Guy de Maupassant, Our heart

Guy de Maupassant, Our Heart, Baltimore, The Johns H Press, 2006

The book is an account of the sensations and feelings of a pair of siamese twins. The plot is placed in France, during the 1740s. The story’s heroes are Philomène and Elodie, the children of a baker – Paupine – from Rue du Faubourg Saint-Antoine.

As a baker assistant, Paupine got married to Sandrine, the daughter of his boss. Sandrine didn’t love Paupine. She loved Loîc instead, one of the apprentices, but her father wouldn’t care to listen to her complaints and arranged the wedding. The marriage was violently consumed and its fruits were the siamese twins.

The children were born holding tight together. They were united in the chest area and had only one heart.

The novel’s most impressive pages are those on which Sandrine fights against everybody and finally gets to keep her children. She directs towards them all the love and affection she couldn’t possibly give to somebody else.  She passionately cherishes them and, watching them, she fells she’s going to die. The other family members look at her suspiciously and with an unhidden disgust.

Under the attentive eyes of their moms, the children grow fast. They learn how to talk and, a few years later, even how to walk. They love singing. They quickly understant they got to stand each other. They’re a little unhappy because they can’t run and  instantly get tired, but they have the strength to resign.

The novel’s drama happens when the twins fall in their first love. Philomène and Elodie fall in love in the exact same moment, with the same person. Crushed by the two loves, the heart they share cracks and stops beating.