Collected 19th Century French Literature Reviews
These all came out of the 1001 Books project. The only way you are likely to come across 19th century French literature is either as the source material for a Broadway Show or Hollywood Movie.
Book Review: The Red and The Black by Stendahl (5/31/11)
The Red and The Black
Stendahl
a new translation by Catherine Slater
with an introduction by Roger Pearson
Oxford World's Classics
p. 2009
Published in 1831, Stendahl's, The Red And The Black was very much a novel "of the moment." Upon it's original publication it even carried the subtitle "A Novel of 1830." The Red and The Black is peppered with references to social and current events that were specific to the year 1830, and it is hard for a modern reader to grasp the shock that The Red and The Black was greeted with upon publication.
Stendahl tells the story of Julien: A carpenter's son from the provinces of France who rises and falls from prominence in a series of events that should ring a bell with any fan of Romanticism. Julien starts out as a tutor to the children of the local Mayor, bangs the Mayor's wife, goes off to a seminary, finds favor with the head Monk, gets a gig as the personal secretary to an aristocrat, bangs the daughter of his boss, and (spoiler alert) shoots the Mayor's wife after she exposes him to his boss as Julien is on the cusp of marrying the (pregnant) daughter of his boss, is tried for attempted murder, convicted and executed.
That's the plot, and it comes off to the modern reader a tad melodramatic, but what sticks is the style of the writing. Zola called The Red and the Black the first "modern novel" because of the way Stendahl was able to write from the perspective of all the main characters. Stendahl also deploys a kind of floating narrator in a manner that is totally at odds with the showy, ostentatious "master narrators" of 18th century fiction.
The Red and The Black is also notable in the way that Stendahl advances the narrative- he is closer to modern novelistic technique then any who come before him. Stendahl writes as an author who is not merely familiar with novelistic convention (as it stood in the mid 1820s) but an author who is trying to introduce reader friendly improvements. It makes for a pleasant and enjoyable read- far superior to other novels from the period.
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| Mia Wasikowska will be playing the title character in this years film version of Madame Bovary. Director is Sophie Barthes |
BOOK REVIEW
MADAME BOVARY
A new translation by Margaret Mauldon
bu Gustave Flaubert
Oxford World's Classic
Introduction Malcolm Bowie
Notes Mark Overstall
p. 2008
Personally, I care not a whit for the debates of disciplinary specialists, whether it be history, science or literature. In the area of literature, I'm really, really, not interested in issues surrounding the translation of French, German or Spanish books into English, all I say is "The Books that are translated, the better." I feel that way because there is a common "Indo European" poetics, that encompasses stylistic issues ACROSS the Indo European language family. This kinship is alluded to in the excellent introduction to this edition of Madame Bovary by Malcolm Bowie, "For many readers of the text in its original French the first inkling of [the] quality will come...from the fall of sounds and phrases within individual sentences...He also enjoys assonance, alliteration, rhyme and near-rhyme, and these features can descend as a seemingly gratuitous sound-texture upon any incidental observation."
Madame Bovary (6/27/11)
All of the devices identified by Bowie in his introduction ("assonance, alliteration, rhyme and near-rhyme." are COMMON poetic devices across Indo European tongues, testified in sources ranging from Homer's Odyssey, to Beowulf, to the Rg Veda. The mastery of these devices was necessary to transmit sacred knowledge prior to the invention of writing. One should not be surprised to learn that a novel considered a classic demonstrates here-to-fore undemonstrated mastery of those techniques, in a novel.
The question of writing style, and poetics, is what links literature to a separate discipline like song writing, since both share their own version of a common "poetics" drawn out of orally transmitted sacred traditions.
As I said, I don't care for these specialist debates, but I tend to find combining disciplines in a casual way interesting.
Madame Bovary HAS to be literature's most famous Adulteress. Probably her lack of popularity today among the 'kids' and college educated adults has to do with the prejudice against reading books in a translated language AND the general decline in interest in 19th century literature generally, because MAN Madame Bovary very much is the first "modern" or "realist" novel. Considering that my recent reads have included just-earlier published historical romance novels, Madame Bovary comes off like a New Yorker short story.
Madame Bovary was the "Howl" of it's day: Flaubert was tried in 1857 for heresy or whatever they charged "obscenity" as in mid 19th century France and was acquitted; after which Madame Bovary became a cause-scandale. Sounds a little bit more 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' then Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man, but modern critics will assure you that Flaubert is more about the substance then the flash of the infamous Miss Bovary.
I suppose the question I was left with is the relationship between the enduring popular status of Madame Bovary and the trial in January 1857. Bovary was published in serial form in 1856, so it had been "released" well before the trial. Bovary most certainly was a "pop phenomenon" in the modern sense of the word circa January-February 1857, one year after the book was published, but what was the relationship between "pop" and "serious" interest, and how did the environment in France at the time: Social, Political and Economic impact the relationship between "popular" readers and "serious" readers.
Oh snap it sounds like I just wrote someone's term paper for them.
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| Mia Wasikowska as Jane Eyre: She was sooooo good. |
All of the devices identified by Bowie in his introduction ("assonance, alliteration, rhyme and near-rhyme." are COMMON poetic devices across Indo European tongues, testified in sources ranging from Homer's Odyssey, to Beowulf, to the Rg Veda. The mastery of these devices was necessary to transmit sacred knowledge prior to the invention of writing. One should not be surprised to learn that a novel considered a classic demonstrates here-to-fore undemonstrated mastery of those techniques, in a novel.
The question of writing style, and poetics, is what links literature to a separate discipline like song writing, since both share their own version of a common "poetics" drawn out of orally transmitted sacred traditions.
As I said, I don't care for these specialist debates, but I tend to find combining disciplines in a casual way interesting.
Madame Bovary HAS to be literature's most famous Adulteress. Probably her lack of popularity today among the 'kids' and college educated adults has to do with the prejudice against reading books in a translated language AND the general decline in interest in 19th century literature generally, because MAN Madame Bovary very much is the first "modern" or "realist" novel. Considering that my recent reads have included just-earlier published historical romance novels, Madame Bovary comes off like a New Yorker short story.
Madame Bovary was the "Howl" of it's day: Flaubert was tried in 1857 for heresy or whatever they charged "obscenity" as in mid 19th century France and was acquitted; after which Madame Bovary became a cause-scandale. Sounds a little bit more 'Lady Chatterley's Lover' then Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man, but modern critics will assure you that Flaubert is more about the substance then the flash of the infamous Miss Bovary.
