Read: November 1-5, 2011
read in 5 days
pages: 112
Well I read this so that I would have something to compare the movie too. I'm looking forward now to see Robert Pattinson in this role. It should be interesting. The book was not bad I liked it. Didn't like putting it down, so I'd say it kept my attention.
The character Bel Ami is a down right scoundrel. He is fickle and has no sincere feelings for anyone but himself at any point in the novel. I'd say he progresses over time as in he becomes more and more self-involved and more concerned for his own ego than anything else. But honestly he starts that way within the first few paragraphs of the novel. His concern is for nothing but money and position, and who can he use to get there. The triangle and what later becomes four women in this novel mean nothing to him they are mere conquests. I'm surprised he was married to Madeline as long as he was. The women are strong, with the exception of Suzanne and to an extent her mother who was involved with Bel Ami first, and while they take the crap he gives a few have conquests of their own. For example Madeline's affair works out well for her. When she makes her stipulations concerning the marriage to Bel Ami, the reader is not too surprised of the affair, and we find neither is he. What disappointed me about the affair however was that it gives him an out. He can easily get out of the marriage with Madeline to be free to be with Suzanne.
As I said I'll be really interested to see how the movie plays out, how the characters are portrayed and by how well the actors do with the roles. I've read a few interviews with Robert about the film and it seems weird that he characterizes the love scenes as disturbing and from what I gather he insinuated that the women are the ones using sex as a weapon, when from what I've read of the novel, this is very much Bel Ami's personal expertise. So we shall see what the screen writer has done with the story and how many liberties they have taken.
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