Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Memory and Meaning
Love and Vulnerability
Freedom
Art, Creativity, and Expression
Wonder and Knowledge
Summary
Analysis
Paris, France. July 29, 1751. Addie is sitting in the Tuileries reading a book. It’s “scandalous” for a woman to sit alone, but Addie no longer minds the looks and whispers. Addie prefers novels, but she’s reading a philosophy book today because she wants to catch the eye of Madame Geoffrin, who will pass by her soon. Madame Geoffrin appears, right on cue, and Addie strategically bumps into her. Geoffrin scolds Addie—but then notices the book Addie is reading, Penses Philosophiques by Diderot, and is impressed. After many failed attempts to impress Geoffrin, Addie finally says all the right things, and Madame Geoffrin invites Addie to attend her salon in an hour—Diderot himself will be there, she tells Addie.
Madame Geoffrin was a real-life historical figure—a salonnière (salon host) known for hosting a weekly salon, or gathering, during France’s Enlightenment era. Salons were social gatherings where people met to discuss philosophical and artistic concerns of the day. Salons were unique in the central role that women (who were barred from receiving formal educations at the country’s most esteemed institutions) played in them. It makes sense that Addie, who has long been driven by an innate sense of wonder about the world and thirst for knowledge, should find her way into France’s intellectual society.
Themes
Addie joins Geoffrin and her handmaid on their walk. They part ways at rue Saint-Honore so that the salonnière can prepare for her salon. Geoffrin’s maid shows Addie upstairs and gives her a nicer dress to change into. Addie wanders downstairs for the salon. The first time she attended one of Geoffrin’s salons, she saw Remy Laurent conversing with Voltaire and Rousseau. It had been years since she last saw him, and his presence shocked her. He’d grown older—he was 51 then, and he was only 23 when Addie first met him. But Addie doesn’t see Remy today. Addie walks about the room, talks, and listens. She’s having a great time, and she should have known that Luc would arrive to ruin everything.
Addie’s curse puts her in the curious position of remaining invisible to others. Meanwhile, she’s able to watch people she’s known, like Remy Laurent, grow, age, and decay. Seeing Remy twice as old as he was the first time they met seems to have been a difficult experience for Addie. On the one hand, it reminds her of the blessing of her situation: it allows her to continue learning and growing well beyond what Remy, as a mortal, will manage to achieve. On the other hand, it reminds Addie of all her curse has forced her to lose out on: growing wiser, older, and more learned alongside others—that is, growing with them, as fellow humans, as opposed to growing past them, as an immortal entity.
Themes
Luc arrives, introducing himself to Madame Geoffrin as Monsieur Lebois. Then he gestures toward Addie and asks if Geoffrin knows her. Geoffrin has forgotten Addie by this point. So, when Luc announces that Addie is a thief—she is currently wearing one of Geoffrin’s own gowns—Geoffrin believes him and kicks Addie out of the salon. Luc follows Addie out and admits that making her life more difficult amuses him. Addie tells Luc that he can embarrass her all he wants, but the curse has also given her infinite possibilities to reinvent herself; she could walk back inside the salon and be a whole new person, if she wanted. To this, Luc retorts, “my word won’t fade as fast as yours.” He explains that “ideas are so much wilder than memories, so much faster to take root.”
This passage features an important quotation: Luc’s observation that "ideas are so much wilder than memories, so much faster to take root.” Luc means for this to antagonize Addie—he’s suggesting that though nobody at the salon will remember Addie, the “idea” that Luc planted in their minds (that she’s a thief) will linger, and they’ll unconsciously judge her because of it. Yet the importance of ideas—of intangible, inexpressible truths—seems to be something that Addie latches onto later in life. It shows up in the ways she forms relationships with artists, like Sam or Toby, to get some “idea” of herself to live on indefinitely through their art, even as their “memories” of her fade.
Themes