I suppose the question I was left with is the relationship between the enduring popular status of Madame Bovary and the trial in January 1857. Bovary was published in serial form in 1856, so it had been "released" well before the trial. Bovary most certainly was a "pop phenomenon" in the modern sense of the word circa January-February 1857, one year after the book was published, but what was the relationship between "pop" and "serious" interest, and how did the environment in France at the time: Social, Political and Economic impact the relationship between "popular" readers and "serious" readers.
Oh snap it sounds like I just wrote someone's term paper for them.
Les Liasons Dangereuses by Choderlos De Laclos (5/21/12)
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| Choderlos de Laclos BOOK REVIEW Les Liaisons Dangereuses by Choderlos De Lacos Translation by Douglas Parmee Oxford World's Classics Edition p. 1782 this edition 1995 This is the second to last book I have left in the 1700s section of the 2006 edition of the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die. The last book is Jean-Jacques Rousseaus' epistolary novel, Julie or the New Heloise. Mentally, I'm already engaging the 19th century, so it's hard not to see Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 19th century terms, anachronistic as that may be. Les Liaisons Dangeruses is an epistolary novel written by an Author who was well familiar with early 18th century examples, notably Pamela and Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. The awareness is so entrenched that the Vicomte de Valmont (the John Malkovich character in the movie.) actually references plot points from Clarissa, specifically the scene where Clarissa is essentially drugged and raped by her would-be suitor. Laclos' epistolary novel is much more self-consciously stylish then Richardson's pioneering work. Both Pamela and Clarissa are close to a thousand pages long, and Laclos brings it in at under four hundred pages. Laclos presents much the same critique of the French Enlightenment as De Sade, without all of that nasty obscenity. As such, it's easy to see why Les Liasons Dangereuses has maintained such favor with Audiences all over the world as an example of 18th century French literature. Father Goirot/Le pere Goirot by Honoré de Balzac (6/1/12)
Book Review Father Goirot "La pere Goirot" by Honore de Balzac p. 1835 Public Domain Books 2004 English Translation Balzac's witty observation of contemporary French life, circa 1835, is a stylistic breath of fresh air in the plodding, historically bound Literary scene of the early/mid 19th century. Historic novels, Gothic novels, and historic-gothic novels had run their course after dominating the Audience for Literature for two decades. Honoré de Balzac was developing a style of novel that would come to fruition in the next generation of Authors, when Gustav Flaubert would revolutionize the novel with Madame Bovary. To call Honore de Balzac is both true and misleading, every great/popular Novelist from Sir Walter Scott until Edgar Allan Poe is what you would call a "realist" relative to 18th century novels. Being a Realist meant "being a good Novelist" back then. What is different is the way Honoré de Balzac depicts contemporary life in a "run down boarding house" at the edge of Paris. As far as influences go, it's a given that Honoré de Balzac was a starting point for Flaubert, and later for Marcel Proust. Honoré de Balzac was from a generation of writers that had witnessed the Romantic revolution in Germany and had thus absorbed the fin de sicle malaise that the German romantics of Goethe's era pioneered. Balzac was also aware of developments in the English novel. Father Goirot is much closer to the social concerns of Jane Austen then the historical-political themes of Sir Walter Scott. Father Goirot/La pere Goirot is a suitably introduction to Honoré de Balzac. Published at the end of the period between 1831 and 1835, when Balzac published nine novels, with three in 1835 alone, there is a consciousness of the market for the novel that continues to make reading Father Goirot a pleasurable experience in 2012. For example, one of the "bits" involved a spirited discussion involving use of the word "rama" based on the recent "invention" of the diorama- similar to the kind of jokes a comic might make today. Father Goirot is best summarized as a "modern" re-telling of King Lear. Some of the plot devices are a little, shall we say, Dickensian, and perhaps that makes sense- Balzac's work was serialized in a way similar to Dickens. Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac (7/3/12)  Book Review Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac p. 1833 Terrible Free Amazon Kindle version- don't read it. From a technical perspective this is the worst ebook I've ever read because it actually omits portions of the text- specifically the text of the letters between the two main characters at the end of the book. Eugénie Grandet is a cautionary tale about the perils of free books. Honoré de Balzac is a transitional figure between the less self-conscious fiction of the 18th century and the more morally complex works of the 19th century. Honoré de Balzac was a prolific writer- like Sir Walter Scott, he wrote to clear debt. (1) Like Sir Walter Scott, or for that matter, Charles Dickens, there is a lot of Balzac to choose from. His main activity occurred between 1830 and ended just before 1850. Eugénie Grandet was actually written the same year as Le Père Goriot, another work that Balzac placed onto the 2006 edition of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die. That is at least one similarity between Honoré de Balzac and Charles Dickens, who wrote Oliver Twist and The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby at the same time only four years later. I think the best way to explain this is a rise in the size of the available Audience for Novels between 1830 and 1850. The Audience has "arrived" by 1850. (2) Dickens and Balzac are fortunate in that they were writing Novels at the right time, and had the right disposition to take advantage of an upward surge in Audience size for their work. Their success is a demonstration of what a combination of good work ethic and good timing in terms of size of potential Audience can achieve for a working Artist seeking to earn a living from his/her work. NOTE (1) 1001 Books To Read Before You Die, 2006 edition, entry on Eugénie Grandet by Honoré de Balzac (2) Victorian High Noon The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) by Victor Hugo (7/6/12)
Book Review The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Notre-Dame de Paris) by Victor Hugo published in 1831 Read on a Kindle I think Victor Hugo has a bad rap because the current popular versions of his two enduring hits (this book and Les Miserables) are a Disney movie and a Broadway musical. I can say that the Disney movie does not do the novel a whole lot of justice. The novel is super dark, set in Paris in the 15th century, Victor Hugo is doing his best take on a Sir Walter Scott novel: historical fiction. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was published at the tail end of Sir Walter Scott's prolific 1820s. The Hunchback of Notre Dame was translated twice in 1833, once by noted literary scenester William Hazlitt. There are also six major new translations in the 19th and 20th century. The enduring international popularity of this work lies in the "Orientalization" of Paris by a Parisian, a kind of self-colonization where the Artist is knowingly catering to Audience taste. The key, of course, is setting The Hunchback of Notre Dame in the past. There is no ignoring the clunky narrative that is a hallwark of Sir Walter Scott and his followers- the reader is treated to a street by street description of Paris that would be awkward in A TRAVEL BOOK- it takes up 50 plus pages of text in the Kindle edition. The sheer length of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is off-putting to a modern reader, but the digressive/documentary interludes kind of ring a bell for people who like David Foster Wallace or William Vollmann. At the same time I can easily see why Disney chose to make a "Disney Version"- hey, it's public domain material. Book Review: The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas (7/6/12) BOOK REVIEW The Three Musketeers/ Les Trois Mousquetaires by Alexandre Dumas p. 1844 in serial form Kindle Edition Alexandre Dumas' career is a case in point in the explosion in Audience size for Novels (in serial form) during the 