Joubert

Joubert is a celebrated mirror maker competing for work on the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, and the rival whose presence turns Louis Lucas de Nehon’s professional ambition into a personal feud. His reputation rests on both craft and novelty: his slightly concave mirrors are said to make their viewers appear thinner. But the commission that makes him powerful also brings him into open conflict with Louis, and their dispute ends in a duel from which Joubert does not return.

Identity and Reputation

Before Joubert appears in person, he is already established as the leading obstacle to Louis’s hopes. Serge describes him as talented and fashionable in Paris and Versailles, with a star on the rise. His standing is not merely that of a skilled artisan: he has been promised the concession for the Hall of Mirrors project, a position that gives him institutional advantage over Louis, who is still trying to prove what his own work can do.

Joubert’s most distinctive innovation is a mirror with a slightly concave surface, which he calls a skinny mirror. The altered reflection makes a person look thinner than usual. The design is ingenious enough to attract attention beyond the trade, and a rumor claims that even the King owns one, though he has no apparent need of it. The rumor is not confirmed, but its circulation conveys the reach of Joubert’s reputation: his work has become a subject of courtly talk as well as a practical product.

The Hall of Mirrors Competition

Joubert’s promised concession complicates Louis’s meeting with Charles Le Brun. Le Brun values the quality of Louis’s glass and wants to use pieces of that standard in the project, but he acknowledges that the concession has already been promised to another maker. When Louis identifies that maker as Joubert, Le Brun confirms the name. Louis knows of him, but the recognition does not soften the professional obstacle: Louis has demonstrated promise, while Joubert already holds the advantage of a commitment.

The competition is therefore unequal in a way that matters to the plot. Joubert’s reputation and access to the commission precede Louis’s work, while Louis’s opportunity depends on persuading Le Brun that his pieces deserve a place in the project. The two men are not shown competing through a direct comparison of finished mirrors in the same encounter. Instead, Joubert’s position is made palpable through what others say about him, the concession associated with his name, and Louis’s increasingly public fixation on the rivalry.

At a Palace of Versailles gathering, Joubert arrives with his wife. Louis watches him enter confidently, greeting people in the crowd; this public ease contrasts with Louis’s preoccupation and earlier desire to be working rather than attending a social function. Joubert’s elegance and assurance reinforce the impression of a man accustomed to notice. His wife’s striking purple dress also becomes the focus of Louis’s attention, though the ensuing humiliation is Louis’s doing, not evidence of any action by Joubert or his wife.

Public Conflict and the Duel

Later, Louis tells a guest that he is making special mirrors at Tourlaville for the Hall of Mirrors project. The guest begins to point out that the maker already associated with the work is Monsieur Joubert. Louis reacts sharply, denouncing Joubert before a crowd and attacking the supposed purpose of the skinny mirrors by tying them to his wife’s appearance. The insult converts a concealed professional resentment into a public confrontation.

Joubert responds by striking Louis and demanding satisfaction for the insult to himself and his wife. He offers Louis an opportunity to withdraw his words before the watching crowd, but Louis continues the exchange with a further taunt. The incident shows Joubert defending his honor as he understands it, while also making clear that Louis deliberately escalates rather than retreating. Joubert formally demands a duel and allows Louis to choose the weapon. They agree to meet at sunrise the day after the confrontation.

The duel takes place on a hillside. Louis has little experience with a flintlock and thinks of Ramsay, who is out of sight and whom he imagines watching and counting his steps. As Joubert advances, Louis turns and fires. Joubert falls, and Louis is grazed by Joubert’s shot. The scene presents Louis as firing the shot that brings Joubert down, but its aftermath complicates that apparent account: Louis later curses Ramsay for killing Joubert and imagines her satisfaction at having taken another life. The narrative thus records both the visible action and Louis’s later conviction, without resolving the discrepancy between them.

Death and Narrative Significance

Joubert’s death ends the contest abruptly. Until the duel, the central stakes are artistic recognition and control of the Hall of Mirrors concession; afterward, the rivalry has become irreversible and carries the consequence of a life lost. Louis is left with a wound and with the image of Joubert’s final disbelief recurring in his mind. His response is not simple triumph: he is horrified by the outcome and angry with Ramsay, whom he holds responsible despite having fired in the encounter himself.

Joubert’s role is brief but structurally decisive. He first exists as a name attached to a coveted commission, then as the innovator behind the skinny mirrors, and finally as a confident rival whose arrival makes Louis’s resentment visible. The duel collapses the distinction between professional competition and personal honor: the commission cannot be won through a craft contest once the conflict has become a matter of public insult and lethal satisfaction. The uncertainty surrounding the fatal shot further shifts attention from Joubert’s craft to the consequences of Louis’s actions and the account he gives himself afterward.