Incidents in the Rue Laugier

“My mother read a lot, sighed a lot, and went to bed early. She had been a Maud Gonthier, from Dijon, brought up to expect something better than the provincial restrictions which had stifled her as a girl. She never found it, at least not with my father.”

Incidents in the Rue Laugier
By Anita Brookner
Source: Personal copy

Maud Gonthier’s daughter is clearing out the flat where her mother lived. Nestled in a suitcase she finds a few personal items such as a pink rose kimono she never saw her mother wear and most interestingly a notebook with a few notations: Dames Blanches, La Gaillarderie, Place des Termes. Sang. Edward. Not exactly a diary but what do these things mean? As she herself is trying to comprehend how much she’s turning into her mother what follows is the unrecorded story of Maud.

As a young woman, Maud, wants to be free and move to Paris and escape all forms of control from her mother. She knew her mother had hopes that she would marry well and as such would relish the weeks they would spend during the summer with her aunt in hopes that Maud would meet a suitable match but on their recent visit Maud will meet David Tyler and Edward Harrison and her life will be forever changed.

The three will leave Dijon and go to Paris and in their time in Paris Maud begins a whirlwind affair with David. He’s charming and always has something exciting plan but Edward knows his friend is very cavalier about relationships. He is often a bit jealous of how easy everything seems for David and at the same time it’s like he doesn’t want to share David with anyone else.

Unfortunately when things end, Edward is left to pick up the pieces of the doomed affair and he and Maud decide to make a go of things. The two move to England where Edward can take over a bookshop that was left to him and hopes that they can have a good life together but as years pass both feel like they haven’t lived the lives they were expecting to and are filled with disappointments.

This must sound incredibly sad but I think the writing is fantastic and for such a slim novel it captures the longings of each of the characters so well. Whether exploring relationships between mother and daughters or romantic relationships, I think Brookner always has a way of showing great understanding about characters and their motivations. If you’ve never read Anita Brookner before I’d highly recommend giving her a try.

**This counts for the Mount TBR Reading Challenge