1840s and 1850s. He is well known for taking a "work shop" approach for his Novels, i.e. using helpers who did things like, oh, I don't know... write the books that were published under his name. In this way he is a very "modern" figure. Dumas also had a Romantic artist side- he was of mixed race ancestry, and spent a life in flux with episodes of high living, political activity and what today we would call Hemmingway/Byron-esque adventures. Alexandre Dumas is an excellent example of an Artist who was working in one field and moved to a related but different field, with a larger Audience. Alexandre Dumas literally explodes into the nascent field for serialized novels at the end of the 1830s. He wrote a lot of books but clearly The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Christo and The Man In the Iron Mask, which is itself merely the part of a sequel to the original The Three Musketeers, are the three that most often stand in as his representatives on Canonical lists. The very popularity of The Three Musketeers virtually ensures problems "in the translation." The biggest problem is probably the sheer scope of output by Alexandre Dumas and his little elves. The Three Musketeers, by itself, is extremely long, and the best naughty parts are excised in most English language translations. I wasn't particularly keep in the edition that I read for free on my Kindle, but I've read enough Sir Walter Scott influenced fiction to recognize the historical/romance/adventure novel genre in fine form. The Three Musketeers, written in the 1840s, is set in the 1620s or thereabouts: In the midst of the Wars of Religion that convulsed all of Europe. Alexandre Dumas was a political guy- he was intimately involved in multiple shifts in power in France during his life time, and he came from a political family- his father was a General who fell out of favor, and The Three Musketeers isn't just a dumb adventure story- even though that is how it is most often received. I think, properly treated, The Three Musketeers presages the spy or espionage novel more then it echoes the historical romance model of Sir Walter Scott. Right after I read The Three Musketeers I watched the disastrously bad 2011 film of the same name. It is notable in that it stars Clive Owen, Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovocich as the main villain, the cleverly named Milady. Which I think is her actual name? I don't know, I feel that is a joke of some kind, or it could be that they just call her that as a term of respect and he uses it as a literary device. One success of the 2011 The Three Musketeers film is the costumes of Milady:
Generally speaking, the costumes are excellent and everything else about the 2011 movie is terrible. Hilariously, they set it up for a sequel at the end, which is fine- Dumas himself wrote sequels to the original book- it's hilarious because WHO WOULD MAKE A SEQUEL TO THIS FLOP OF A FILM. Nice try, Hollywood. Illusions Perdues/Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac (7/23/12)
Book Review Illusions Perdues - Lost Illusions by Honoré de Balzac published in serial form 1843 Honoré de Balzac is the first "serious" French novelist to emerge out of the French literary scene of the mid 19th century. The fact that Balzac's work was being published alongside the Historical Romances written by Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo makes his serious, socially minded fiction seem all the more impressive for its time. Although split into three parts, the second and main part, explicitly deals with the market for Artistic products- i.e. Novels and Poetry, during the 1820s in Paris. This world has much in common with Artistic markets today, and Balzac deserves credit as being the first Novelist to describe a market for Artistic output in deal. The meat of Illusions Perdues describes the rise and fall of Lucien Chardon, "one of Balzac's distinctive type of ambitious, talented young men" (1) in the literary market of Paris. The main action is caused by Lucien's abandonment of "serious" Art- i.e. his historical novel that he wrote "in the manner of Sir Walter Scott" and his book of poetry, for the fast women and easy money of theater and literary criticism. Certainly, that last bit should be enough to elicit a guffaw from a modern day critic/blogger/writer- could anything be less remunerative then reviewing theater performances and novels? I suppose the modern day version would be a writer who takes a job working in public relations for a publishing house. The narrative of the second part of Illusions Perdues is familiar to anyone who has read/seen the movie of more recent versions like Bright Lights, Big City or Less Then Zero. It is a kind of self-consciousness that anticipates many of the themes of modernity, but Illusions Perdues is not a very modern Novel. It shares many similarities with the Historical Romances a la Sir Walter Scott that it describes as part of the plot. Lengthy descriptive passages reveal the serial/time pressed nature of the production of Illusions Perdues, and Hollier calls fragmentary production of books "typical" for Balzac during this period. Illusions Perdues assumes that Critics and Artists are the same people, which, again, sounds pretty funny to someone reading it today. Given the come-uppance that Lucien Chardon receives during the course of Illusions Perdues, it is fair to say that Honoré de Balzac was in sympathy with the characters of the Novel who criticize Lucien's behavior for being un-Romantic and thus not suitable behavior for an Authentic Artist. NOTE (1) Denis Hollier, A New History of French Literature(Harvard University Press), pg. 693. La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas (7/24/12) Book Review La Reine Margot by Alexandre Dumas originally published in 1845 It helps to imagine Alexandre Dumas as a mid 19th century analogue to a George Lucas or Steven Spielberg, in that they receive credit for works that represent the efforts of more then one person. Lucas and Spielberg receive most of their credit for movies they direct, and of course, a finished film involves everyone from the Actors to the post-production Editors to obtain a final result, and then almost all of the Artistic Authorship "credit" goes to the director of the film. Alexandre Dumas worked in a similar fashion, using a "work-shop" of talented elves to help him produce the works that were credited to his name. La Reine Margot- published in the first blush of Alexandre Dumas' productive career as a novelist, is a notable example of that method of Authorship, because an entire first draft was written by a historian, and then Dumas went over the draft and added dialogue and stylistic flourishes. To give you some idea of Alexandre Dumas' productivity during the 1840s, La Reine Margot was published in 1845, The Three Musketeers in 1844 and The Count of Monte Cristo between 1845 and 1846. In this progression, La Reine Margot was the book that really solidified his Artistic reputation as a master of the "Historical Romance" style invented by Sir Walter Scott. Unlike The Three Musketeers, La Reine Margot is involved in the actual facts of the Religious Wars of France in the 16th Century. The events of La Reine Margot center around the real-life St. Bartholmew's massacre, which involved Parisian Catholics massacring visiting and local Huguenot Protestants on the occasion of the marriage of the Huguenot Henry to the Catholic Margot. Other historical characters include the villain, Catharine D'Medici and the King of France, Charles IX of the Valois monarchy. Dumas was not the only French novelist to find this period interesting. In the 17th century Madame de Layfayette published an anonymous romance called The Princess of Montpensier (which was recently made into a French language film) that has a substantial overlap in time and characters. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (11/19/12)
Book Review Les Misérables by Victor Hugo p. 1862 I've read some long books in my perambulations through the literature of the 18th and 19th century but none that FELT as long as Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. I've literally been reading this book- on the ole' Kindle- for over a month. By virtue of numerous film/tv adaptations and one incomparably famous musical adaptation, Les Misérables has unquestionably earned a place as one of the most popular novels of all time, though after actually reading the book I questions whether even 1 percent of the people who are familiar with the musical or one of the film adaptations have actually read the book.
