Chris' Fish Place

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Paris is known as the City of Love.  We all know what that means; love and murder sometimes walk hand in hand after all.  In this book, Steven Levingston tells the tale of the murder of Toussaint-Augsutin Gouffe at the hands of his mistress Gabrielle Bompard and Michel Eyraud, another of her lovers.  That they killed was never disputed, whether or not Bompard knew what she was doing is a different question entirely.

          Bompard, as the blurb for this book makes clear, claimed that she was hypnotized into committing the crime.   Her lover claimed otherwise.  And the truth?  I have no idea.  Levingston might have an idea but he is very careful not to say

                It isn’t just the question of whether hypnotism caused Bompard to participate in the murder of one of her lovers.  It is also a question of whether society and background contributed in any to the events that followed.  Because Levingston goes into detail about the background of the murders one has to wonder if hypnotism is too facile an explanation.  A wild child to be sure, Bompard did not have any easy life.  How much the neglect and influence of older men who took her as their mistress is unclear, but one wonders if there was another type of hypnotism going on.

              The French seemed to think so, if the book is any indication.  The hypnotism of a man, or men, by the feminine charm of an attractive, young woman, a little devil for obviously as a mistress she was morally corrupt.  It makes for an interesting comparison, the more so because Levingston allows the reader to reach her own conclusion.

               In many ways, the idea of blame and culpability as an excuse for an act of violence is very relevant to our society today.  Whether it is the case of a murderess or even of a terrorist.  The question why is far more important to society in the long run than the question of who.  That is the reason why a crime from so long ago has impact on today.

            The writing in the book is easy to follow.  Furthermore, in the discussion of hypnotism and the culture of the time, the chapters could have become very dull; the sheer fact that they don’t is testament of Levingston’s writing.  This book would be an excellent book for a group read as the issues it raises are not only timely but connect to gender.