Le Ventre de Paris, my favourite of the earliest Rougon-Maquart, and not just because it ends with a character saying "Respectable people - what bastards!"
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 28 May 2020 11:34 (three years ago) link
I need to read the Rougon-Maquart series. I’ve only read germinal but I really enjoyed the BBC radio dramatisation of the whole series a few years back.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 28 May 2020 12:08 (three years ago) link
I was writing about the series but didn't get that far, here's the one on Le Ventre https://haonowshaokao.com/2011/08/02/les-rougon-macquart-3-le-ventre-de-paris-1873/
― Wuhan!! Got You All in Check (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 28 May 2020 12:14 (three years ago) link
It's Middlemarch
― abcfsk, Thursday, 28 May 2020 12:21 (three years ago) link
how have i been missing all these threads?
― koogs, Thursday, 28 May 2020 12:54 (three years ago) link
i've been hitting project gutenberg like mad since getting my ereader about a decade ago now. all the dickens, lots of hardy and other victorians etc, and yet i've read exactly three of the above (madding, looking-glass and edwin drood which can't really count given it's only half a book)
― koogs, Thursday, 28 May 2020 13:06 (three years ago) link
Much of this half-decade leaves me cold. Neither naturalism nor the so-called Victorian novel hold much allure as far as I’m concerned. The contrast between this and what was happening in French poetry at the time (Mallarmé, Rimbaud, Verlaine) is staggering, stylistically speaking. I’m tempted to go with Demons, even though it could have used some trimming, or the Flaubert, but I’m loath to vote for him again. That said, there is far too much that I haven’t read here and that seems most intriguing.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 28 May 2020 13:07 (three years ago) link
middlemarch and demons is an impossible call for me
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Thursday, 28 May 2020 13:11 (three years ago) link
Middlemarch, but it was painful not to vote for Demons
― Brad C., Thursday, 28 May 2020 14:40 (three years ago) link
?erewhon on
― wasdnous (abanana), Thursday, 28 May 2020 18:29 (three years ago) link
i love demons. and middlemarch.
― Fizzles, Thursday, 28 May 2020 21:02 (three years ago) link
Pom otm about the stark contrast. Hardy's never been a favourite of mine. I love 'Demons' but will vote for the wonderful 'Torrents Of Spring' by Ivan Turgenev.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, 29 May 2020 10:04 (three years ago) link
not voting and haven't voted in any of these because like everybody else who *is* voting i haven't read most of them but i find it hard to believe any of them are better than Middlemarch which is one of the greatest of all time
― Children of Bo-Dom (Noodle Vague), Friday, 29 May 2020 10:55 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 1 June 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 2 June 2020 00:01 (three years ago) link
The men of ILB have redeemed themselves.
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 2 June 2020 11:07 (three years ago) link
seems like an unnecessary and obscurely nasty bit of subtweeting but ok
― the ghost of tom, choad (thomp), Tuesday, 2 June 2020 11:45 (three years ago) link
Sorry it was a shit joke (been reading Austen this week so was thinking about that actually good thread)
― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 2 June 2020 11:48 (three years ago) link
Wherein We Elect Our Favourite Novels of… the 1870's, pt.2 (1874-1879)
― Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 3 June 2020 11:04 (three years ago) link