Published in 1862, Les Misérables take place earlier in the 19th century, telling the now well familiar tale of the convict Jean ValJean, his adopted daughter Cosette, her would-be lover Marius and of course the immortal Inspector Javert. As a bonus, each of the five books that comprises Les Misérables contains not only the central narrative of Valjean/Cosette but also lengthy passages about historical events and philosophy. These passages set Hugo apart from other contemporary writers like Charles Dickens.
Generations of critics, scholars and fans have pointed to the "universality" of Les Misérables as being key to its enduring success with a global audience. Hugo was a prolific author of poetry and prose, fiction and non-fiction. Hugo was living in exile- in England- during the period when he wrote Les Misérables and it's hard not to impute some of the universal appeal of this book to his awareness of the success of novels like David Copperfield (1850), Bleak House (1853), Hard Times (1854), North and South (1855) and A Tale of Two Cities (1859.)
To compare the style of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (published in 1831), his other big hit novel, with the style of Les Misérables is to see growth in the scope of what a Novel could accomplish within a historical setting. The Hunchback of Notre Dame is squarely under the influence of Sir Walter Scott and his historical novels. While Les Misérables also takes place in the past, it is much, much more then a historical tale with contemporary political undertones. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo is a novel of ideas and more resembles Moby Dick and War and Peace then what Dickens was turning out. The initial publication was a huge hit with the Audience- on an international scale- but less so with critics, who took issue with a number of aspects- the sentimentality, republican sympathies and the "immorality" of the characters. Therese Raquin by Emile Zola (4/12/13)
Book Review Therese Raquin by Emile Zola p. 1867 Am I only the one who gets Balzac and Zola confused all the time? Balzac: first, Zola: second. Therese Raquin is typically regarded as Zola's first hit and the book that made his reputation. The titular character is the adopted niece of a wealthy-ish old woman who has a son, Camille. Therese and Camille get married because his mom insists on it. They move to Paris and Camille's buddy Laurent begins an affair with Therese. Then they murder Camille together and spend the rest of the book feeling bad about their decision. I was honestly pretty bummed about writing this review until I figured out there is a new film adaptation coming out this year starring Elizabeth Olsen. Once I figured that out- after I finished the book I was like, "Damn- relevancy." Nothing draws an Audience to a book review of a 150 year old book like a filmed adaptation made in the United States starring an up and coming or a list actress. Clocking in at a brisk 200 pages in the Oxford World's Classics edition I read, Therese Raquin by Emile Zola makes for a brisk read- a welcome contrast to many of the other weighty hits from the late 1860s. Zola was at the very beginning of the intrusion of "ism" style thinking making its way into the novel in a self-conscious, programatic way. Even though English and French authors had been experimenting with including "social concerns" into the marriage/inheritance plot infatuated world of the early Victorian Novel, Zola was different because he espoused literary naturalism as a "cause." This kind of like the edge of a cliff for the Novel as an art form. I'm more inclined to see early literary Modernism as the wrong path vs. a step up from the Novel during the mid to late Victorian period. Thus, Zola as a "realist" and precursor to Modernism is already headed down this wrong turn for the Novel. In case you are wondering, I am not looking forward to reading Henry James. Not one bit. Can't wait for the movie!!! L'Assommoir by Emile Zola (6/11/13)
Book Review L'Assommoir by Emile Zola p. 1877 Can you feel the approach of Modernism? Zola could. His novels were revolutionary in their frank depiction of the life of the contemporary working class- certainly not a scene that was frequently depicted in English novels of the same time period. Unlike Russian novels of the 1870s, Zola's working class characters are not disaffected intellectuals slumming with they poors, they are just regular old working class folk.
