Bonjour, mes amours! Yes, I have acquired some more translated French literature. Why do I keep doing this to myself? They have all been massive chunkers, but oh well, at least I have a few options for my Big Book challenge for 2019 ;-D
Today Les Mystères de Paris by Eugène Sue arrived, and I swear I thought it was a multi-book package when my post lady, Rosie, handed it to me. She even felt up the package asking if it was more than one book. I had ordered this a couple of weeks ago, and wasn't expecting it quite so soon. As you know AbeBooks can be a little on the slow side when it comes to estimating the arrival date of the parcels.
Les Mystères de Paris was first published between 1842-1843 as a serialized novel - think Dickens - and inspired a whole new genre of mystery, the city mystery. Novels in this genre include
Les Mystères de Marseille by Emile Zola, The Mysteries of London by George W. M. Reynolds,
Les Mystères de Londres by Paul Feval, Les Mystères de Lyon by Jean de la Hire, there are many more, but you get the drift. It also, according to WIKIPEDIA, inspired Alexandre Dumas (at the prompting by his publishers) to write his masterpiece of revenge, The Count of Monte Cristo.
Anyway, I am in no rush to tackle this just yet. I might wait until there is a readalong, perhaps? But until then, this book will now go onto my ever increasing Classics TBR bookcase.
Thanks for watching, let me know in the comments if you have read Les Mystères de Paris, and if you have, what did you think of it - no spoilers please ;-D.
And until next time,
No comments:
Post a Comment