#contemporary reviews

[psalm22-6]

The Illustrated Review was a paper published in London in the 1870s, and in 1873 published a series called "Retrospective Glances at Foreign Literature." I'm not super familiar with the reception of Les Mis in England, but keep in mind that this is written a little over a decade after Les Mis came out. Here's some highlights:

Ten years have elapsed since Victor Hugo, after a long period of silence, broken only by a few melodious volumes of verse, astonished the land of his birth by a book which was more a challenge hurled at those who had exiled him than a novel. When "Les Misérables" appeared the glove was eagerly taken up, and a turmoil of conflicting passions was aroused. [. . .] It is not on the first perusal of "Les Misérables" that an opinion of its merits and demerits can be formed with justice or impartiality, for an ardent longing to get to the end is the only feeling experienced, the burning pages carry you along breathless and amazed, and, as before some pyrotechnic display, you remain dazzled by the sudden alternations of brilliant light and utter darkness. Victor Hugo started on a wrong theory. Embittered by his exile, blinded by his political passions, he attempted to prove that society in general and legislation in particular were responsible for the evil doings of the world, he openly took the part of the criminal against his judges, of the convict against his jailers, of the spoiler against the despoiled, and attempted to prove that crime is a far minor degradation to man than its repression by law. This dangerous sophism is developed with the power of his magic talent.

Myriel is said to be irrelevant to the plot, and particularly the episode with G is offensive:

After a lengthy and useless exposition, we come to the episode of the Conventionnel: it appears to have been inserted only to allow of a panegyric of 1793; it brings into violent and unartistic contrast the characters of the saintly Bishop Myriel and of the untamed democrat. It is neither wise nor useful to uphold with brutal energy ideas which common sense, self respect, and even history have taught us to judge and condemn, and to degrade at pleasure what in itself is venerable by unseemly comparisons such as are drawn between monarchs and ruffians.

A lot of reviews of Les Mis will include summaries of the book which I assume I don't need to share but this misrepresentation of the plot is noteworthy:

Jean Valjean, the hero of "Les Misérables," is taken up by the police for a petty theft, sent to Toulon for assaulting his warders, and condemned to a long detention for repeated attempts to escape.

From this the author concludes:

Jean Valjean is not condemned to the "Galéres" because he stole a loaf, but for contempt of the law in the person of its ministers, and if the principles so imprudently advocated by the author received their full application, they would involve the suppression of penal laws [. . .] Anarchy would at once prevail, persons and property remain unprotected; but like too many would-be reformers, M. Hugo finds it easier to pick out the flaws of a system than to suggest the remedy to a necessary evil.

So Jean Valjean's problem was apparently that he didn't respect authority? Okay.... The author also believes that Fantine would not have been dismissed for having a child out of wedlock

Life in manufacturing districts gives us, alas! too many examples of actual sin to leave us credulous about the virtuous indignation and stern morality of a factory master. Victor Hugo overshot the mark, and in taking pains to paint society as a ruthless Nemesis, he made her out a prude.

He also finds fault with Hugo's depiction of the battle of Waterloo, such as his geography of the battlefield and his poetic language:

The fastidious critic whose ideal is the purity of the classical author may well have been alarmed by the liberty of expression used by M. Hugo with such careless ease, but we are inclined to believe that his unusual but telling phraseology, his incisive, coloured, weird, fantastic, uncommon style is a new vein discovered in the rich mine of the French language, a vein which others, taught by his example, may follow, gathering the harvests, and avoiding the pitfalls which they would have had neither the genius to discover nor the courage to encounter.

However the author has to admit that he enjoyed some passages, such as those dealing with Sister Simplice or the young Cosette.

Some of the pages of “Les Misérables" emerge so white and pure from the sombre background, that we almost fancy that while he wrote them some angel's wing was fanning the author’s fevered brow. Was it the memory of a lost and adored daughter, or was it the breath of years gone by laden with their tender emotions and young illusions?