The movement of the novel down towards the gutter is almost synonymous with literary modernism, but in 1877 it was a controversial move, particularly when the working class folks in question were a bunch of failed, dissolute drunkards. The title literally translates to "The Dram." In my 2006 edition of 1001 Books To Read Before You Die they call it "Drunkard," and within the pages of the book L'Assommoir is the actual name of the bar where everyone drinks themselves to death. Zola's frank depiction of substance abuse, sexual subjects and physical abuse may have been controversial in its day but to a contemporary reader the sensation has been dulled by a century and a half of virulent preaching against the evils of substance abuse among the working (and wealthy.) I glanced at an Amazon review that said L'Assommoir was to thank/blame at least partially for the Abolition movement. Not sure whether that is a true fact or not, but certainly by 1877 we are well within the time frame when novelists wrote with the avowed purpose of drawing attention to a cause or causes. Gervaise Macquart is the center of L'Assommoir. At the beginning, she is a young girl with two kids (she had the first at 15 if the translation is accurate) and a dissolute husband. He dumps her and she finds another guy who is industrious. They have a few good years together and she opens her own business as a laundress. Then the second husband is injured when he falls from a roof. (he works on roofs) After he recovers, he too becomes a drunkard. She keeps going but starts to lose the plot financially speaking, and then she too slips into drink, and everyone ends up insane, then dead. Gooooood times. At least L'Assommoir is short. The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert (6/27/13)
Book Review The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert p. 1874 Translated by Lacadio Hearn Introduction by Michel Foucault Modern Library Paperback Classics Man all I had to see was "Introduction by Michel Foucault" to know that I was in for a raft of pretentious modernist bullshit. The Temptation of Saint Anthony is one night in the life of the famous early Christian anchorite/hermit. In 192 pages, Anthony is tormented by a variety of different spectres: fraility, the seven deadly sins, heresiarchs, martyrs, magicians, the gods, science, food, lust and death, monsters and of course, metamorphosis. The text has a dreamlike/surreal/poetic quality radically different from the naturalist/realist prose of Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education. The Temptation of Saint Anthony was a book that Flaubert worked on his entire life. At one point it was supposed to be a play, and that early form shapes the resulting text, which, at times, reads exactly like a play. The translation by American Lacadio Hearn is also worth noting- his was the first English language translation, but prevailing mores in America prevented anyone from actually PUBLISHING his translation until the 1920s, and even then lines explicitly mentioning sexuality were cut out. They have been restored here. The Temptation of Saint Anthony is perhaps interesting as a reference point for future works of surrealism and psychatry, but as a novel it is barely. Obviously, Flaubert's prowess as a novelist is beyond question, and The Temptation of Saint Anthony is more a labor of love by a great author as supposed to an epic stand alone classic work. You have to be interested in Flaubert and the subject of 19th century literature (and 20th century literature) to read The Temptation of Saint Anthony. Nana by Emile Zola (7/9/13) Book Review Nana by Emile Zola p. 1880 Penguin Classics edition Interesting fact about Nana is that it was the first-ish French novel to be promoted through the use of "modern" techniques of mass market advertising. And it worked: Nana sold 55,000 copies in the first day of release. That's... a lot of books. Nana is part of Zola's 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series. This was his attempt to to tell "The natural and social history of a family during the second empire." The character, Nana has a small part in an earlier volume of Les Rougon-Macquart, L'Assommoir. L'Assommoir ends just as Nana begins her life on the streets, when Nana the novel picks up. The plot of Nana is essentially the rise and fall and rise and death of a famous prostitute, but the fun is the details. Specifically, the large crowd intensive set peaces, which read like Zola had found inspiration in the locales of Tolstoy's Anna Karenina. It's hard not to read the epic horse racing scene in the middle of Nana and not recall the similarly epic steeplechase scene in Anna Karenina. Novels are beginning to get majestic by the mid to late Victorian period, and I know from reading authors like Don Delillo and Pynchon that the epic set piece remains a favorite of Novelists down to the present day. Other then the crowd scenes, Nana is a nasty bit of work. She literally ruins every man that she touches and lives a life of senseless waste and debauchery. If she came back today she would no doubt be doing porn- that's the vibe of Nana. Not really a fan, and 450 plus pages, it's not a particularly easy or fast read. I wouldn't recommend it, especially if you've read Anna Karenina and remember the steeplechase scene in that book. Bouvard and Pecuchet by Flaubert (7/11/13)
Bouvard and Pecuchet by Flaubert p. 1881 Penguin Classics Edition Translation by Dr. A.J. Krailsheimer I've developed quite the appreciation for Gustave Flaubert and his lifestyle. Flaubert declared himself "disgusted" by bourgeois life and at the earliest opportunity he repaired to the countryside to live in isolation, supported only by his trust fund, of course. From his little cottage he wrote the books that secured his everlasting fame, Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education, but he also wrote a couple of non classics that are interesting because they represent the life long obsessions of a very interesting author. The first is the previously reviewed Temptation of Saint Anthony, which is a surreal fantasia concerning a night in the life of the reclusive St. Anthony (he lived in the Egyptian desert for 20 plus years, in a cave.) The other is this book, Bouvard and Pecuchet which is supposed to be his denunciation of the bourgeois and their stupid obsessions with books at the expense of common sense and experience. Flaubert's obsessive hatred of the bourgeois can only be described as a kind of projected self loathing. I'm not the kind of guy to attribute artistic genius to repressed homosexuality but you can't read about Flaubert and his lifestyle without at least wondering if maybe, just maybe, he was gay and couldn't deal with it. Bouvard and Pecuchet are two Parisian clerks with a shared fondness for books and knowledge. When one receives an inheritance they jointly decide to go "back to the land" in a manner familiar to anyone who knows anything about 19th century intellectuals/bourgeois. Once on the land, they make a hash of it, lose all their money and lose interest in agriculture. In turn they embrace science, then archaeology, literature, politics, love, philosophy/religion and education. They fail at each step and the purpose of the book seems to be to expose the stupidity that underlies all attempts at obtaining true knowledge from the pages of a book. Bouvard and Pecuchet was left unfinished, so there is no ending only a sketch that Flaubert left behind. The obsessive reading of the principle characters struck me close to home. After all, what is this blog but an effort to achieve what Bouvard and Pechuchet set out to achieve. I will likely pursue additional information about Flaubert- I hear his letters were quite interesting. That's probably where I will begin. Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassant (7/25/13) Book Review Bel Ami by Guy de Maupassante p. 1885 If Bel Ami was a Lifetime movie it would be called "Confessions of a Gigolo," because that is what Bel Ami is all about. The title of Bel Ami is derived from one of the pet names given to the main character, Georges Duroy, who is a charming journalist who gets all the ladies, because I guess journalists were cool in Paris in the 1880s. Can you imagine a character like that today? It's laughable. Amazingly, Bel Ami was made into a film just last year and it allegedly starred Robert Pattinson, Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas. How did I miss that in the theater? I don't believe that movie actually exists. It's interesting that the last three books in order: Against the Grain, Marius the Epicurean and Bel Ami have all moved away from the standard marriage/inheritance plot of the English Victorian novel. When you include contemporary writers like Zola and the Russians, it is clear that the mid 1880s are a far different scene for literature than the 1870s- a decade of transition, if you will. Even the marriage plot novels- Henry James, The Portrait of a Lady, have a knowing and self aware feel. Germinal by Emile Zola (8/6/13) Book Review Germinal by Emile Zola p. 1885 Let me put one thing out there: If you consider Germinal to be Zola's greatest work then I hate you. There I said it. Germinal has two things going for it: One, it is fucking raw as shit- the main characters are coal miners who fuck and shit and fight for the entire book- often in graphic detail. One of the main female characters is essentially raped while she is still waaay underage- like hasn't hit puberty yet and the characters in Germinal are generally depicted as behaving one step above animals. Two, Germinal is political, perhaps the first avowedly "working class" focused novel. Although many Russian novelists had already broached the subejct, none really dig into it- to the point where I'm certain that Germinal is the first novel centered around a labor action- I can think of one Trollope or Eliot novel where discontented workers are a plot point, but the action is limited to a single confrontation outside a factory. Here, we get a "naturalist"/realist look at actual coal miners doing actual coal mining. Personally, I think Germinal represents the first step down a long, dark path, that of the "political novel." I understand the post-modern argument that all novels are political in some sense, but avowedly political novels, particularly those that focus on the working classes of the 20th century, are particularly burdensome from an aesthetic standpoint. The idea that a novel has to have political content to be "important" is so dumb and wrong headed that the prospect of reading what is to come in this department makes me cringe. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Joseph Conrad fan and a HUGE George Orwell fan, and I love what they do with politics, but I'm talking about the Zola/Steinbeck workers-in-the-fields genre here. Criticisms aside, it's fair to say that Germinal is the most popular of Zola's novels as far a general (read undergraduate students taking a European literature survey course) is concerned. And it does pack a bawdy punch, and the mining portions are well written and hold your attention. But the politics...moooaaaannn. On a related note, I am within striking distance of closing out the 19th century. Maybe 20 books left? The 20th century is like 800 books though, so it is going to take a while. But of course now I get three Thomas Hardy novels in a row. That guy must have never stopped writing. Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant (8/8/13) Book Review Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant p. 1888 Another head scratching inclusion on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I'm not complaining because Pierre et Jean checks in at something close to 100 pages so it takes about an hour and a half to read, but really, why? Why include Pierre et Jean? The accompanying essay in my book says that it represents a turning point away from the Naturalism of Zola/Balzac towards a greater concern with psychology and human relationships but um hello, Gustave Flaubert? Madame Bovary came out in 1856. Pierre and Jean are a couple of brothers from a well off family, one planning to be a lawyer, the other a doctor. When an old "family friend" unexpectedly leaves his estate to the lawyer, the other brother is pissed off, and, as it turns out, the lawyer son is actually the real son of the dead guy, pathos ensues. It's a quick, breezy read, but hardly what I would call a classic, and certainly not one of the 1001 Books I should read prior to death. Even if you are talking about the novels of Guy de Maupassant (he is better remembered for his short stories) Pierre et Jean places a far distant second to Bel Ami, which at the very least, is an a la mode tale of fast living and loose women. The Beast Within by Emile Zola (8/20/13)
Book Review The Beast Within by Emile Zola p. 1890 Penguin Classics Edition Translated by and with an Introduction and Notes by Roger Whitehouse There is something exciting about Zola and his novels. Maybe it's the gusto with which he depicts the physicality of life. God bless the Victorian novelists of England but they are a prudish bunch. Zola meanwhile, will describe a good fuck, a good fight, a good murder. And if it's murder you are after, The Beast Within has plenty. I believe The Beast Within is the last listed Zola novel. While I prefer him to a Thomas Hardy, it's hard not to shake the feeling that the naturalist/realist approach was a literary wrong turn. It represents a point of departure into modernity where art ceases to be concerned with producing beauty and where it begins to carry a political agenda. The assimilation of art by political agendas ends up with Leni Riefenstahl and Socialist Realism. Roger Whitehouse's introduction points out that prior to becoming a full time writer, Zola was the head of publicity for a publishing house in Paris, and his career, particularly his novels, appears to be informed by some of the truisms of the advertising that have become commonplace today, "Sex sells;" "If you want to sell the steak you need the sizzle." ETC. Zola's break-out novel was Therese Raquin, in which sex and violence figure prominently, but Therese Raquin is a a walk in the park compared to the violence/murder obssessed story of The Beast Within. The characters fight, and fuck and die. There is not just one but two horrific train crashes, one of which is fully described. Zola treats the reader to several graphic depictions of murder, the main female character is repeatedly raped as a child by one of the victims. It's enough to make Quentin Tarantino blush. At the same time Zola doesn't stint on the description. The Beast Within is focused on the doings surrounding the train and people who work on the train- the murders mostly happen on or near a train. He was a nut for research and it shows by his accurate descriptions of life on the rail road in the mid 19th century. Zola was using the train as a metaphor for progress before it became a hoary cliche. The only similar usage of the train in a novel that I've read so far is in Anna Karenina, and there the railroad is merely a setting, not a central metaphor for life, the universe and everything. Zola's characters are so universally miserable it's hard to muster much sympathy for any of them, and perhaps that is a cue that his universe is a wrong turn in the world of literature. You read the Beast Within because it is eminently readable and because the action is compelling, in the same way you would watch a Hollywood Blockbuster but not really give a shit about what happens to the hero. In fact, The Beast Within is a novel without a hero. All the characters are perpetrators of violence, even the victims. It's a dark world and it is only going to get darker. A Woman's Life by Guy de Maupassant (10/1/13) Book Review A Woman's Life by Guy de Maupassant Penguin Classics p. 1883 To read classic literature is to remind oneself, constantly, that human capacity for self inflicted misery is infinite. While the "happy ending" is not unknown in the realm of the 19th century fiction, it does seem like a disproptionate number of late 19th century Novels deal with misery and failure. Here, we have another example: Guy de Maupassant's, A Woman's Life, about a convent educated French noblewoman who marries poorly, raises a terrible, terrible son and ends up miserable and alone. I believe this is the third de Maupassant novel I've read (Pierre and Jean and Bel Ami are the other two.) However both of those books were read on my Kindle so is Penguin Classics edition was the first time I'd read a biography of Guy de Maupassant. Turns out his Mom was chummy with Flaubert, and it is now clear why his work reminds me so much of Flaubert. De Maupassant was tremendously prolific, though mostly in the realm of the short-story. His most well known novels- the three mentioned here- share common traits of deep pessimism about human nature coupled with a constant attention to the details of prose fiction...much like Flaubert. All three of the included Maupassant novels are short. You could read A Woman's Life, Bel Ami and Pierre and Jean in an afternoon. I believe A Woman's Life is the longest of the three and it still checks in at 199 pages. The combination of a well defined prose style with a deeply pessimistic outlook about human existence is a combination that would find great favor with the modernists, so it's no surprise that Maupassant has maintained his status as a classic author. His small details of human misery stick with you. In the last few months I've often found myself contemplating scenes from Bel Ami, and I don't doubt that the same will be true of A Woman's Life. It's amazing the sheer variety of ways that human beings can make themselves unhappy, but the lesson of A Woman's Life is that if you are convent educated, do not marry literally the first guy you meet after you get out of the convent. It is easy to recommend the novels of Maupassant because they are so easy to read, so brief and so universal in their themes of human relationships unraveled. Under Fire: the story of a squad (Le Feu: journal d'une escouade) by Henri Barbusse (3/18/14)
