Since it’s so dialogue heavy, I could imagine it would make a wonderful play. It’s a clever reinterpretation of an old tale. While she teases, questions, and criticizes the nobleman, he shows her a world of idealism and perfectionism that’s as far from our world as could be. Any other woman would have fled the premises. The result is very lively as the discussions are so witty and original and touch upon subjects as diverse as the Spanish Inquisition, Ramon Llull’s Ars Magna, and the perfect color. There are only few descriptions and some of Saturnine’s reasonings added. To tell this whimsical retelling of the famous Blue Beard fairy tale, Amélie Nothomb uses mainly dialogue.
If you’d like to find if she falls for him, and whether or not she’ll access the forbidden room and what happened to the eight women before her, you’ll have to read the book. Soon, however, it becomes clear that the mysterious and many talented Don Elemirio fascinates her. Saturnine is shocked that someone could fall in love so quickly and very certain that she will never love him back. He stays serious and finally confesses he’s in love with her. During these meals, Saturnine teases the nobleman but he doesn’t really get it. They are all eccentric and downed with large amounts of the most expensive champagne. She accepts and this will be the first of many dinners. On the first evening, her host begs her to join him for dinner. Saturnine isn’t a nosy person and so she’s never tempted to open the door to the forbidden room, but she would like to know what happened to her eighth predecessors. He warns her that it wouldn’t be dangerous for her if she entered.
He shows her around and tells her she can go anywhere she likes with the exception of one room with a black door. Don Elemirio is very proud of his origins and of himself. He’s a Spanish nobleman with a long, flourishing name.
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He’s not very attractive and full of mannerisms. When Saturnine sees the host for the first time she’s totally underwhelmed. One of the women, applying with Saturnine, predicts that she will be the chosen one as she’s the youngest and the prettiest. Because Saturnine is from Belgium, she had never heard of the story before. All of his eight former tenants have vanished and it is rumoured that he may have killed them. As Saturnine finds out to her surprise, most of them didn’t come for the rooms, but because they want to catch a glimpse of the rich, notorious owner. The rooms are big, the rent is cheap, what more could she wish for? Of course, she’s not the only one interested in the offer. When she sees and ad offering rooms in an elegant mansion in the 7th arrondissement, she’s thrilled. Saturnine, a young lecturer at the school of the Louvre in Paris, is looking for a room. I had hoped I would like it, but I didn’t expect to like it so much. I was pretty sure, it wouldn’t be fantasy or fantastical and I was right.
Knowing that she’s famous for her dry, acerbic style, I thought it would be interesting to see what she would do with a tale like this. I love fairy tale retellings or reinterpretations and Blue Beard is one of my favourites. I read her first and wasn’t too keen on it, so I never returned to her until I saw Barbe Bleue (Blue Beard) in a book shop. Since 1992 she has published a novel per year. One could almost assume that she has not written anything else. Her first novel, Hygiene and the Assassin – L’hygiène de l’assassin, was so successful, that to this day, it’s always the one novel mentioned together with her name. In 1992, Belgian author Amélie Nothomb entered the literary scene with a bang.
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