Pre-emptive rec of a book I've barely started

[tenlittlebullets]

Unrelated to the last post: I've been reading La Confession d'un enfant du siècle by Musset and am becoming convinced that it would be very useful background reading for Les Mis fanfiction, particularly Les Amis and most especially Grantaire. Certainly more useful than The Red and the Black. If only the first two chapters--the author's introduction, if you will, before it switches into first-person singular--which manage to capture in about twenty pages the mindset, problems, and preoccupations of the entire generation that was born during the Napoleonic Wars and had to grow up during the Restoration. A wasted and cynical generation, to be sure, but a very different kind of cynicism from today. Cynical not because they thought the Revolution had failed, but because they had grown up with a vague impression of its promises and its glory and all that suddenly got put on hold right when they were on the cusp of adolescence, and they didn't think they'd be around to see the promises get fulfilled. They were just stuck in the wasteland in the meantime with nothing to do but rot.

There's an English version on Project Gutenberg. There's a certain element of poetry-in-prose that doesn't quite carry over in translation, but the gist remains.

Comments

[smartamy15.livejournal.com]

I am totally storing both of these titles in my mind for future reference. That sounds fascinating!