Oh good, Emma. That means I’ve read War & Peace many, many times.

The best part of the list was the laughter – your comments were great and apropos. (My French teacher is rolling in her grave with your comment on the The Stranger (L’Etranger! she would shout at us with her Ameri-French accent.) If you pursue it, do read it, don’t watch a movie or theatrical presentation of it. The guy I saw performing it was the opposite of Daniel DL. But oh, could he speak French!

Let me know what happens, okay? And thank you for coming over here — I love hearing what you’re reading and what you think about it and hope you continue to leave many comments!

I don’t know how psychologically accurate this generalization concerning youth is, but I feel it’s a wonderfully written sentence whether or not it’s true. I’m now at that point in the novel where cynical, cunning, experienced Vautrin is schooling Eugene on imperfect human nature, society and how to succeed in making fast fortunes in Paris; here’s V. on the hapless, law abiding poor: “. . . those poor peons, and they’re all over the place, who never really get paid for all they do: they’re what I call the lay brothers of God’s Order of the Rundown Shoes. There’s a kind of virtue in being that stupid, but it’s the virtue of poverty. If God decides to play a bad joke on us, and stay away when the Last Judgment comes, oh, I can just see their faces!” I believe in this character that B. created; that he speaks just like this [not, obviously, that I agree with him].

Here’s V. again, a few sentences before: “There are fifty thousand young fellows facing the same problem: how to make a fortune and make it fast. You’re just one among many. So think how hard you’ll have to try, and what a desparate fight it will be. You’ll all have to eat each other , like spiders in a chamber pot, because there aren’t fifty thousand fortunes available. So how do you manage, eh? Simple. Either by a burst of genius, or by being a clever crook.” And so on.

Anyway, I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I’m uncertain whether it’s okay to qoute a novel, but I just want to show a sample of what I like about the book. I’m not even certain that I’ve got the right blog; should I have written this on your next posted blog? Please play the role of Herbert to my Pip and kindly point out any deficiency of blog manners when they arise (just finished rereading Great Expectations, one of the best opening pages in lit.).

I also agree with Pride & Prejudice being a good starting place, or The Ballad of the Sad Cafe; it’s short, gothically funny and it conjures up a mythic Southern town with spellbinding language.

Hey Melissa, I’m thinking you can definitely count the big fat maybes and also you can count every one where you’ve seen the movie or already know the plot so that makes you up by about 25 books on this list, possibly more. If you want to start somewhere, I’d read something like Pride & Prejudice (and make sure you get the movie with Colin Firth in it), Jane Eyre or Their Eyes Were Watching God. All fabulous. There’s some effort involved, but it won’t hurt!

thanks for the inspiration to read the classics!

Panache! I think we have to watch it this summer.

Bookfraud, dude, I’m sorry to have slipped from my formerly high position in your eyes. But then, I had no idea you hadn’t read all these books. I guess we’re even, down here in the mud of underachieving.