La Capucine
(The nasturtium) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
Marie Desplechin whisks readers to late-nineteenth-century Paris. The year is 1885, and Louise is a thirteen-year-old working for a market gardener in Bobigny, just north of the capital. She has green fingers and an abiding love for the soil, but her master does not pay her and beats her whenever the mood takes him. It is too much for Marie, who decides to run away to Paris to live with her mother Clémence and her protector Bernadette. But it is hard for a young market gardener, and a girl at that, to find a place for herself in Paris, where inequality is everywhere.
Edited by: Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
Comment:
An interesting historical novel with a cast of characters eager for emancipation. Louise is strong-willed and resourceful. She is highly attuned to the social differences between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat and is not cowed by her master, who calls her a “damned socialist”. The author discusses inequality in simple terms: Louise expresses herself in familiar language, but this aspect is not overplayed. The novel owes its title to La Capucine, the nasturtium, a revolutionary socialist song on unequal wealth distribution. The novel has flashes of wit and even whimsy, particularly in Bernadette, an eccentric, crafty woman, an excellent cook who can channel spirits.
Marie Desplechin is one of France’s best known female authors, awarded many prizes. La Capucine is the last in a series on young women in Paris in 1885. The first two novels in the trilogy, Satin Grenadine and Séraphine, feature on the “ideal library” drawn up by the National Youth Literature Centre at the French National Library.