Prolific Living

French literature

Alexandre Dumas: “The Count of Monte Cristo”

by

Alexander Duma on the Kindle

Dear Monsieur Dumas,

It is the year 2010 today, nearly 166 years since you published The Count of Monte Cristo. Your contemporaries recognized it as the accomplishment it is, which is the least we can say for the treasures which have come to us from your period. It makes me immensely happy when a society understands a genius masterpiece in all its brilliance during the lifetime of its creator. Still, you would probably like to know that The Count of Monte Cristo, your labor of love and sweat, is cherished and recognized as a magnificent novel in the world to this day. It is even part of the reading requirement in most school education programs, albeit they sadly choose the abridged version much to your (and my) dismay. Not knowing any better when I was much younger, I too read the abridged version, which even in its brevity, left an indelible mark on me and a desire for return for more someday. [Read more…] about Alexandre Dumas: “The Count of Monte Cristo”

Gustave Flaubert: “Madame Bovary”

by

I finally know the timeless story of Madame Bovary.

Reading Gustave Flaubert's Madame BovaryWhat a remarkable journey to delve into the timeless classics whose names I first heard uttered in adult conversations in my childhood in Iran. The Godfather is such an example. Victor Hugo’s Les Les Misérables another. Madame Bovary yet another.

I read Gustave Flaubert‘s masterpiece in English, translated not by Penguin Classics which seems to be the most well-known version but by Wordsworth Classics, which I picked up in a small bookstore in London. Despite the extremely smooth translation with countless awe-inspiring passages, I have no doubt much was lost in translation from the prose and poetic style associated with the original French version. [Read more…] about Gustave Flaubert: “Madame Bovary”