The book was OK. I did laugh at a few parts.. I'd give it a 3.5/5. A solid 4 if you took out the dog sex fantasies.

Thanks for making this vid it is very good

I ordered the mysteries of Paris based on your channel. I love les miserable and I love your channel.I’ve been watching you for awhile. Last Christmas with that Santa hat. You had me as a follower. Sorry it took me a year to comment!

Thanks for reviewing this book. Sounds right up my alley. Just got a sample from Amazon. Your review was really helpful. Thanks

Hello Matthew. The book sounds whimsical and fun. I will have to read some synopsis on it. Nice podcast. I enjoy your articulation when you speak about your books. Enjoy the sunshine 😀

I enjoyed your review of this book. I have listed it on my tbr. I am not watching videos as much lately and I see you have ‘sneaked’ back on and are doing videos again. Ok, not sneaked, but it’s nice to see you again!

I have been wanting to read this. I read Les Mis last year and I have plans to get to The Mysteries of Paris and The Count of Monte Cristo this year. It was nice to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

Hello! I purchased Emmelie's book when it became available in the USA. I have a huge TBR list, but put this book at the top of the list and enjoyed it immensely. It is a great book for all the reasons you have given. I also subscribe to her Booktube channel and her videos are great and very informative. Thank you for doing this review! Have a great day! :)

Yes, I've read it about 100 times! 😂 Matthew, thank you so much for reviewing my novel. It felt special, and you had me smile a lot. I'm relieved that you liked it so much. Appreciate your support. 🙏

Great insights! Thank you for the video

This sounds great, Matthew! I really enjoyed Les Misérables when I read it, so I might like this one too. I really need to get to The Count of Monte Cristo eventually as well - it's been waiting on my shelf for too long!

Dang would love to hear your thoughts on the Passenger / Stella Maris

Cannot find on goodreads? Any reason?

"They eat breakfast villainously." 😮 This book sounds terrific, thanks for the review!

I love The Grapes of Wrath, but also love "Whose Names Are Unknown," by Sanora Babb. Published at nearly the same time, it's like a shorter companion piece to G of W and is fantastic. Check it out someday.

The Count of Monte Cristo and Les Miserables are easily two of the Great Works of the human intellect ever. The fact of you repeatedly mentioning these titles while reviewing the books definitely makes me curious. :)

Sounds like a great book! I'll see if I can find an edition in Spanish.

Fabulous house, tiny or not. lovely way you've fixed up your life. Where do you live and why? Ha, just nosy. Also such smart, interesting videos, it will take me decades. cheerio

Years ago, I bought a used edition of The Wandering Jew, by Eugene Sue, because it was on a list of "100 Best" Horror Books published in 1988. The size of the book was very intimidating, and so I could never quite bring myself to start The Wandering Jew...and then suddenly, many years later, I decided it was time. 50 pages into The Wandering Jew, I was totally hooked, and by 200 pages in, I was so glad it was 1365 pages long. It is one of my all-time favourite reading experiences - and since I read it, I have of course read The Mysteries of Paris (when it came out in that Penguin edition), and all of this made The Count of Monte Cristo very tempting as well, so I read that a few years ago. I still prefer The Wandering Jew, of the three, but all three are great for recommending to someone looking for long, serpentine, thrilling books that deal in cliffhangers, any characters, many escalating situations. The middle of The Wandering Jew actually features what feels like the perfect climax...but the instalments of the story had been so popular, that Sue was encouraged to revise his ending, and launch into a second portion of his story. I suppose by the minutest degree, the first half of The Wandering Jew is the best part - but not all that noticeably. Anyway, The Mysteries of Paris ended up rating almost as highly with me - very similar, and for me it was like revisiting a wonderful realm of crime and adventure as delivered by a master storyteller.

I read The Mysteries of Paris in 2022. It was so enjoyable that I pushed on to The Mysteries of London, also extremely episodic and considered as a penny dreadful. Recently finished my fifth read of The Count of Monte Cristo. Might get to a third reading of Les Miserables this year.

Two other BookTubers that I watch recently buddy-read The Mysteries of Paris; they finished it December. I had never heard of this book until then, and now that you have given it such a glowing review, I might have to consider it. I read The Count of Monte Cristo just a couple of years ago and loved it! Have yet to tackle Les Misérables. Thank you for sharing. 📚

Nice video Mayberry Bookclub! I hope you had a good Christmas! Did you get any books for Christmas?

Melville's response to the puzzling issues of to be and not to be (the capacity to actualize) attracts also the attention of philosophers such as Deleuze, Zizek, and Agamben. Thank you for the review of M's great work.

hey Matthew, i often find myself struggling with reading a book even if it's initially seems interesting to me. could you give me some advice on how to latch onto books and not get bored easily? thanks.

Not heard of this so thanks for showing it. Best wishes and happy reading for 2025.

