His emotions and reactions to the world around him are captured as if he is thinking them out loud. Nicolas has so much to say that he often crams it all in within the space of a sentence, for better or worse. The narrative is often told through run-on sentences, thus giving the stories the believability of being told by a young child. As most critics agree, the reader cannot help but fall in love with Nicolas. Again, given that this is all coming from the point-of-view of a young child, the narrative comes off as funny and engaging. Just as Louisette makes for a formidable foe, other characters, and the world-at-large, make for stark contradictions to Nicolas’s views on manhood and the roles of the sexes. The rest of the stories tend to follow the same narrative approach as “Louisette.” Nicolas and his template for how the world should work is consistently dashed by others. To make matters worse, she is continuously batting her eyelashes at their mothers, who view her as a model child. She is also extremely athletic, and is able to leap out of Nicolas’s way before he can decide on punching her or pulling her hair.

Louisette tells him he looks like a monkey, and outwits him with ease. With these imperatives under his belt, the entire story is comical as it unfolds, with Louisette being superior and Nicolas trying not to cry. Moreover, men are supposed to be dominant and superior to girls. And this, of course, angers him even more. Nicolas is almost brought to tears on a number of occasions during the visit. Yet his mother dresses him up (like a clown, opines Nicolas), warning him that he must make a good impression. Nicolas wants nothing to do with the girl or having tea as these are not manly endeavors. One of the most-liked stories is “Louisette,” where a young girl comes to Nicolas’s house with her mother for tea.

Le petit nicolas by rené goscinny