To Capture What We Cannot Keep
Beatrice Colin’s book To Capture What We Cannot Keep is described as Captivating and bold, a haunting love story of 1880's Paris and I found it a delightful and easy read interweaving Haussmann's new Paris, the Eiffel tower, 1889 World Fair and the Panama Canal.
It’s February 1887 and young Scottish widow, Caitriona Wallace (Cait), is acting as chaperone to two wealthy Scottish charges, Alice and James, when by perchance she meets Émile Nouguier in a hot air balloon in Paris. Émile is the chief engineer working on the Eiffel Tower and part of the bourgeois social class so any future that Cait and Émile aspire to, is constrained within the social strata of their time.
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When corsets, secret trysts, duels and bohemian independence, strict tradition and Impressionist experimentation were the norm, finding and keeping love came with a price.
Haussmann, The Eiffel Tower, 1889 World Fair and Panama Canal
Beatrice Colin interweaves her fictional characters Cait, Émile, Alice, James, and others with historical figures and events so well the story reads effortlessly. The new Paris created by Haussmann, the construction of Eiffel’s Tower, the impending World Fair and the excitement of the Panama Canal project were prominent world events of the era and have a corresponding prominent role in the storyline of To Capture What We Cannot Keep.
Being myself a fan of Paris, Gustave Eiffel and the Belle Époque era, this novel delighted me. It is well written, accurately depicts the historical events of the time and is inventive in the romantic entanglements that ensnare all the main characters.
Life can end up being complicated even when we try to keep it simple and all actions will have consequences, regardless of how we try and convince ourselves otherwise. This life fact is well played out among the characters in To Capture What We Cannot Keep.
Life in Paris in 1889 at the time of Gustave Eiffel's Tower
Cait, the heroine of the story, trapped in a lonely existence since her young husband’s tragic death, unable to live the planned and respectable married life snatched from her, and not able to find a suitable alternative, takes the position of chaperone. Chaperoning the spoilt, naive and wealthy Alice and James proves to be a constant challenge in Paris, the city of decadence and indulgence. While her young charges constantly find themselves in trouble, there are also unscrupulous cads and easy women waiting to take advantage of their naivety at every turn.
I loved reading the social etiquette rules that pop up in the book 'He helped her step up into the carriage and then, after signalling to the driver, he climbed in beside her. They moved off, the horses’s hooves on the cobbles muffled now. Émile Nouguier shifted on the seat to keep the distance between them exact. Even without a ruler she knew it would be six inches - no more, no less.' Can you imagine living life constricted with rules such as knowing that the respectful distance between yourself and a man is exactly six inches!
While these restrictions are fun to read, it is with gratitude I applaud the movement championed by many in history for women to be given a voice, dealt with fairly, and offered equal opportunities as there is no way I would like to live with the limitations imposed on women during the 1880s.
To Capture What We Cannot Keep: Book Review
To Capture What We Cannot Keep is well recommended with its easy reading, well woven historical content and loveable characters. I also recommend reading Gustave Eiffel: The Tower the fabulous book by Jill Jonnes. It delves deep into the life and history of the world’s foremost engineer Gustave Eiffel and his company The Eiffel Company, and the building of some of the most iconic structures in the world. That is, the Eiffel Tower, the Statute of Liberty and the Panama Canal.
His genius innovations set new building standards 'What the public didn’t realise was that the most crucial part of the construction was not the upper reaches of the tower but the part that was just about to be tackled. The first floor platform, where the four piers met, had to be absolutely level. A millimetre out and the tower above would lean. Eiffel had devised a similar method to the one he used for bridges, using boxes of sand and hydraulic jacks deep inside the foundations, each pier would be moved up or down a fraction until they were in place.” To Capture What We Cannot Keep
Author: Beatrice Colin
Pages: 289
Australian Publisher: Allen & Unwin
'A compelling story of love constricted by the demands of separate social classes. Told against the splendidly absorbing background of the building of the Eiffel Tower, it emerges as fresh and different. A captivating read.’ - Kate Alcott, author of The Dressmaker
Live like Gustave Eiffel at Restaurant 58, Eiffel Tower
Are you liking the sound of To Capture What We Cannot Keep? Pack it in your holiday suitcase, snuggle in front of the fire or read whilst you sunbake on the beach - I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.
Do you dream of standing on the Eiffel Tower and gazing across the rooftops of Paris? Then join me on our Classic Paris Tours where we step into Gustave Eiffel's shoes and dine in Restaurant 58, level 1 of the Eiffel Tower, eating and sipping wine looking out across the Paris skyline. Our special small group tours of Paris take us to the iconic landmarks and hidden treasures of Paris.
