5/20/2023 0 Comments Belle epoque by elizabeth ross![]() Maud is doing her best to make her own way. It’s different, it’s unique, and we, the reader, know that one day it will become synonymous with Paris, that it will be viewed as beautiful and elegant, but in Maud’s time? Not so much. Yet it’s also a time with changing standards of what beauty is, as shown by the building of the Eiffel Tower. ![]() “Beauty” is supposed to be so important that people hire someone plain to sit next to them in a cafe, at a dinner, at the opera. The Good: A fascinating look at late nineteenth century Paris. Pretending not to want more, not to be more, than the ugly friend. Maud must practice deception upon deception: pretending to belong to society. And Maud is to report everything back to her mother, reveal every confidence, so that her mother can manipulate the best marriage possible. There’s a catch: Isabelle must not know anything about it. Maud’s first assignment: a Countess buys Maud’s time for the countess’s daughter, to be around for the whole season, to make the daughter, Isabelle, more desirable and more marriageable. She tries another job, but in the end, she has no choice. ![]() And all her own fears and insecurities are stirred up, as she hears all her flaws described. Maud flees: insulted that she is viewed as perfect for the job. ![]() ![]() To sit next to someone, and in their ugliness make someone look prettier than they otherwise would appear. ![]()
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