Book Review Under Fire: the story of a squad (Le Feu: journal d'une escouade) by Henri Barbusse p. 1916 You would expect a novel about trench warfare on the Western Front during World War I, and Under Fire: the story of a squad, is dark indeed. Under Fire is typically called the "first" novel about World War I, and considering that it was actually published while the war was still happening, I'd say it's a fair cop. My sense is that it's hard for people living today to understand just how down everyone was for World War I before it started. The "horrors of war" are accepted even by people in favor of participation in war. Back then it was different, and World War I was actually greeted with widespread enthusiasm and patriotism by the various European populations who would soon sacrifice their sons and daughters by the thousands. I've actually been to the area described in this book, and seen many of the locations Barbusse describes in the course of Under Fire. A century on you can still feel the death in the air, but Barbusse's first hand descriptions grimly bring the nightmarish reality of trench warfare to life. There is no magical patriotism in Under Fire, just the grim reality of carnage and death. A sobering read to be sure. Impressions of Africa (1910) by Raymond Roussel (7/28/14) Book Review Impressions of Africa (1910) by Raymond Roussel I'm not one of those people who says, "You have to read x in its original language." However, I would say that when you are reading a book that is based on formal restraints based on homonymic puns (in French.) Since neither homonyms NOR puns typically translate between languages, that makes reading Impressions of Africa in English nearly incoherent. Basically, the entire book is "about" these European visitors who are stranded in an African city, watching a series of carnival esque escapades. Near as I can tell, they are a group of people who are invited to this African city by the despotic ruler, only to be kidnapped by a bandit-king type on the way out of town. I think. The idea of creating art around formal constraints is of course at the heart of any "classical" aesthetic, though not specifically. One can think of Matthew Barney's early work which is LITERALLY him working against literal physical restraints (the drawing restraint series) or Lars Von Trier with his 'Dogme 95' set of film making rules, meant to create a "more authentic" film art. Unfortunately when the formal restraints are homonymic puns in a different language, a contemporary reader is left in the dark. Locus Solus (1914) by Raymond Roussel (10/3/14)
Book Review Locus Solus (1914) by Raymond Roussel University of California Press Locus Solus is what you call a "surrealist classic" in that it is surreal, and widely read. It is not a classic in the sense of adhering to some objective criterion about what makes for a "classic novel" though it is a novel. Locus Solus is another entry in the "books I wish I'd read 20 years ago" with a plot that involves a mad scientist/inventor type, Martial Canterel, who invites some friends over to his vast country estate which is filled with a variety of bizarre experiments, including water that allows people to breath in it (and hairless cats) and a substance that reanimates corpses, causing them to endlessly repeat what they did immediately prior to death.
Locus Solus is exactly the type of book that will win you cool points with groups of artsy students and young people in cities world wide, but has limited relevance to anyone outside of literary circles or over the age of 30. Any dedicated fan of the roots of surrealism will find Locus Solus a must, non fans should pass. Of the two Raymond Roussel titles that made the 1001 Books list, I would say this, rather than Impressions of Africa, is the more accessible. Impressions of Africa is barely readable, whereas Locus Solus scans as bizarre kind of H.G. Wells early science fiction type piece- familiar ground. Journey to the Center of the Earth (1865) by Jule Verne (12/5/14) Book Review Journey to the Center of the Earth (1865) by Jule Verne Audiobook Not sure where my unwarranted prejudice against audiobooks came from. The fact is that if you have a long period where you are driving or sitting on a train or plane, or exercising for over an hour, an audiobook is a good bet. Audiobooks are subject to the same copyright laws as the underlying books- public domain books are also public domain audiobooks. Journey to the Center of the Earth makes for a good public domain audiobook because it's a science fiction genre piece, it isn't that long and there are dinosaurs and shit towards the end of the book. Still, Journey to the Center of the Earth is a novel written in 1865, and the structure of the novel (and audiobook) is slow to accelerate and features chapters and chapters of staging: introducing the professor, getting them to Iceland, getting them down the volcano- the narrative doesn't really take off till they find the Lidenbrock Sea- a giant underground ocean. Although Journey to the Center of the Earth was "scientific" in its day, the subsequent discovery that the Earth was not, in fact, hollow, or hollow-ish, diminished the strength of the underlying science and pushes the modern reader towards a reading that interprets Journey to the Center of the Earth as a fantasy. The high point of the first half of Journey is Iceland as a location. I think it's probably the first time that Iceland features as a setting in any novel. The Count of Monte Cristo (1848) by Alexandre Dumas (5/1/18) Book Review The Count of Monte Cristo (1848) by Alexandre Dumas Blackstone Publishing This forty eight hour audiobook tops Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (42 hours) as the longest audiobook I've tackled. The length gave me ample time to reflect on the differences in form between the modern novel: usually about 300 pages long and the serial format which dominated the early to mid 19th century. Authors writing serials were often paid by the word and so these sorts of books contain volume: Volume characters, volume plot, volume length. At 1276 pages in the printed version, The Count of Monte Cristo represents a peak of this form. The story of Edward Dantes spans thirty years, a half dozen different countries, features fifty different characters who play substantial roles in the plot and Dantes himself boasts eight different names (mostly though he is the Count of Monte Cristo.) Despite the incredibly labyrinthine plot machinations, the essence of The Count of Monte Cristo is easy to state in two sentences: Edward Dantes, a promising young sailor, is betrayed by two friends and a judge and sent to a remote island prison. Eventually he escapes, and makes good his revenge on those who betrayed him and their families. Like a road trip, getting there is at least half the fun, and Dumas (and his ghostwriter/collaborator Auguste Maquet sprinkle an incredible amount of specialized knowledge into the text. It's these details that keep you interested. Some of the devices Dumas uses for length are pretty funny, like the paralyzed character who can only be understood through elaborate blinking and pointing routines, all of which are described in full every time he shows up in the story. These is also a ton of soliloquy/internal monologues where the reader is treated to pages of descriptions of internal mental processes. I hit a wall about 30 hours in, but as the dominoes fall into place during the last 20 hours, my spirits lifted, and at the close I gave a hearty huzzah for his triumph. Finally, there are a ton of cool early 19th century style points to be gleaned