Little

 

Summary (from the publisher): 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.

In the tradition of Gregory Maguire's Wicked and Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus, Edward Carey's Little is a darkly endearing cavalcade of a novel--a story of art, class, determination, and how we hold on to what we love.

Review: This novel is a fictionalized retelling of Madame Tussaud, famous for her wax figures during the French Revolution. The novel opens in first person narration by little Anne Marie Groshoultz, who was born in Switzerland. After she is left an orphan, she winds up apprenticing with Dr. Curtius, an eccentric wax sculptor. Fate eventually takes her to Paris, living with a strong willed widow and her mild mannered son. Marie, known as Little in her household, is increasingly noticed for her artistic talents, which earns her a place in Versailles. As the French Revolution creates upheaval in Little's life, she must use her talents and wits to continue to create heads - and keep her own. 

This is a macabre, despairing tale of a woman with an eye for detail who sees bodies as objects - all the same but yet endlessly varied in appearance. Little  is forced to look death, deformity, and the innards of the human body square in the eye from the time she is a young child, making her uniquely suited for her craft. The novel shines in the first chapters where young Marie tells her own origin story in her woeful little voice. Once the novel progresses towards the French Revolution it seems to stall and progress much slower. 

Although criticized for not being strictly historically accurate to the real Madame Tussaud, I do believe novels should be allowed some artistic license and I enjoyed this novel. The narrator for the audible version has a funny, little voice that perfectly suited the funny, little character of precocious, orphaned Marie. An entertaining novel about a story and an artform I had never read anything about before. 

Stars: 3.5