The Counterfeiters · Chapter
IX: Edouard and Olivier explained
Edouard and Olivier meet at the station but their mutual joy is stifled by awkwardness and misunderstanding.
What happens
Edouard and Olivier meet at the station but their mutual joy is stifled by awkwardness and misunderstanding. Each hides their true feelings, leading to a strained conversation over port wine. Olivier's preoccupation with Bernard's departure and Edouard's insecurity about his age compound the tension, and they part without resolving their emotions.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Sexuality
The chapter explores the unspoken, repressed love between Edouard and Olivier, marked by mutual misunderstanding and fear of rejection.
Counterfeiting and Appearance
Both characters feign indifference and hide their true emotions, creating a facade that prevents genuine connection.
Characters to notice
- Edouard
Meets Olivier at the station; struggles to express his joy and affection, feeling insecure about his age and Olivier's reception.
- Olivier Molinier
Meets Edouard but is embarrassed and hides his eagerness; preoccupied with Bernard's departure and unable to speak openly.
- Bernard Profitendieu
Briefly mentioned as following Edouard and Olivier from the station, picking up the discarded cloakroom ticket.
Key passages
“We should have nothing to deplore of all that happened later if only Edouard’s and Olivier’s joy at meeting had been more demonstrative; but they both had a singular incapacity for gauging their credit in other people’s hearts and minds; this now paralysed them; so that each, believing his emotion to be unshared, absorbed in his own joy, and half ashamed at finding it so great, was completely preoccupied by trying to hide its intensity from the other.”
Their reunion would have been happier if they had shown their feelings openly, but each doubted the other's affection and tried to conceal how much they cared.
Highlights the central misunderstanding and emotional paralysis of the chapter.
“Olivier thought: “I didn’t ask him. Why is he protesting?” Each of them was vexed with himself for not being able to utter a word that didn’t sound curt and stiff; and each of them, feeling the other’s embarrassment and irritation, thought himself the cause and object of them.”
Olivier wondered why Edouard was defensive, and both were frustrated that every word came out harshly, each blaming themselves for the other's discomfort.
Illustrates the reciprocal misinterpretation and self-blame that poisons their interaction.