Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert

I knew that Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert was about an adulterous woman. But for some reason, I assumed that the title character was a despicable, ugly, tricky middle-aged woman. “Madame” makes one sound old. Besides, when I was young, my mother had a copy of Madame Bovary; it must have been an old copy of the book, and I remember an unattractive woman on the cover (a cover like this one). Just a dim memory of that cover never made the novel, and the character, seem appealing.

To my surprise, when I met Madame Bovary between the pages of Flaubert’s novel, I found that she was very young, beautiful, and skinny, and mostly known by her first name, Emma. Beyond that, the writing in this novel was full of beauty. Continue reading »

Stories by Guy de Maupassant (Favorites)

As I mentioned, Maupassant was a best-seller in his day. What makes his stories resonate with the modern reader is the attention to our own natural wants. Continue reading »

Stories by Guy de Maupassant (Introductory Thoughts)

Image via Wikipedia

If Guy de Maupassant lived and wrote stories or novels today, his name would appear on The New York Times best-seller lists many weeks out of a year.

As it was, in the late 1800s, his stories were best-sellers from the time the first one, “Boule de Suif,” appeared in a collection with five other previously unknown authors, until he died, mentally ill, at the young age of 42 in 1893.

But don’t let the best-seller title sway you from reading Maupassant. I tend to avoid modern-day best-sellers because, in my mind, they are (stereotypically) not written very well. But that’s not the case with Guy de Maupassant’s stories: he writes incredibly well. Continue reading »

Judging a Book by Its Cover

It’s not Maupassant’s fault, but I have a grudge against him already: his book stinks.

The librarian had to retrieve it from The Stacks. The first thing I noticed as she returned was its size. At more than 1300 pages, it thudded on the counter. Then, as she swiped my library card and pushed the book toward me, I smelled it. Musky. Old. Like a 1950s house that hasn’t been aired out in decades. Like puke-colored green shag carpet.

The cover itself isn’t too bad: the top two-thirds has the long title and subtitle and editor written in plain print across a faded (and stained) orange background. Bizarre green faces stare at me from the bottom third of the page.

Then I opened it. The text is about 8 point font. A story ends and the next begins on the same page (that bothers me: a story should stand by itself). And each page is as thin as skin. The book is probably 11 inches tall and 5 inches wide, so with 1300+ pages, a heavy cover, and Bible-thin pages, it’s kind of hard to curl up in bed for some comfort reading. Continue reading »

Literature in Translation

Chekhov’s stories (which I reviewed yesterday) are available free in the public domain via Project Gutenberg, although the translation is different from the one I read. I loved the translation I read! Compare these to passages from “The House with the Mezzanine: An Artist’s Story” to the Project Gutenberg translation. Is there a “better” translation? I think there is. Continue reading »

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I didn’t understand The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry at all. I guess I’m not a child. Continue reading »

Two Stories by Turgenev

At Harold Bloom’s suggestion in HTR&W, I tackled “Bezhin Lea” and “Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands” by Ivan Turgenev. I say “tackled” because, unfortunately, these stories were evidence to me that I am accustomed to reading quickly and easily; reading them was a “difficult pleasure.” I expect not all of the stories on Bloom’s reading list will be so (dare I say it?) dull, but to me, “Bezhin Lea” and “Kasyan” failed to ignite my interest, despite the superior quality of the writing. I had intended to read all of Turgenev’s Sketches from a Hunter’s Album, but I think I’ll stop at just the two for now. Continue reading »