Bad Hemingway Contest

[Errata]

Had to smile about 19th century authors who tell their "dear readers" what to do-- they can't help it, really, they're Victorians! Even "Black Beauty", which I encountered in an abridged version and found exciting, can be less so in its full version. Library cataloguers call this "didactic fiction", meaning a lesson is being imparted (well, they hope it is...)

Forgot to mention Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables", a very long book (originally published in five parts, I think), full of rich details, information about the street urchins of Paris, and long chapters on a better sewer system. I found it hard going at times, but preserved, and was very grateful that I did.

The more details in a book, the better I like it.

I loved Les Miserables. But I'm good with French 19th century authors. Well, half of them. I like Balzac in small doses, I love the Three Musketeers, and The Count of Monte Cristo, and I like Zola, thought not everything equally. But Maupassant and Flaubert are the perfect examples as to why obsessive types need to stay out of the arts. And I keep trying Sand because I want to like her, I just can't.

But the French 19th century experience was different from England. England was all about clenching up, and France was all about letting go. France did the tightass thing. They lost like a third of their population to the guillotine because of it. Live and let live they said. I agree. And french literature reads like opera. That sort of pace and height of emotion. So its easier to get through the rough parts.