Little by Edward Carey

We are back from our vacation, my in laws just arrived and the holy month of Ramadan has also started so things are crazy.. I will start sharing all the details with you soon. :)

Little by Edward Carey

Synopsis The wry, macabre, unforgettable tale of an ambitious orphan in Revolutionary Paris, befriended by royalty and radicals, who transforms herself into the legendary Madame Tussaud. In 1761, a tiny, odd-looking girl named Marie is born in a village in Switzerland. After the death of her parents, she is apprenticed to an eccentric wax sculptor and whisked off to the seamy streets of Paris, where they meet a domineering widow and her quiet, pale son. Together, they convert an abandoned monkey house into an exhibition hall for wax heads, and the spectacle becomes a sensation. As word of her artistic talent spreads, Marie is called to Versailles, where she tutors a princess and saves Marie Antoinette in childbirth. But outside the palace walls, Paris is roiling: The revolutionary mob is demanding heads, and . . . at the wax museum, heads are what they do.       
Thoughts This is the story of  how the orphaned Marie Grosholtz became the famous Madame Tussaud. The story starts in Switzerland then to Germany where Marie also known as Little is first introduced to the art of wax. From Germany we follow Little to France where she is an unpaid servant, she meets the Kings and spend time as an art tutor in Versailles, even finds herself in jail. The obstacles are surmountable.. yet she survives and flourishes. She never loses hope even when most the book details all the bad things that happen in her life. I was in awe of how with all that happened she was still able to became the Great Madame Tussaud. This was not a quick read.. it had a lot of extra details.. a lot of details I could have done without. The book also spent a lot of time in the bloody French Revolution and then the Reign of Terror (yay?) and very little time of Marie as Madame Tussaud. There is no mention of the thirty three year she spent in the British Isles before opening the wax museum in London. The writer spent a lot of time dwelling in her low points and we very rarely got to see her winning.. 

Whenever I find myself reading a historical book I find myself stopping mid page and goggling facts.. people.. events. During one such googling session I learned that the author took many liberties with the subject matter. Meaning it contains more fiction than history. It was at that point that my interest in the book started to wane. I kept doubting everything I read.. was it real or a flight of fancy.. The author, Edward Carey worked in the London Madame Tussaud in his 20's and it was during that time that he became interested in Madame Tussaud and her life. It took is over a decade to write the book. 

“There’s something mythical about her, as if she were a character from folklore or fairytale,” Edward Carey wrote recently in the Guardian. Over time, he realized, “She feels made up, she seems like a story.”

I had never given much thought to Madame Tussaud before. I have never been to her museum, I don't intend on doing so anytime soon but if even half the events of the book are true she was quite a woman and everyone should know a little more about her. I may not have loved the book but I liked it, I liked the opportunity to learn about this woman.

The book was also full of brilliant illustrations done by the author which were a treat.

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