“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”
THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS
The Nightingale is a novel that rewards perseverance. At nearly 600 pages in length, it’s not a snappy read, but the character development that the main characters, Vianne Mauriac and Isabelle Rossignol, undergo makes the effort to finish the novel worth it. This heart-breaking, eye-opening tale of these two estranged sisters in war-torn France demonstrates the different kinds of courage that exist when our lives are put at risk.
Vianne Mauriac (née Rossignol) is ten years older than Isabelle, living in the quiet French village of Carriveau with her husband Antoine and their daughter Sophie. When Antoine is drafted into the French military, Vianne is left to care for their daughter alone, and once Nazi forces invade France, Vianne is forced to take Captain Wolfgang Beck, a Nazi soldier, into her home. Sent from Paris by their father to live with Vianne, Isabelle rebels against the occupation, but Vianne admonishes her for this behaviour and tells her that if she cannot show appropriate respect for the captain, she will not be welcome in Vianne’s home. She does not tell Isabelle this because she fears for her own safety: she gives this ultimatum because she knows that any resistance could lead to Sophie being orphaned or even killed. Vianne does whatever it takes to ensure that her daughter’s safety, even when this involves cooperating with Captain Beck’s agenda and accepting help and resources from him in times of particular hardship. She does eventually develop an Isabelle-ish kind of courage, successfully smuggling 19 abandoned Jewish children into a French orphanage after their parents are shipped to concentration camps, but it is the quiet endurance she exhibits to protect Sophie that I admire the most. Above all else, keeping Sophie safe is her priority; she will sacrifice anything and everything to keep her warm, fed, and alive during the war. She is not heroic like Isabelle, but she is still brave.
Eighteen years old and accordingly rebellious, Isabelle Rossignol is angry and defiant, determined to do whatever she can to contribute to the war effort. Women could not join the military, so Isabelle joins the French Resistance, beginning by distributing flyers to French homes and eventually upgrading to helping downed Allied airmen cross the Pyrenees mountain range and reach the British embassy in Spain. Needless to say, the kind of courage that Isabelle demonstrates is radically different to Vianne’s, but Isabelle does not have any empathy for the delicate situation that Vianne is in. Vianne cannot show outward resistance to German occupation as doing so would put endanger Sophie’s life, but Isabelle does not see the whole picture; she finds Vianne’s complacency deplorable and cowardly. To her, the only kind of courage worthy of note is finding a way to actively fight back, despite the risk that rebellion provoked. Isabelle’s brand of bravery is the kind we traditionally hear about in stories of war, and indeed, Isabelle is particularly inspired by the stories of women like Edith Cavell, a British nurse who was executed by firing squad for showing no discrimination in which soldiers she assisted, saving the lives of men from both sides of the war. This undeniably constitutes an outstanding level of daring and tenacity, but is it the only way to be brave?
This is the core question that The Nightingale proposes. Who was more courageous? Who had greater strength: Isabelle or Vianne? They both begin as distinctly unlikeable characters. Vianne is timid and weak, while Isabelle is judgmental and thoughtless, so neither woman is enjoyable to read about for the first half of the book. However, their character development is absolutely stunning, and so I believe that the answer to the question that the novel poses is that they are both equally strong and brave, just in different ways. Isabelle is traditionally courageous, often to the point of being foolhardy, giving no thought to the danger she will be in if she participates in the Resistance movement. Hers is the tale of bravery to which we are so accustomed in times of war, but that by no means diminishes the courage that Vianne exhibited. Vianne sacrifices her dignity, her image, her humanity in order to keep her daughter alive. She has to do unthinkable things to ensure Sophie’s safety, and on top of all of this, she still decides later in the war to risk her life to save those of orphaned Jewish children, even writing fake identity cards for them to conceal their Jewish heritage from the Nazis. The Nightingale is a triumphant tale about French people fighting back against Nazi occupation, but it is also a tale about sacrificing rebellion in order to keep the ones you love safe.
Although I was skeptical while I was starting the book, by the end I was enthralled. The complexity of character in this novel, and the incredible amount of character development the characters go through, is inspiring: I have always loved stories about women who demonstrate non-traditional kinds of bravery, resilience, and strength (see: Sansa Stark in A Song of Ice and Fire), and I am happy to add this book to the list. I hope to one day write a novel whose strong female characters are as vivid and complex as Vianne and Isabelle.
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