For better or for worse (worse if you are of the opinion that Les Miserables is an evil book), this book contains a little bit of everything:

You see, as in a kaleidoscope, the darkness of the convict’s cell and the sunshine of Cosette’s garden, the dictionary of ‘‘argot” and the poet’s rhapsody; Thénardier, the incarnation of vice, Cosette, the emblem of innocence; Waterloo and the barricades, Claquesous and Bishop Myriel, Eponine and Marius; while, by a prodigious metamorphosis, Jean Valjean, the low, mean, heartless thief, the man without dignity and without courage, is transformed into Jean Valjean, the hero and the martyr. Thus we progress from volume to volume to the close of the story, the latter part of which is worthy of sincere admiration, as we are initiated to the mutual love of Cosette and Marius, and witness the slow torture of Jean Valjean, the agony that wrings his paternal heart and converts his love for the child of his adoption into a crown of thorns pressing deep into his flesh, while he makes no sign—cruel and fatal position, in which the tormentor is no less innocent than the victim, and where the blow that kills is dealt by the hand that meant only to caress.

The author believes that if Victor Hugo had renounced his ideology and given up his exile, there might have been something redeeming in Les Miserables, but that instead, he has begun a "downward course."

“Les Travailleurs de la Mer,” while containing fewer beauties, magnified the errors of ‘‘ Les Misérables,” and were followed by “L'homme qui Rit,” the most deplorable mistake which a man of genius could have committed, a mistake so enormous that even should it be in his power to retrieve it, it must remain as a blot on M. Hugo’s reputation as a man of letters.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

This is what I find so infuriating about Rowling. Her characters are all in theory quite interesting. The actual description of Voldemort is a fantastic, interesting character. He's an orphan, corrupted by power he didn't understand, and ultimately driven by a horrible fear of death, unable to understand human affection he isolates himself from the world and that ultimately leads to his downfall. In practice, though, he's just Stock Dark Lord Number Five. Even though he is obsessed with immortality, and utterly terrified of dying, he treats his Horcruxes with blithe disregard. Even though he is supposedly incapable of trusting anybody he works with legions of incompetent minions and actually does trust them with important tasks, usually to his detriment. All the mistakes Voldemort makes which Rowling pretends are his "arrogance" or "cruelty" or whatever are actually just plot necessitated stupidity.

Dan Hemmens, owner of a now-defunct blog featuring some HP articles. Quoted via the comments section to this post by elanor-x

[psalm22-6]

Jules Barbey D'Aurevilly, in July 1862:

[Enjolras is as] beautiful as an archangel from that Catholic heaven in which M. Hugo no longer believes, [. . .] this young man, who resembles a young girl [. . .] it is necessary, so that I am not taken with loving him, that I hear his unending harangues.

Fair to say I think he was haunted too.

Every day I am haunted by how hot Enjolras is. Victor Hugo won’t let me escape this beauty. I’m suffocating.

[soracities]

Hasti, from "All of the Light That Reaches Earth" (After Rachel Jones & Radiolab), pub. The White Review [ID'd]

[galina]

Whale Fall, Elizabeth O'Connor – I was sent an advance review copy by picador, it comes out later this month. A powerful short novel with themes of environment, relationships with nature, colonisation, fascism, community, loss, grief, the impact of biased documentation and archiving, and the role of gender in society.

I really liked this, it hones in on a young girl coming of age on an unnamed island off the coast of wales, in the weeks leading up to war being declared in england.

What struck me was how precise and unflinching the language is in this text where images of island life are shrouded in a blanket of dramatic irony. Whales as literary allegory could feel overdone but not here, where the urgent message against fascism, against humans selfishly taking and appropriating for their own gain – whether from nature or other humans – is frank but not overwritten.

[bellshazes]

in my heart there's another probably worse universe where instead of the watchers taking off after evo, etho's writers from 404 became the highly misunderstood "i am fictionalizing and poking fun at my relationship with my audience & their perceptions of me and how i am motivated by them but not in a 1:1 cause and effect relationship and they are kind of obnoxious but i also care abt my literal audience liking what i do bc i do make stuff for youtube" fandom staple.

there's something substantial in here abt grian being SUPER particular abt things in a different but parallel way to etho (grian not watching other smp member's POVs and being open abt that bc it allows for genuine surprise, etho's like everything ever? but top of mind his old insistence against modded stuff, comment of the day, etc.) but honestly. can anyone who actually cares abt the watchers or whatever write me a 404 crossover. thats what i want

[ya-world-challenge]

I got overwhelmed over the summer and didn't get to post reviews for the ARCs I had at the time. But I really want to share this one, because it was so cute!

