apparently we're supposed to think makes the character clever and brilliant when it's really just gobbledygook. The initial vision that tells Daguerre that the world is ending is not only singularly unimpressive but not really connected in any way to the end of the world. In addition, the end of the world seems to give Daguerre no actual urgency in trying to accomplish what he wants to do. He just meanders from place to place while Smith explains that Daguerre is insane but we never see him be insane. We never get in his head.

We also never get in his heart, or anyone's heart for that matter, so when Isobel pops up at the end, she's a foil who weeps and moans about how terrible her life has been and how wrong she is for not having accepted the love of this AMAZING man whose genius she did not appreciate.

This book is hollow and clearly written by a guy. It's been a long time since I disliked a book I read this much.

[Diane Schuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish I could give 1/2 stars because this is more worthy of 3 1/2 instead of only 3 stars.

This debut novel by Dominic Smith peers into the mind of the eccentric 19th-century French genius who invented the daguerreotype, which is why it was gifted to me (the photography connection, of course). From Kirkus Reviews, "A compelling psychological study, a thoughtful tracing of the birth of a new art form and an atmospheric portrait of 19th-century France: impressive on all three counts."

Smith writes a fictionalized version of the celebrated photographer Louis Daguerre, his brain disoriented by the mercury process that made him famous. Smith includes Charles Baudelaire, the longed-for love Isobel Le Fournier, and her daughter Chloe to weave an interesting story albeit with some predictable plot twists and a cliche here and there. His writing is tight and full of imagery and, other than a few of those predictable plot twists, certainly mature for this first novel. {I have read, and recommend, his second novel The Last Painting of Sara de Vos which was incredibly interesting and lacked any of the weaknesses in this first novel.}

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a reinvention of the life of one of the pioneers of photography. After a decade of absorbing poisonous mercury vapours as he processes his daguerreotype images, Louis Daguerre begins having visions and suffering delusions. Believing the world will end in a year, he creates his 'Doomsday List' - 10 items he must photograph before the final day. On the list is Isobel Le Fournier, the woman he has always loved but not spoken to in 50 years. Assisted by poet Charles Baudelaire and Pigeon, a beautiful prostitute, Louis searches Paris for memorable images and for the woman he only kissed once but never forgot.

I struggled with the first half of the book, despite it being the kind of historical/biographical/romantic novel that I enjoy, and I put it aside. However when I picked it up again, after a 2 month break, I found the second half much more satisfying and I read it quickly. It's not a happy, entertaining book, but it was interesting. And learning about the early photographic process was fascinating!

[Krenner1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Marie Curie, Louis Daguerre did not know that his work was killing him. Discovering how to use mercury to invent the daguerrotype, he becomes rich, famous, and ill. This historical fiction tells his story, set during the French Revolution, with a sub-plot of his life-long unrequited love for a maid in his boyhood home. This author always wins me over with his writing.

"The barber's face was whey-colored and pocked with age; it suggested ravaged wisdom. He looked at Louis in the mirror and there was a pause, as if here he would name the unknown shadow. Their eyes met briefly...he opened his straight razor, and for a moment Louis saw it as a silver glaive flashing beside his neck."

"Louis had expected awe in Parisian attitude towards Napoleon, but people spoke of him as a freak flood or torrential storm. When he shot Josephine's pet swans one night after a tiff, or when he kicked his economic minister in the genitals after doubting the man's statistics, his deeds were recounted as episodes of weather, rants of nature."

[Nick Milinazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This piece of historical fiction describes the life of artist Louis Daguerre -- one of the fathers of photography. In order to create a daguerreotype photograph, a metal plate is exposed to heated mercury. The process which made him so famous also led to numerous physical ailments in his later life. Smith takes great care in crafting his novels, all of which are filled with poetic language. The chapters in the first half of the book alternate between scenes of Louis as an established name in Paris, and those of him trying to make that name for himself. Smith portrays the artist as a sensitive adolescent, filled with emotion for nature and the arts, and it is these emotions that make him strive for greatness. The delicacy of the prose is also what brings the scenes to life: we are transported to the burgeoning streets of Paris, and the quiet fields of the country. A beautiful novel of great sentiment and emotion, about a man filled with love and ambition. Would recommend.

[Vicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Louis Daguerre, the inventor of photography called the Daguerreotype, is the feature of this novel about his life, his invention, fame, and his slow poisoning from the use of mercury. Set in Paris and with the backdrop of the French Revolution only adds to the color of flavor of the book. It was not clearly known back in the 1800s that mercury was a toxic chemical. He inhaled the vapors as he "set" his pictures using mercury. He also carried a vial of mercury around his neck. Because of its toxicity, a person would be hard pressed to find a thermometer that actually contained quicksilver.
It was a fascinating read about the man himself, the love of his life who didn't love him back, his relationship to the poor, bawdy poet, Baudelaire, and his love of light and color.
This was a good novel with a couple of unexpected twists and turns. I would recommend this book to others.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful and moving, Smith unravels the yearnings and heartache of Louis Daguerre, one of the early inventors of photography, in a novel sprawling Daguerre's lifetime. The descriptions invoke all of the senses, but sometimes the writing dips back into fairly plain prose, leaving the feeling that the novel is just a few paces off greatness. The characters are well rounded, each shaped by time and revolution, while the plot feels gripping and tense in some moments, and stretched out and slow in others. I would recommend it (I learned a lot about the history of photography), but look forward to trying Smith's newer works to see his evolution as a writer.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd ready The Last Painting of Sara de Los and loved it, so I happened upon this book and excitedly picked it up. Again, the writing is beautiful, the story compelling, and creatively imagined. As not a lot is known about the life of Louis Daguerre, Smith invented one for him: connecting him with Parisian contemporaries, analyzing a potential path to and side effects of inventing the daguerreotype, and adding a romantic interest. Very readable, though not quite as complex as The Last Painting. I'll definitely read his other books too!