The Looking Glass

by Michèle Roberts

An orphan enchanted by stories and the incantatory power of words, Genevieve lives an isolated existence as a maid to the widow Patin in a village cafe on the Normandy coast in the early 20th century. Forced to flee the village, she comes under the spell of a charismatic spinner of words, a poet who captivates every woman around him -- his mother, his mistress, his niece, his niece's governess, and eventually, his new maid, who soon begins to spin a story of her own.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Historical Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Michèle Brigitte Roberts is the author of fifteen novels, including Ignorance which was nominated for the Women's Prize for Fiction and Daughters of the House which won the W.H. Smith Literary Award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Her memoir Paper Houses was BBC Radio 4's Book of the Week in June 2007. She has also published poetry and short stories, most recently collected in Mud: Stories of Sex and Love. Half-English and half-French, Roberts lives in London and in the Mayenne, France. She is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.

Reviews

[Karen Witzler · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite of her books. Demeter/Persephone imagery is what I most remember.

[Roberto · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the back cover, there is a review by " The Times" stating that to read a book by Michele Roberts is to savour colour, sound , taste , texture and touch as never before. And after I finished this novel , I couldnt agree more with that review. It is a pleasure for the senses and the soul to delight ourselves in the writing of this talented writer. Don't expect a convoluted plot full of twists and turns but read it for pleasure's sake.

[Lianne Harrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an absolute delight. The descriptions of the seashore and the Normandy climate made me slow down to savour and reread. Oblique reference was made to the impressionists and poets of a slightly earlier era though the central character and poet Colbert seems to be an invention. I was quite surprised to find the date at which it was set was rather later than I had imagined, and somewhat portentous- this is only revealed at the very end. For me it had some similarities with Flaubert’s Félicité in Un Coeur simple in the character of Geneviève and the focuses of her affection, but there was so much more to her character. I liked the touches of the supernatural and the local mythological story telling as well as the more mundane detail of everyday life where the description of a cup is given the same attention. It interested me that the different viewpoints of almost all the female narrators centred around the rather undeserving poet Colbert and that the only female character not given a voice was Geneviève’s true love who opens and closes the story.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story is told from the perspective of Geneviève, a young orphan who goes into service, the English governess and various other characters in this short but atmospheric novel by Miichèle Roberts. She is strong on descriptions, and the sensual impressions of the landscape of Normandy in the early 20th century, but somehow lacks originality and plot coherence. Somewhat reminiscent of Madame Bovary in parts, especially Isabelle's narrative. The ending left me feeling that nothing was explained, and rather confused. Geneviève's fate is left hanging in the balance. The poet Gérard, who is supposed to represent the focal point of all female attention in the Colbert household, is a weakly drawn and insubstantial character (where's his appeal?) So that doesn't work for me. I preferred Roberts's other novels Fair Exchange and Daughters of the House.

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's about a poet in France around the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The central character is that poet about whom the voices, five of them, all women, reminisce while along the way revealing tidbits about themselves and the time and culture in which they live. Geneviève, raised an orphan who becomes a servant in the poet's home, owns most of the narrative. Each of the voices has something to say about the life and times of literature, poetry especially, as well as about the poet himself.

[Sarah Reason · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing story set before the Great War, in a part of France I know well, which was part of the appeal for me. Its exploration of the nature of love and obsession, of freedom and restraint is beautiful and fascinating. Roberts writes wonderfully and with a clarity that makes the different voices in the novel distinct and beguiling. But I wish I knew what happened to Genevieve after the end!

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this. It was written in the perspective of a number of people, whose stories all came together. It was very descriptive. So much so, that I could easily imagine the time and place it was written to the very detail.

I lost track of time and didn’t want to put it down!

[Felicity · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed almost all of this book - the various women storytellers were lovely to spend some time with, and the story unfolded beautifully through their word. Pity about the really obvious last sentence though, yet another novel which makes too obvious use of that time in history.

[Bostonlotus · Rating 1 out of 5]

What the hell happened?! And how the hell were mermaids involved?!
Yeah, skip it; the only redeeming aspect of this book is the cover art.

[Lena Lighthouse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this at uni (don't remember the context) and wanted to refresh my non-existent memory because it now feels like being right up my alley (it wasn't back then) - and I wonder why my lecturer chose it in the first place. It's a female empowerment story about three women enamoured of a poet, set in early 20th century France, but of very average quality. The poetic language and allusions to mermaids aren't rooted in the story, the whole thing doesn't have much of a point, it's over when it starts to get interesting, as soon as the young protagonist is ready to go out into the world and make a life of her own. Perhaps there weren't so many of these mythical, ethereal female fictions around back in 2005. Today, there's almost so much of it that it has become its own genre and self-servingly shallow.

[apfelküchle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnifique 👌

[Andrea Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic descriptions and incredible detail about how a single man impacts all of the women in his life.

[Hollidae · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could I would give this 3 1/2 stars, or if I could break it down I would give 4 1/2 for writing style and a 2 1/2 for plot. I loved the style this is written in, the flow and the watercolorish impression it leaves you with, but the plot was just too disjointed and choppy. A really neat idea for a plot, and done right the book would have been brilliant. As it is, it's like two books in one. One really good, but ending too soon and too abruptly. The other just ok, and not over soon enough. The writing style is what kept me reading all the way through - just beautiful, like an impressionist painting in soft muted colors. I really wanted to love this book, but it just fell short because of plot issues. I also loved the artwork on the dust jacket - it really suited the book and style.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I felt you might lose something precious by making and telling a story, because then all its parts stretched out, beads strung one by one onto a string in time, tangling along from beginning to end; whereas while the unspoken words remained inside you all of them connected one to the other in a mad circling dance which was indescribably beautiful, wholly present in just one second, an eternal now. When you smoothed and flattened and straightened the story out, made it exist word by word in speech, you lost that heavenly possession of everything at once. You bumped down to earth and told one moment at a time. Speaking and telling, you threw joy away and had to mourn the loss of paradise, the shimmering eternal moment which was outside time… Perhaps Eve’s punishment, thrust forth from paradise, was to become a storyteller."
Michele Roberts - 'The Looking Glass'

[Jodi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I could have so easily not finished it, but for some reason I kept plodding through it. I thought it might be like the last Sherman Alexie novel I read -- it would all come together when I got to the end. But this was not the case. The end only confirmed my dissatisfaction with the novel. I thought the main character was whiny and the story line slow and boring. I kept waiting for something to happen, but what happened was predictable and almost painful to read.

[Sara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did - one of the drawbacks of choosing books by their titles. This is a novel of interlocking stories set in Europe in the early 1900s. From the point of views of multiple women (servant, tutor, child, lover) who become connected through a man/house, the stories didn't really add up to much. Because of all of the switching of point of view, I kept getting the characters mixed up. Oh well.

[Beccy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Preferred another of her books (Daughters of the House), entertaining enough read and enjoyed it, but nothing to really stand out for me. Came to it after reading The Goldfinch, so a hard act to follow.

[Charmian]

I love this book, it is very subtlely written about women and how they are viewed.

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

wonderfully written story. Loved her use of language and the weaving of the different women's stories.

[Shannon]

ugh. boring.