Navigating with You is a graphic novel in which two new girls at school bond over a manga series. Neesha is a Black teen with cerebral palsy in her legs (uses leg braces/forearm crutches/wheelchair interchangeably) and Gabi is a bi Latina surfer who's moved away from her Florida home after tragedy.

They make it a challenge to track down the out-of-print manga while falling in love in the process. I love how real and down-to-earth this book was, with such depth of character and a fun storyline without over-angst.

It's also a really great disability representation, both Neesha's CP and Gabi's PTSD, touching on microaggressions and wheelchair-moving consent. A funny scene is when Neesha goes into a thrift shop with her crutches to make a distraction, sarcastically thinking "Oh no! I'm a disabled teen in your shop full of breakable knicknacks", and the shop owner reacts just as expected. (It's Gabi who ends up breaking things), and I loved the panel where Gabi triumphantly exclaims "My girlfriend trusts me to push her wheelchair!" XD

The graphic novel is interspersed with full-page snippets of the manga they are reading, which is ridiculously over-dramatic in true manga style. The sapphic love story IS. SO. CUTE. and the art is gorgeous, too. Highly recommend picking this up if you can find it!

Content warnings:

PTSD episode, death of parent (flashback), car accident (flashback), ableism, biphobia, emotionally abusive ex, divorced parents

@thedisabilitybookarchive

[hawnks]

I've gotten a couple of asks about romance book recs, and as a general rule I try not to rec romance, but if you would like to participate in my current readings with me, here's what's cooking:

Regarding the Duke, Grace Calloway

[13 chapters in, a lot of fun so far. Very possessive and manipulative MMC, shy & anxiety-ridden heroine. Medium on the heat scale. I would argue this is basically a marriage of convenience plot, but also there's murder? If you don't like pushover heroines this one probably isn't a good fit for you.]

His Forsaken Bride, Alice Coldbreath

[Halfway through, entertaining but not super impressive. Good for a quick snack. I like the MMCs brother better :/ this one's a little too uppity for me. Medium-low on the heat scale. Possessive hero, stolen bride heroine. Strayed from regency to give pseudo-medieval a try for this one naksjsks]

[rlbookreviews]

Again, In Autumn by Emily Hart My rating: 5 of 5 stars Loved this fall book! Definitely a cozy read! I wanted to drink coffee, snuggle up under a soft fuzzy blanket, and sit by the wood stove. It’s that cozy to me. I recommend this book to all my fellow romance readers, very heart felt throughout the entire book. And overall, I really enjoy reading this book. It’s about a teenage romance that ended at 18; but they meet again 14 years later in their adult lives at the same lake house. Their lives have changed a lot in the past fourteen years, but some things haven’t changed. He’s a famous singer now and she’s a school teacher. She never followed her dreams to be a baker like she wanted, and he pursued his dreams. I do recommend a box of tissues because it is an emotional rollercoaster you’re about to go on. So many cute and laughable moments and some sad tears jerking moments. I cried a lot, but I really loved this book because of how heart felt it is. It does have a little spice in the book. To sum up my review, if you like hallmark movies, you’ll love “Again in Autumn” by Emily Hart. View all my reviews

[bookshelvesandtealeaves]

✨ BOOK REVIEW ✨

The Pairing by

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[instagram]

God, this book. Casey McQuiston can do no wrong. My favourite author has given me a new favourite.

I loved everything about this. The romance, the setting, the growth, the joy, the food. Even the sex was beautifully written and I’m someone who usually skims those parts.

What I love about McQuiston’s writing is how earnest and raw it is. You really feel every bit of what their characters are feeling. It’s all-encompassing, intoxicating, and they knock it out of the park every single time.

Theo and Kit are both so vibrant and messy and emotional and god, I adored them both. So much it’s difficult to put into words. I have very little in common with them - I’m aroace and I don’t drink lmao - and yet I felt such a connection with them anyway.

I particularly loved Theo’s coming out to Kit. The conversation about gender was such a small piece of this whole book, but it felt so relatable to me and my experience with gender.

