The TV presentation of the “Blue Beard” by Amélie Nothomb took place at Armenia TV’s Morning Show

According to YSU lecturer and translator Taguhi Blbulyan, the wife of the translator of the book, Ashot Blbulyan, Amélie Nothomb is distinguished by its uniqueness. “There is a reason why some say that her pen is sharper than the samurai sword. She writes very sharply, and her books express universal themes: interpersonal relationships, man-woman and parent-child. In this particular book, the concepts of man-woman, sin-temptation, life-death are not discussed, but confronted. Why do we say Nothomb's style is sharp? Because it confronts these concepts rather than describing them. The heroine of this book is not a girl trembling with fear in a fairy tale, but a woman standing firmly on her feet and fighting, demanding justice”.

According to Gnel Nalbandian, editor-in-chief of Newmag, Nothomb is one of the outstanding representatives of feminist literature. According to the editor, it is very important for Newmag to translate and present modern Western literature, in this case especially francophone literature, to the Armenian reader.

“Writing gives her deep pleasure, I feel that she cannot eat, drink, sit and write. She gets the pleasures of life from writing. Let the Armenian reader pay attention to the allusions and puns hidden within the dialogues. Someone hides, someone reveals. The novel's dialogues are built on the concept of concealment and reveal. I advise those who know French to put both works side by side. Read both French and Armenian, follow the quality of translation and editing, and enjoy. I want to believe that the readable Armenian text will also receive the aesthetic pleasure hidden in the French text. This work is an important text for the formation of thought and taste, it has a creative mind and taste. The text with the Armenian translation will be very useful for Armenian authors as well”.

Literary expert Ani Janikyan considers that Amélie Nothomb reinterpreted the fairy tale and turned it into a novel. She referred to the issues that concern her. “This is not the “Blue Beard” we know from the medieval fairy tale. This is about a seductive, accomplished, multifaceted developed man, a very interesting interlocutor, who knows all the secrets of attracting a woman. Nothomb's view is that we don't know what happened to the other women, that remains a mystery, and unlike the fairy tale, we see that the main character already has this information in the novel. She entered the house knowing that already. Every dialogue in the book is important and instructive. The novel is rich in messages and allusions”. 

She wrote “Blue Beard” in 2012. Amélie’s novels are bestsellers and have been translated into several languages. She is a laureate of the Belgian state award and a baroness: the title was awarded to her by King Philippe of Belgium.