All the Devils are Here

“It wasn’t simply the force of his personality and the immense wealth he was busy acquiring and wielding, but his willingness to use both power and money to destroy those he felt were crooks. Sometimes it took him years, but eventually, he brought them down. Power. And patience. Stephen Horowitz had command of both.”

This early characterization of Stephen Horowitz is a crucial foreshadowing of the rest of the novel. In Chapter 1, this quote is nothing but a description of a formidable businessman. However, by the end of the novel, this characterization is proven to be even more prevalent than Armand could have thought.

“He hadn’t actually thought of that bench as being in front of The Gates of Hell. He thought of it as the place where he’d found a measure of freedom from crushing grief. Where he’d found the possibility of peace. Where he’d found happiness, with lemon curd on his chin and icing sugar down his sweater.”

This quote emphasizes the juxtaposition that Penny develops between hell and heaven throughout the novel. Though the name of the location may be “The Gates of Hell,” it is possible to find peace in spaces named after chaotic places. This quote also foreshadows Gamache's intentions to protect and defend Stephen Horowitz (it was with Stephen in Paris that Gamache could find his way out of his own hell—the tragic loss of his parents as a child). The imagery of the sugary lemon curd is repeated throughout the book as a connection between young Gamache and older Gamache.