The Mercury Visions Of Louis Daguerre (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
I’ll admit it. I cried.To write some back-cover copy, “This is a finely wrought tale of love lost, found, and then lost again.” And then misplaced somewhere in that damn garage. No, seriously, this is quite a lovely book. I chose The Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre because I thought it was going to be the portrayal of an artist (the inventor of photography, Louis Daguerre) going mad, wandering Paris and experiencing hallucinations. Something I hope to do someday. I was mistaken. The “mercury visions” in the title are primarily referring to the surreal quality of the Daguerreotypes, the photo imprinting method Daguerre invented, which use mercury as a fixative. Daguerre does in fact go a bit mad from mercury poisoning, but he doesn’t hallucinate so much as fall into a state of mild to moderate dementia. Even so, I wasn’t disappointed. This is a well-crafted book.An example Daguerreotype: The story takes place in the first half of the 19th century in France. Smith manages to conjure this period convincingly and imbues it with a rich atmosphere. Baudelaire plays a supporting role, and I even believed that characterization.Other than exploring love—specifically what happens when love is abandoned for needs that are more practical—the primary subject matter of the book is the place of photography in the world of art, and art’s value in general. For Daguerre, photography was a way to achieve fame and even immortality for both himself and for moments in time. Many artists consider art to be their route to immortality. And yet ironically, believing the world is about to end, Daguerre is driven to capture a final list of photographs in order to stash them in the crypts under Paris to preserve them after the Apocalypse. (As you might suspect, the Apocalypse is cancelled due to lack of advertising.) Who thinks of Daguerreotypes now? The implication is that art is a rather inadequate means to immortality. There is no way to achieve immortality when life is so fleeting. Instead, we’re better off pursuing love because that at least might fulfill us during our existence. A rather romantic notion, certainly.However, Smith indicates several times that Daguerre would not have achieved the success and fame that he had if he hadn’t been scorned early in life by his great love. The implication is that love can actually make us complacent and less successful. We throw ourselves more aggressively into “achievement” perhaps if we fail at love. Some might; I suspect others give up pursuing their goals when they find misery in love. For Daguerre, it was like revenge—look how great I became. You could have had me yet chose not to. I appreciate the mixed messages about love, but one of the clear suggestions in this novel is that choosing financial gain over love is a sure route to life-long emptiness.I can’t say that I agree with any one portrayal of love as representative for all—for others love fulfilled can also lead to lifelong misery—but it’s believable for the characters portrayed within this work and it’s a worthwhile cautionary tale to ponder. The ending is rather tragic and beautiful and unexpected, too.Despite this being the type of book that I don’t seek out (realist, historical, and in some ways a love story), I looked forward to picking it up and got lost in it. Recommended.
Mercury Visions of Louis Daguerre is an often beautifully written story of the development of the daguerreotype and the life of its inventor. Daguerre is a passionate boy who grows up to be a passionate man, but the mercury used in his photographic process slowly eats away at his brain and body until, at the end, is suffers seizures and becomes erratic in his thinking. It is a sacrifice he is more than willing to make for his art. When he is a boy, he falls in love with Isobel Le Fournier who is a maid in a nearby house and his frequent nurse for boyhood ailments. When his proposal of marriage is rejected by Isobel, their lives take different paths. Isobel is married to a banker and Daguerre goes on to become famous and honored for his invention. Throughout his life from boyhood through revolutions in France and until the time he is extremely ill with mercury poisoning, he loves Isobel. And it is at the end that the writing becomes its most powerful and lyrical. If I would have added one thing to this book, it would have been more about the invention of the daguerreotype and its use. As it stands, it is more of an unrequited love story. Quotes: From Daguerre feeling his mortality, "Make friends with your enemies. Make peace with regret." "You are sometimes convinced the world is pursuing you with some special vengeance." "Dusk is a kiss between day and night."
What do You think about The Mercury Visions Of Louis Daguerre (2006)?
If you can stop short of a 100 pages, pick up this book. If you can't, do some research and read an original biography of Daguerre. If you want to give Dominic Smith a chance and read the entire 300+ pages, be prepared to be thoroughly disillusioned in the transition between "a well-crafted story of the coming of age of a visionary" to "the pages that articulate the fate of two star-crossed lovers in the face of death and deprivation." The second part, which is essentially a love story crafted from remnants of Louis's life as a child, is unrealistic to the core and inspired complete and utter frustration for me as the one at the receiving end of the written word. To make myself feel better, I imagined Smith suffering from a sudden attack of intense complacency or working under a strict deadline. I failed.
—Hira
Here's an intriguing novel that becomes more and more engrossing as the story unfolds, and which ends being actually very moving. Part historical biography (Daguerre basically invented photography, and Smith narrates his life and career through fascinating flashbacks), part bittersweet love story (Smith invents a rather tragic yet very romantic, never really fulfilled, love affair for Daguerre), this book is beautiful written, in a satisfying literary way that, somehow, fits the times and places it depicts (Paris in the first half of the XIXth century, for the most part). The discovery of photography is wonderfully told, and its effects on Daguerre (artistically and physically, since he became ill because of the use of mercury) make for great fiction. The last chapters, taking place in the countryside, during a time of civil unrest, and which reunite the three main characters of the story, are deeply felt and emotional.
—Denis
Smith's prose is irritating -- it is usually just competent, but occasionally it starts to pick up a rhythm and a beauty to it, only to abruptly fall flat. For instance:"He removed a speck of tobacco from his tongue and prepared to speak with some gravity. He believed in Louis Daguerre's apocalypse as an invention of the artistic mind, no different than a belief in God or Beauty or Piety. He enjoyed watching Louis, the pensioned scientist and artist, hatch and unfold inside this epic delusion, seeing his mind clamor at the fidget wheels of madness."The first sentence competent and descriptive, the second picking up a little, the third like lead. I cannot quite pinpoint why; perhaps something of the change in register. Also, I think, that I dislike it intensely when we are outside and then swoop in for just a sentence; why could Smith not /show us/ this enjoyment of watching Louis, this enjoyment of the 'hatching' and the 'clamoring' without having to just tell us in a sentence? Because the rest of the scene does not show us these things, there is nothing to support that sentence, it is just there because Smith wants the reader to know it, not because it is actually true. So deeply frustrating. This is only page 8, so I am not certain if I will continue reading.~~I like: "It was mid-autumn: the sky was oyster, the fields straw." He is good at environment, especially nature, but he has a tin ear for emotion. I think in my arrogance I would say to the author, every time you wish to say "he felt" and you do not mean the sensation of skin, find another way. Describe it happening rather than telling your reader what the feeling was. Or if you must tell, be direct: "he was angry" is more immediate than "he felt angry". Your sky and fields are immediate, your leaves "turning from claret to gold" are simple and vivid; why not the heart?~~I have now finished it. The end of the book, that is a love story rather than a meditation upon scientific discovery and historical change and all -- the love story is very good. So I did enjoy it in the end, and when he wrote the love, he wrote well. But the first part of the book was so unsatisfying, and why must it all come to love in the end? I am still uncertain about the potatoes. Yes, by the 1840s they were common. But in 1815, for a duke's cook to treasure them? It threw me out of the story. And yet I am sure the vast majority of readers just accepted it, and why not? As much as it annoyed me in the moment, it is really not such a flaw. But I do like to feel that the author I am reading has entered into the world, rather than standing outside using it as a metaphor.
—Cassandra
