The Glass-Blowers

This Daphne du Maurier novel is an incredible tale set in France in the midst of the French Revolution, offering an insight into the lives of ordinary villagers at the time. I really enjoyed learning about this fascinating part of French history through the means of a fictional story.

The narrator, Sophie du Maurier, recounts her family's story in a series of letters she sends to her nephew; from their happy childhood to their fraught relationships due to the Revolution, the reader is engrossed in the life of this family of craftsmen who live with their community of glass blowers deep in the French countryside, seemingly untouchable. Life for a glass-blower and their family is hard; constantly moving from one contract to another, working long hours through the cold winter months, and keeping the community alive, so all this takes its toll on the family, and fractures start to form as the boys grow up and don't all want to pursue this line of work.

When reading this novel, I found that the epistolary form greatly aided with the sense of story-telling that is prevalent throughout, helping to develop the character of Sophie du Maurier because, as you read, you are taken into her mind as she writes the words on the page, and this ability to understand her authentic narrative voice really helped me to develop an image of her in my head. It also made me more able to imagine Sophie when she goes back in time to her childhood because, having met the older version of her, it becomes much easier to imagine what she would have been like during the French Revolution when the majority of the story is set. Her sensible and pragmatic nature has evidently been something that she has carried throughout her entire life, passed on to her by her mother, whose character also becomes easier to interpret as a result of having first met Sophie as an older woman.

Carrying on with this idea of characterisation, I have always found du Maurier to be an excellent author in creating distinctive and memorable characters in her novels. In 'The Glass-Blowers', the lives of the five Busson siblings is at the heart of the novel, and while it could be very easy for the narrative to focus on the developments of the story and the happenings of their lives as they get swept up into the midst of the French Revolution, I noted how there was obviously a lot of care taken to ensure that each sibling had their own distinctive personalities which they carried with them throughout their entire lives, each with their own little quirks which the reader soon picks up on, making the novel even more memorable as the faces and voices of the characters as you have imagined them really do stick with you.

Being a French and History student, one of my favourite aspects of the novel was of course its geographical and historical setting. While I have always known about the

French Revolution, I had never really properly looked into it, and this novel definitely inspired me to delve further as it adds emotion to this momentous event, bringing a sense of reality to history as it helps you to understand what it was like for those living through it all, due to the plethora of emotions that are depicted and the varying points of view and political stands that exist in just one household.

I highly recommend this novel not only as a great work of literature but as a way to expand your knowledge about this truly fascinating event in history and the extraordinary ramifications it had on ordinary French citizens and their families. Du Maurier is definitely one of my favourite authors due to her incredible talent for composing intriguing works of fiction, and this book was no exception!