Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2009-10-14 07:04 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2009-10-14 07:04 pm
Entry tags:
LOL Eugene Sue
Feeling better now after a good cry, three cups of tea, and some Mystères de Paris. Host mother came in halfway through the second cup; I can't tell if she got the message or if she's just bipolar and in a good mood. She started to nag me for leaving the kettle on the stove and then stopped, said something along the lines of "but I have little manias like that," and chatted about museums for the next fifteen minutes.
Mystères de Paris is wonderfully cracked-out. It's like if you took Dumas, stripped him of all subtlety, and added Hugo's obsession with argot and the Parisian underworld. It also has the following elements, all of which made me giggle and wonder if Hugo was stealing from Eugène Sue:
- A virtuous fanmaker earning four francs a day. Hanging out in seamy taverns and talkin' argot with the bandits.
- Mysterious dandy lurking in the shadows of said tavern.
- A mysterious man who is richer than he appears, buying the freedom of a prostitute with a heart of gold, while the madam ridiculously over-inflates the costs to try to wring more money out of him
- Said mysterious gentleman, trying to stay incognito in Paris, renting a house at the end of the Rue Plumet
- ....I'm probably forgetting things. Really.
It's fairly light reading aside from some antiquated vocabulary, so I've been knocking back fifteen or twenty pages at a time over tea. It's 1300-ish pages, so I predict it'll last me until the end of the semester at this rate.
And speaking of entertaining books, I am now the proud(?) owner of Thérèse Philosophe and Gamiani ou deux nuits d'excès. And OMG if I had a scanner I would totally scan the original illustrations to the latter, because there is NOTHING FUNNIER than 1830s porn. It's just as ugly and ridiculous as 1830s fashion plates, only... naked.
Mystères de Paris is wonderfully cracked-out. It's like if you took Dumas, stripped him of all subtlety, and added Hugo's obsession with argot and the Parisian underworld. It also has the following elements, all of which made me giggle and wonder if Hugo was stealing from Eugène Sue:
- A virtuous fanmaker earning four francs a day. Hanging out in seamy taverns and talkin' argot with the bandits.
- Mysterious dandy lurking in the shadows of said tavern.
- A mysterious man who is richer than he appears, buying the freedom of a prostitute with a heart of gold, while the madam ridiculously over-inflates the costs to try to wring more money out of him
- Said mysterious gentleman, trying to stay incognito in Paris, renting a house at the end of the Rue Plumet
- ....I'm probably forgetting things. Really.
It's fairly light reading aside from some antiquated vocabulary, so I've been knocking back fifteen or twenty pages at a time over tea. It's 1300-ish pages, so I predict it'll last me until the end of the semester at this rate.
And speaking of entertaining books, I am now the proud(?) owner of Thérèse Philosophe and Gamiani ou deux nuits d'excès. And OMG if I had a scanner I would totally scan the original illustrations to the latter, because there is NOTHING FUNNIER than 1830s porn. It's just as ugly and ridiculous as 1830s fashion plates, only... naked.
no subject
and I MUST SEE the pr0n. Are the ladies vigorous or languid? Or both? (not at the same time, obv.)
no subject
The ladies are... very vigorous, and also very pasty and, um, voluptuous. And they have ridiculous 1830s hairdos and pointy feet and weird facial features.
no subject
Ooh, that sounds fun. I bought "Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France" and it had some of Therese-Philosophe in the back, including a few pictures. (If you really want to get a case of the giggles, get someone drunk and ask them to read it aloud to you.) Yeah, the pictures . . . they really liked butts back then, apparently.)