here, if you are into that kind of thing. Fruits of the Earth (1895) by Andre Gide (7/27/18) Book Review Fruits of the Earth (1895) by Andre Gide Honestly I've gotten so little out of the four Andre Gide titles on the 1001 Books list that it is embarrassing. By this point, having read all four books, I could tell you that he was active in the late 19th and early 20th century, and that he was an inspiration to the mid 20th century existentialist writers. And that he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947. Fruits of the Earth is barely a novel if at all so, it's more accurately described as a prose-poem, with everything that entails in terms of flowerly language and utter lack of a story. Fruits of Earth bears enough resemblance to the writing of Henry Thoreau, that it makes me wonder if Thoreau was translated into French in the 19th century, but both are part of larger "back to nature" aesthetic movement that was consistent in the west for centuries. Book Review Around the World in Eighty Days (1895) by Jules Verne When I read Around the World in Eighty Days back in 2012, I was marching through the end of the 19th century in the 1001 Books list. Around the World in Eighty Days is a marginal pick for the canon- Jules Verne, he's already got Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth- both of which helped establish the genre of science fiction. Compared to those two tales, Around the World in Eighty Days is a quotidian adventure, an homage to progress and the power of the steam engine, with nary a hot air balloon in sight. It was, in fact, the absence of a hot air balloon, which is ubiquitous if you do a google image search for this title, that obsessed me this time through. Fogg does take a kind of land sail buggy across the American midwest, but that is as close as he gets to flight. I presume the hot air balloon was inserted by a golden-age Hollywood movie version that has since become synonymous with the source material. Around the World in Eighty Days (1895) by Jules Verne (1/14/20) Review from 2012 BOOK REVIEW Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne p. 1872 Ipad/Ebooks Jules Verne is best known as an early practitioner of Science Fiction, but Around the World in Eighty Days, arguably his most popular, enduring work, is more like an Action-Adventure movie than Science Fiction. In it, Phineas Fogg, London gentleman, sets off on a round-the-world-trip after making a bet over dinner at his Gentlemen's club. The Wikipedia entry for Around the World in 80 Days basically says this book has been critically disrespected due to a combination of poor translation and a critical lack of respect for what is commonly called "Children's Literature." But as I reviewed recent coverage of the opening of Hunger Games, it couldn't be more clear that the BEST way for an Author to establish an enduring Audience is for he or she to write a commercially successful series of Young Adult Fiction- whether it be boy wizards, post-apocalyptic game shows, vampires OR A COMBINATION OF ALL THREE. That is probably due to a fact that the "average" reading level for most adults- and adults who read books and buy movie tickets- is "Young Adult." The Audience for the "serious" novels that have the same status of being included on the 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list (2006 ed.) is minimal by comparison. Has anyone read The Enchanted Wanderer by Nicolar Leskov? Published the same year as Around The World in Eight Days by Jules Verne? I'm guessing that is no one. No one has read The Enchanted Wanderer by Nicolai Leskov, because he's an obscure Russian language author who doesn't write adventure stories for children. The Devil's Pool (1846) by George Sand (3/31/20)
The Devil's Pool (1846) by George Sand Replaces: The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne George Sand was the nom de plume for French author Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin. She was hugely prolific in the mid 19th century, publishing over 50 novels between 1830 and 1870. She also wrote thirteen plays in between. According to her Wikipedia entry, she was THE most popular french author in England in the 1830's and 40's, eclipsing Victor Hugo and Honore de Balzac. Perhaps it's not fair to say that she's been forgotten, but the fact that she didn't make the original 1001 Books list, while Hugo and Balzac were both big players, tells you where she landed in the early 2000's. I'm sure that everyone who hasn't studied 19th century French literature would be hard pressed to name a single work by Sand. If The Devil's Pool is the best representative of her lengthy bibliography that the editors could find, her diminished profile is easy to understand: She doesn't have any hits! The Devil's Pool isn't a hit. Here is a taste of the prose in translation: I knew that young man and that beautiful child; I knew their story, for they had a story, everybody has his story, and everybody might arouse interest in the romance of his own life if he but understood it. Although a peasant and a simple ploughman, Germain had taken account of his duties and his affections. He had detailed them to me ingenuously one day, and I had listened to him with interest. When I had watched him at work for a considerable time, I asked myself why his story should not be written, although it was as simple, as straightforward, and as devoid of ornament as the furrow he made with his plough. Maybe a new translation would help? In retrospect, Sand was perhaps more of a celebrity than a canon level writer. It doesn't help that her prose was nowhere near as racey as her personal life, which included rumored lesbian affairs and very public cross-dressing. It is pretty clear to me after reading Around the World in Eighty Days, as well as other mid to late 19th century Adventure titles by Robert Louis Stevenson and H. Ridder Haggard, that there is not better advice to a young writer then, "Write a children's adventure book and include a supernatural element." If people find the universe engaging and like the main character, the rest can just fall into place. So in that way- Around the World in Eighty Days is a seminal title in that the pacing approximates the contemporary pace for a work of young adult fiction- even if the idea is less appealing and the original text as written in French as it ever was. Within the DNA of Around the World in Eighty Days is the foundation of every Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, James Bond, Spy Novel, Airport Thriller every written. Let's put it this way- if your favorite novel of all time is The Enchanted Wanderer by Nicolai Leskov, the odds of developing an Audience for your fiction is about one in a million. If, on the other hand, you are emulating Jules Verne in Around the World in Eighty Days, you are up to a 1 in 10,000 level of success, just because you are writing something that has an established Audience and a proven track record of appealing to the broadest possible Audience. Also, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne is available for free on any Ereader device of your choice: KINDLE, IPAD- wtvr. Check it out, especially would be writers of fiction. Là-bas(Down There) (1891) by J.K. Huysmans (7/28/20)
Book Review Là-bas(Down There) (1891) by J.K. Huysmans Replaces: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky It's nice to have the Los Angeles Public Library handing out books again. My favorite part of the "library to-go" system that they worked out is that you can only call and pick up the books between 10:30 AM and 4 PM, which is like....ok for people who don't work at all, or I guess people stuck at home, but really- the libraries aren't open, so maybe they could extend those times a couple hours in either direction to accommodate people. J.K. Huysmans is one of my favorite fin de siecle authors, the best known writer of the Decadent movement of the late 19th century. He's best known for A rebours/Against Nature/Against the Grain (1884), which I loved, and Là-bas, about Satanism in turn of the century Paris, is nearly as interesting. Novelist and Huysmans proxy Durta is writing a book about real-life companion of Joan of Arc and convicted child raper/murderer Gilles de Rais. While doing so, he falls in with a group of contemporary rapists, has an affair with a married woman, and ultimately witnesses a black mass. It is all very graphic- no punches are pulled in the descriptions of child murder, and the black mass is a set piece for the ages. I doubt I will soon forget this book. |
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