The Counterfeiters · Chapter
XVIII: Edouard’s Journal: Second Visit to La Pérouse explained
Edouard recounts losing his suitcase and journal, then finding it again via Olivier's friend.
What happens
Edouard recounts losing his suitcase and journal, then finding it again via Olivier's friend. He visits Laura and then old La Pérouse, where he witnesses the bitter marital conflict between La Pérouse and his wife. La Pérouse entrusts Edouard with a sealed envelope containing a government bond for his grandson, and asks Edouard to visit the boy in Saas-Fée.
Themes in this chapter
Family and Paternity
La Pérouse's concern for his grandson and his plan to secure the boy's future through a government bond.
Morality and Corruption
The toxic marriage between La Pérouse and his wife, each interpreting the other's actions as malicious.
Art and the Novel
Edouard's journal as a 'pocket-mirror' and his reflection on the difficulty of genuine conversation.
Characters to notice
- Edouard
Narrator of the journal; loses and recovers his suitcase; visits Laura and La Pérouse; accepts responsibility for La Pérouse's bond and grandson.
- Olivier Molinier
Edouard's unsatisfactory conversation with him is mentioned; his intimate friend is the one who took Edouard's suitcase.
- Laura Douviers
Edouard visits her after recovering his suitcase.
- Monsieur de La Pérouse
Edouard's second visit; he is in a state of marital misery, entrusts Edouard with a sealed envelope and asks him to visit his grandson in Saas-Fée.
- Madame de La Pérouse
Opens the door for Edouard; complains bitterly about her husband; described as harpy-like and hypocritical.
Key passages
“I cannot feel that anything that happens to me has any real existence until I see it reflected here.”
Edouard believes his experiences only become real when recorded in his journal.
Reflects Edouard's reliance on writing to validate his life.
“Oh, how difficult the slightest word is, when it involves the whole assent of the whole being! When the heart comes into play, it numbs and paralyses the brain.”
Edouard finds that emotional sincerity makes even simple conversation extremely hard.
Highlights the struggle between emotion and intellect in communication.
“But this remains—that here are two beings tied to each other for life and causing each other abominable suffering.”
Edouard observes that the La Pérouses are bound together yet inflict terrible pain on each other.
Summarizes the chapter's central marital conflict.