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/lit/ - Literature

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12540992 No.12540992 [Reply] [Original]

My birthday is coming and I wanted to get one of the biggies, finally. I can only choose one and I was thinking: War and Peace, Les Misérables, and In Search of Lost Time. Which one is best?

>> No.12541000

Based on your picture it’d have to be Les Miserables. Don’t get an abridged version

>> No.12541015

>>12540992
I’d get war and peace. It’s a good intro to moving into in search of lost time. W&P is awesome

>> No.12541023

>>12540992
War and Peace definitely

Easily my favourite novel

>> No.12541032

>>12540992
They're very, very different books (romanticism vs realism vs modernism).
In quality I'd rank Les Miserables<<War and Peace<Search of Lost Time
But it depends on your tastes what you'd enjoy . Why the whole of Search of Lost Time? You'd be better off just starting with buying Swann's Way, which isn't that long a book.

>> No.12541035

War and Peace is the most accessible of the three

>> No.12541040

>>12541035
How tf is Les Mis not accessible?
It's like the most normie classic of all time.

>> No.12541041

>>12540992
wish you a happy birthday, OP

>> No.12541045

>>12540992
I read the Signet edition of Les Mis unabridged as a teenager and loved it.

In Search of Lost Time is kind of a downer if you still believe in love. Potentially catastrophically life changing if you're a romantic.

>> No.12541062

>>12541045
>In Search of Lost Time is kind of a downer if you still believe in love.
How is it a downer? I've only read Swann's Way, and it was comfy af.
"A Love of Swann's" was more about infatuation, which is part of love for sure, but not (necessarily) the only part. He didn't actually like the woman he was in love with, which doesn't mean it's the only kind of love possible.

>> No.12541078

>>12541062
Keep reading ;)

>> No.12541081

>>12541040
fuck french lit desu

>> No.12541088

>>12541062
You just made my case. Proust was an overly sentimental wojak who despite his great sensitivity could never be happy.

>> No.12541141

>>12541088
>who despite his great sensitivity could never be happy.
>despite
As a very sensitive person, this is a big part what makes it so hard to be happy. Was literally told (without me ever suggesting anything of the sort) by my therapist after a year of sessions that my issues all stemmed by high sensitivity combined with high intelligence.
>>12541081
Les Mis is average-tier, but French lit as a whole is top 3 easily.

>> No.12541155

>>12541141
Sounds like your sensitivity is misfocused, anon. Use that great intelligence to learn to discriminate what is worth your worry and what isn't.

>> No.12541163

>>12541141
My therapist told me that people with high intelligence were generally shit at socializing, I'm paraphrasing, of course.

>> No.12541175
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12541175

>It's a "Tolstoy goes on a 30 page tantrum about how history writers are shit" episode
>It's a "Hugo writes about the sewer system in Paris for 40 pages" episode

>> No.12541182

>>12541141
The quality of the writing in the Miserables is top tier, the only thing in prose I've seen comparable to it is Joyce's writing (I read both in the original, before you object)

>> No.12541186

>>12541175
>It's a "Proust writes banal and pretty descriptions of things for 20 pages"

>> No.12541191

>>12541186
that being said, I love all three works

>> No.12541223

>>12541155
I'm doing much better now than it was then, but it's not quite so simple as that.
Apathy leads to depression, but caring makes me very volatile emotionally. Of course everyone gets that balancing act, but I think that high sensitivity makes it feel more like a tightrope to find the right path, because I'm inordinately affected by small changes. I'm stoic on the outside, but get worn down easily inside.
My theory is that it's a high-risk high-reward thing though, and I therefore get more out of the peaks of life - there's a positive side to it too.
>>12541163
Sounds like rubbish considering considering that most of the greatest minds of history were far from autistic savants. Proust himself was a great socialite, for that matter.
Personally, I'm fine with casual social interaction, a complete failure at long term relationships