Final thoughts on The Gods Will Have Blood, + first and last

I really wasn't sure I'd like this book and while I adore the taste of its publisher, Penguin Books, I have trouble reading their books, or rather, summoning the interest in reading them. Cheap paper and tiny, not particularly attractive fonts. My friend Thom remarked the paper quality was like an old Harlequin novel (which is true because I was quite the connoisseur of trash romances back around the age of 13.) I forgot all about the aesthetics once I started reading, which maybe is Penguin's devious master plan.

Of course, I floved the book which managed somehow to be both philosophically and emotionally engaging. Brotteaux's character, this sweet old man who makes marionettes for a living, just broke my heart. That scene of him carrying his dolls in the rain because the vendor wouldn't buy them (the authorities claimed they were caricatures of Robespierre) was so sad.

You couldn't help feeling sorry for that silly, frivolous woman Rochemaure who both got Gamelin his job and whose indiscretion got Brotteaux arrested. And her incriminating letter being handed over by Elodie's ex-boyfriend Henry who also was involved the the overthrow of the Jacobins. What was the message here? There were villains on both sides and some just got lucky? 

I'm a little confused by the Orestes references and I feel like I'm missing something obvious. I get that Evariste is committing symbolic patricide but Orestes murdered his mother (and Clytemnestra got a bum rap. I'd be pissed too if my husband sacrificed my daughter for favorable winds.) And why the comparisons between Elodie and Electra? He even calls her "sister" at one point. Maybe re-reading Euripides would clear this up. Also, Brotteaux makes me want to read Lucretius.

It's interesting to contrast the deaths of Brotteaux and Gamelin, who died in such similar circumstances riding in the tumbril to the guillotine. But while Brotteaux's is so moving, with Gamelin you feel relieved, at best. You can't even feel sorry for the poor schmuck because he rides to his death still thinking he was a great man and regretting he didn't kill more traitors. By 6 months later, Elodie is shacked up with his best friend Desmahis (this poor girl really needs to have better taste in men.)

The message of the perils of dogmatism are still as relevant as ever, unfortunately. 

First line:

Very early one morning, Evariste Gamelin-artist, pupil of David, member of the Section du Pont-Neuf, formerly Section Henry IV-was to be seen approaching the ancient church of the Barnabites, which had served for three years, since the 21st May, 1790, as the meeting place for the general assembly of the section.

Last line:

The last burnt-out logs were glowing in the fireplace. Elodie let her happy, tired head fall back again upon her pillow.