Emma Donoghue’s “The Paris Express” is a breathtaking achievement that pulls readers into the beating heart of Belle Époque France. This meticulously researched historical novel transforms the infamous 1895 Montparnasse train derailment—captured in a series of haunting photographs—into a kaleidoscopic portrait of humanity facing the precipice of fate. With clocklike precision, Donoghue weaves together the stories of over two dozen passengers and crew aboard the doomed train, creating an intricate human mosaic framed by the relentless ticking of railway time.
Journey Through Multiple Perspectives
What makes “The Paris Express” so remarkable is how Emma Donoghue orchestrates a complex narrative symphony through multiple viewpoints. The novel unfolds over a single day—October 22, 1895—as the train makes its fateful journey from Granville to Paris. Each section is marked with the precise time and location, creating a cinematic quality that builds tension with metronomic precision.
Among the vast cast are:
Mado Pelletier, a young anarchist carrying a homemade bomb, intent on murdering members of Parliament
Guillaume Pellerin and Victor Garnier, the driver and stoker who maintain an intimate relationship beyond their professional partnership
Blonska, an aging Russian émigré with a twisted spine and compassionate heart
Henry Tanner, an African-American painter navigating racial prejudice while pursuing artistic recognition
Marcelle de Heredia, a brilliant young physiologist of Cuban heritage
The guards Léon Mariette and Jean Le Go, representing contrasting approaches to railway duty
A diverse array of passengers from aristocrats to working-class citizens, each with their own secrets and aspirations
Donoghue’s ability to develop such fully realized characters in limited space is nothing short of miraculous. Each perspective shift feels natural, never jarring, as we move through the carriages. The characters’ distinct voices and intimate thoughts create the impression of peering through dozens of windows into private lives, all while the locomotive hurtles toward its inevitable conclusion.
Historical Precision Meets Literary Imagination
“The Paris Express” demonstrates Emma Donoghue’s remarkable gift for historical immersion. Every detail feels authentic—from the mechanics of steam engines to the cultural tensions of 1890s France. The novel expertly captures a moment of transition: anarchist bombings terrorize Paris, women struggle for education and autonomy, racial prejudice permeates supposedly enlightened society, and new technologies like moving pictures and automobiles herald profound change.
What sets Donoghue apart from many historical novelists is her ability to avoid anachronism while making her characters feel immediately accessible. These aren’t modern sensibilities in period costume but complex individuals shaped by their time yet recognizably human in their desires and contradictions.
Her extraordinary research (detailed in the Author’s Note) provides the foundation, but it’s Donoghue’s literary imagination that breathes life into historical figures like Henry Tanner, Alice Guy, and Max Jacob. Even more impressive is how she creates plausible fictitious characters who interact seamlessly with historical ones.
The novel occasionally shifts to the perspective of the train itself, allowing Donoghue to philosophize about fate, motion, and human insignificance without breaking the narrative’s momentum. These interludes add a lyrical quality that elevates the novel beyond historical recreation.
Structural Brilliance and Literary Craft
The structure of “The Paris Express” by Emma Donoghue is masterfully engineered. Each section is headed with a timestamp and location, creating a rhythmic pattern that mirrors railway schedules. Every chapter opens with a carefully selected epigraph relating to trains, time, or destiny, adding thematic resonance.
Donoghue employs vivid sensory details that make the experience immersive:
The “molten flow, the colour of fresh blood” of the engine’s furnace
The “tang of rot” in Mado’s room behind the greengrocery
The “gritty lip” Victor chews as the train runs behind schedule
The “thin metal handle” of Mado’s lunch bucket/bomb cutting into her fingers
The prose alternates between pragmatic description and lyrical insight with remarkable fluidity. Donoghue uses railway terminology with confidence, never overexplaining technical details but incorporating them naturally into characters’ thoughts.
Perhaps most impressively, she creates genuine suspense despite readers knowing from the outset that the train will crash. The tension comes not from wondering if the disaster will occur, but from becoming invested in the complex web of human connections that might be severed when it does.
Thematic Richness: Time, Fate, and Social Tensions
“The Paris Express” by Emma Donoghue is rich with interconnected themes that resonate far beyond its historical setting:
The inexorable passage of time: Railway time versus personal time, standardized schedules versus lived experience
The illusion of control: Despite technological advancement, human vulnerability persists
Social inequity: The strict class divisions physically embodied in the train’s carriages
The tension between individual destiny and collective fate: Personal stories intersect with historical forces
Technological revolution: The novel captures a world in transition, where old certainties give way to modern anxieties
The famous train crash becomes a potent metaphor for the collision between individual desires and larger historical forces. Each character rides the rails of their own hopes while simultaneously being carried toward a common destination.
Minor Shortcomings
Despite its considerable strengths, “The Paris Express” by Emma Donoghue occasionally suffers from its ambitious scope. The sheer number of perspectives sometimes dilutes emotional impact, particularly in the novel’s middle sections. A few secondary characters, despite Donoghue’s skillful sketching, remain somewhat underdeveloped.
Some readers might find the precise chronological structure occasionally restrictive, as it leaves little room for backstory. While Donoghue provides essential character information efficiently, the strict timeline limits opportunities for deeper exploration of certain characters’ histories.
The novel’s conclusion, while historically accurate, may strike some as anticlimactic given the extensive buildup. However, this artistic choice reflects Donoghue’s commitment to historical truth over sensationalism.
Comparisons to Donoghue’s Earlier Work and Peer Novels
“The Paris Express” represents an evolution in Emma Donoghue’s already impressive career. While retaining the intimate character portraiture that made “Room” so compelling, this novel demonstrates greater historical breadth than “Haven” or “The Wonder.” Like her pandemic novel “The Pull of the Stars,” it compresses significant human drama into a confined setting and limited timeframe, but with even more characters and interwoven storylines.
The novel invites comparison to other historical works centered on transportation disasters, such as Walter Lord’s “A Night to Remember” or David McCullough’s “The Johnstown Flood,” but Donoghue’s literary approach distinguishes her work. In its kaleidoscopic structure and thematic concerns, “The Paris Express” has more in common with sophisticated ensemble narratives like Michael Ondaatje’s “The English Patient” or Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See.”
Final Assessment: A Journey Worth Taking
“The Paris Express” confirms Emma Donoghue as one of our most versatile and accomplished historical novelists. She transforms a footnote of history into a profound meditation on human connection, fate, and the relentless forward motion of time. By populating her train with such a diverse array of vivid characters—from the celebrated to the forgotten—she creates a microcosm of Belle Époque society confronting mortality.
The novel rewards patient readers who can keep track of multiple storylines and appreciate subtle connections between characters. While occasionally sacrificing emotional depth for breadth, Donoghue ultimately delivers a rich reading experience that lingers in the imagination long after the final page.
With its meticulous research, complex characters, and thematic resonance, “The Paris Express” stands as one of Donoghue’s most ambitious and rewarding novels—a literary achievement that, like the famous photograph of the derailed locomotive, captures a singular moment while suggesting universal truths about the human condition.
For readers who appreciate immersive historical fiction that challenges as it entertains, “The Paris Express” offers a first-class journey into the past with profound implications for our present understanding of time, technology, and the tenuous connections that bind us together as we hurtle toward uncertain futures.