This has become a two book reading experience.

But you see, I have no time for that. Because I'm hard at work getting ready to be utterly devastated by War and Peace in the immediate future, and one literature-based emotional harrowing at a time is really all I can manage.

I think I shall!

It really is lovely. Last time I tried to read War and Peace, I struck out on the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation. So I did more research on different translations this time and landed on the revised Maude, courtesy of Oxford World Classics.

I'm quite excited to finally be starting it!

Honestly, Sade's gothics are a lot of fun. They're less "oh god my eyes" than some of his more infamous works - generally less graphic, more in line with other gothic novels of the era, but with all Sade's somewhat chaotic storytelling style. Lots of fainting, crying, and general flailing about!

Eugénie de Franval also spends a lot of time exploring ideas that Sade will dig into again in later works like Justine and Philosophy in the Boudoir (particularly the pamphlet "Yet Another Effort, Frenchman"), so it's been interesting following his development of those ideas from book to book.

Finished Eugénie du Franval tonight and I think it might just take The Marquise de Gange's place as my favorite of Sade's gothics.

It was terrible, weird, & had all the best staples: Gothic weather, abduction, carriage chase, isolated chateau, plotting, random priest. Delightful.

(TW for incest)

It's gorgeous! As someone who is majorly creeped out by spiders, (and therefore loves them in horror) I love that my first reaction was "oh big spider big nope".

Ooooh. That cover is CREEPY creepy. 🕷

How the spine got that way... 😅

I like notes.