This book NEEDS to be a movie. It’s so cinematic to read and it would make such a fantastic film.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

Many of JKR's approaches to social class seem to me to reflect precisely the same mind-set that she so loudly and shrilly denounces in her depiction of the Dursleys. People like the Dursleys, JKR tells us, are wickedly regressive -- brutish, even. They and their ilk should be scorned, as should the things that they tend to believe in. Things like corporal punishment. Things like the death penalty. Things like disdain for the lower classes. Things like suspicion of the aristocracy. Things like jingoism, and law-and-orderism, and political paranoia, and the belief that foreigners are intrinsically dubious, not to be trusted. Things like "blood will tell." We are treated to this at the beginning of each novel, almost as if JKR wants to establish her progressive credentials from the very outset. Once we move on to the meat of the text, however, it can sometimes become a bit difficult to avoid the suspicion that in some indefinable way, the spirit of Aunt Marge is pushing the hand that holds the pen. Blood really does seem to tell in the Potterverse, and foreign names do often serve as a marker of dark allegiance. The lower classes are stupid and beneath notice; the aristocracy is sinister, and very likely sexually perverse as well. Corporal punishment is precisely what children like Draco Malfoy deserve, and although Hogwarts does not itself permit this, the narrative voice positively exults whenever the little brat gets physically smacked down. The political approach of Crouch Sr. was regrettable, of course -- but all the same, you know, his son really was guilty...and besides, Fudge is ever so much worse. And Sirius Black, whom Vernon Dursley so brutishly classifies as gallows-bait, was innocent all along. Pettigrew was the real culprit -- and the narrative voice rather gives us the impression that the author believes that he really does "deserve to die." It is troubling, this, and it casts the Dursley sequences which open each novel in a strange and somewhat disturbing light. The broad slapstick viciousness of these passages—often strikingly stylistically out of kilter with the more subtle shadings of the rest of the text—almost begin to read like expressions of authorial self-hatred, or perhaps even as failed authorial attempts at self-exorcism. JKR rings her little bell and lights her single candle: she sneers at Vernon; she blows up Aunt Marge. But the values that these characters represent cannot be so easily dismissed. Their personifications may receive all manner of public thrashing in the first chapter or two of each novel, but it would seem that their spirits are lodged somewhere deep within the author's very soul. When it comes to the Dursleys, the closet conservative doth protest too much. The result—much like the homophobic rantings of those trapped in a somewhat different closet—is strangely unconvincing. On some fundamental level, we simply do not believe in the Dursleys in at all the same way that we believe in the rest of the fictive world. The explicit condemnation of their values doesn't carry the same weight as the implicit approval that these same values are granted by the rest of the text -- in very much the same way that JKR's use of stereotypes as a form of humor so often fails to quite convince readers that she really doesn't, deep down in her heart of hearts, genuinely believe the things that she passes off as "nothing but a joke." JKR wants to be a progressive. But there's a rock-solid streak of conservatism in her writing, and even though she herself seems to dislike it, she nonetheless seems incapable of banishing it even from her very own text.

via Elkins's essay on Class in Harry Potter. Notably, this was written before the last two books were released and is very insightful on things that would later be revealed both about the authorship, Rowling's views as a writer, and her general social views in the following 15 years.

[yourfavebooklrsfavebooklr]

4.75 Stars

This was such a genuinely fun book! Yes there were a couple things that were a little clunky and a couple problems typical of debuts, but I enjoyed reading it so much that I didn’t care. The discussions of being aroace made me feel seen in a way that no book really has before- specifically, Jo’s feelings around her friends and losing them to relationships really resonated with me. I like that instead of being about self-discovery, this focused on two characters who already know that they’re aroace. In addition, the plot! The internet drama is so dumb but in a way that’s honestly fun to read about. It’s more lighthearted overall, but the emotional moments hit so hard too. Anyway yeah this was really good

[soracities]

Keep them guessing. You are a classical text in the emperor’s encoded vision—sour red berries reclining on a carpet of chicken thighs, jewels set in broth like simmering gold.

Hasti, from "Poem As Zereshk Pollo", pub. The White Review

[apolline-lucy]




THE ANATOMY OF DYING is now officially out in the world! 🩵✨

After losing the most important person in her life, Lily’s struggles with depression and an eating disorder seem insurmountable. But an encounter with the captivating Gwenna changes everything. Gwenna’s presence becomes a lifeline—she listens to Lily like no one else has before, and when Lily feels like drowning she knows how to bring her back to shore. What follows will either be the best summer of their life, or the last. 
Can Lily trust Gwenna not to dig the lakebed and bury her deeper? 🌊 


If you like it sad and poetic, yet playful and hopeful, this contemporary sapphic novella, The Anatomy of Dying, is for you! It is available on Amazon (ebook and paperback) and Kindle Unlimited~

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

🦇 You, Again Book Review 🦇

❓ #QOTD Have you ever been to New York (if yes, what's your go-to spot, if no, what's your favorite type of bagel)?❓ 🦇 When Ari and Josh first meet, the wrong kind of sparks fly. They hate each other. Instantly. A free-spirited, struggling comedian who likes to keep things casual, Ari sublets, takes gigs, & she never sleeps over after hooking up. Born-and-bred Manhattanite Josh has ambitious plans: Take the culinary world by storm, find The One, & make her breakfast in his spotless kitchen. They have absolutely nothing in common...except that they keep crossing paths. As they're both reeling from ego-bruising breakups, a chance encounter leads to a surprising connection: friendship. Turns out, spending time with your former nemesis is fun when you're too sad to hate each other--& too sad for hate sex. Can they stop hating each other long enough to fall in love?

💜 I have so many conflicting thoughts & feelings about this book. Prose that might seem witty & modern to some will come off as cringe (over-attempting at 'hip' & relevant) to others. Yet there's a sort of magnetism to the entire thing, like trying to look away from a train crash running in slow motion. The concept of two people constantly colliding (getting second & third chances to repair the bad first impression they made on one another) is definitely intriguing, & works perfectly in a setting like New York City. There's also something painfully realistic about hurt people finding comfort in one another, learning how to heal by helping the other heal. The underlying themes--healing, recognizing your self-worth, making your own legacy--resonate on every page. There's also a little love letter to New York here, the same way The Bear is a love letter to Chicago (& this book definitely screams The Bear vibes, for those of you who FINALLY watched it).

💙 Unfortunately, both characters are dreadfully unlikeable. They're both equally stubborn, & since this is an opposites attract romance, they clash constantly when they think they're in the right. Poor Josh has his heart wide open but moves too fast, while Ari has her heart under lock & key with unrelenting skepticism in relationships (in complete conflict with her carefree attitude). As much as I love my bi rep (especially during Bisexuality Awareness Month), Ari's sex-focused rep reads as problematic. There's nothing wrong with enjoying sex or threesomes, but it's almost used as Ari's main characteristic; an insulting cliche that bisexuals only care about one thing.

🦇 Recommended to fans of Will They or Won't They & Funny Feelings.

✨ The Vibes ✨ 🍁 Slow Burn Contemporary Romance ❤‍🔥 Bi FMC 🍁 Chef & Comedian ❤‍🔥 Annoyances to Friends to Lovers 🍁 Opposites Attract (Commitment-Phobe/Hopeless Romantic) ❤‍🔥 Dual POV 🍁 Open Door ❤‍🔥 Angst/Hurt/Comfort 🍁 The Bear Vibes

💬 Quotes ❝ Better to be the one who walks away than the person who gets left behind. ❞ ❝ "I like being with you more than I like being by myself.” ❞ ❝ Right now, “just friends” is a comfortable certainty. A gravity blanket. A subtle vanilla-scented candle. And the alternative is a giant blinking cursor and a blank document. Sometimes it feels like Josh has already been poking around that page. Writing passages and deleting them before she’s ready to open it. ❞ ❝ "They’re the antidote to every little thing you hate about yourself. They can see past it when you can’t.” ❞ ❝ “No one should marry the person who makes them happy. Marry the person you want by your side at your lowest p- point. Marry the person you… you never get sick of. Who you always want more from. Who makes you proud to be theirs...If that’s your person, it’s worth the risk. Because your person will see the best version of you. They’ll have a whole list of reasons why they think you’re irreplaceable. And they’ll tell you.” ❞

[literatureaesthetic]

— the neapolitan novels ; elena ferrante

i just realised i never posted that i completed this tetralogy?? 'the neapolitan novels' is now one of my all-time favourite series. the themes, the characters, and the writing are absolute perfection in my eyes. i've never encountered an author with the ability to construct relationships like ferrante.

it's impossible to review this series without writing a whole dissertation because of its sheer magnitude (magnitude in terms of complexity and intricacy of themes rather than literal page length), but i will say that elena ferrante has become one of my new all-time favourite authors <3

➝ neapolitan novels playlist