Very funny haha, the farmers are good and they work hard because they are good and through working hard they become good!

Hello, Matthew, glad you are back. I haven't read any of these novels, but I've translated French plays adapting all of them. Dumas pere made a 4 part adaptation of Monte Cristo that in total would take aboput 20 hours to perform .There's a cartoon showing a young man going into the first play and leavoing the last as an old geezer. Paul Meurice who worked with Dumas and was V. Hugo's secretary authored an adaptation of Les Miz that was excellent. Prosper Dinaux (actually Prosper Goubaux and Felix Beudin) worked with Dumasa pere on adapting Dumas perte's great Richard Darlington. Prosper Dinaux was a name used by a team of adapters, one a school master and the other a banker. They did a wonderful adaptation of The Mysteries of Paris. It focuses on the relationship between Rudolphe, a prince of a small Kingdom in Germany, who is rather disowned by his family because he married an adenturess, his wife and the orphaned Songbird. I think it is the best melodrama I've ever come across, and one of my translations of which I am very proud. Did you know that Sue was prolific writer, and a dramatist in his own right ? He authored several very good plays, and was politically a socialist. He was highly regarded as a writer gifted with the ability to create unforgettable characters who seem very real. Because of his socialist ideas there was an attempt to denigrate his abilities. His works were kept in print by Socialist organizations in England and the U.S. But evntually the denigrators won. His novel,(later adapted as a play) The Wandering Jew, which was strongly anti Jesuit was , ultimately became the source of the Anti semitic Protocols of the Wisemen of Zion. Another notable novel (and rather short) was Atar Gull about a black slave who seeks revenge against his master for the murder of his father. Atar Gull was also adapted to the stage (by Paul Meurice, if I remember correctly) and yeah, I translated that play, too. Cheers.

Mysteries of Paris is fabulous. I recently read Series 1 od The Mysteries of London. It was wonderful as well. Series 1 was longer than Mysteries of Paris but much in a similar vein. I'm looking forward to reading the other parts and the 20 volume Courts of London.

Hi & thx for your video. I’ve read both Les Miserables (Julie Rose’s translation) and Count of Monte Cristo (Robin Buss’s translation). Both great. I’d rank Les Mis a tad higher in terms of philosophical depth and literary significance, but both are worthwhile. Is Mysteries of Paris just good fun escapism? Or does it have what would be called depth and significance? Is it great literature?

soap opera

One of the most moving stories I've read in a long time. Great video.

Dear Matthew, it's always a joy when one of your videos pops up in my feed. I can totally relate when I see you going back to certain books on a yearly basis as you would to an old friend you get something new out of each time you go to visit. You're a really interesting person and your lists and reviews are always insightful, happy new year from Italy!

Great group of books! Have you read TE Lawrence's prose translation of The Odyssey?

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Esta muito explanado sobre o grandioso Poeta. Gostei da perspicácia sobre o assunto e de como a forma verdadeira explicada. Tô inscrito por aqui. Do Brasil. Obrigado.

most of it was incomprehensible for me. i loved the parts I was able to focus and grasp something from and I understand why a lot of people adore the book. I also loved the first story very much. Maybe on a reread I'll understand it more just like you said, after gaining some reading experience as I am fairly new to books.

"the conversations feel dangerous, they have these scary ideas..."

I love that you read a book and let that book influence further reading. I also love doing that. I've always been too intimidated to read Joyce, but if I ever give it a go, I'll start with A Portrait. :)

Tough book to review but you did a great job I thought! I really enjoyed Stepan’s character as well as how close of a relationship the narrator had with him.

"Karamazov Brothers". Is this the new title translation trend? I thought "The Brothers Karamazov" was pretty entrenched!

My 'nuansed' assesmemt of this discussion is that Spinoza's concept is that God is not above us, He is a made up concept. Natural Law (science) is God. There is no 'God' only karmic interactions with nature, which includes us as we are part of nature. Our life doesn't matter any more than that of a tree or a snail. Did i miss something?

Just found your channel today because I want to read Dr. Faustus this year. Love the way you talk about books ❣️

Thanks for taking the time to make this report out. Happy New Year!

Didn’t know it was based on real people until I saw this! Definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read. The writing is perfect and flows from decade to decade with so much character development, plot, world events, details - so much packed into only 200 pages! Absolute masterclass in writing while being a delight to read.

Prince Lyov Nikolayevitch Myshkin

Happy new year! Lovely video as always. It is so great to hear about numberphile and Brady’s channels. You have great taste.

the title is translated to serbian as "evil ghosts", wich makes you think if it reffers to the evil ideas or the characters themselves

Every year I read a common theme for my personal reading and this year I’m getting into French Lit and what I’ve learned is that translators are everything. I’ve researched this in great detail, but I still haven’t been able to find many of whom you recommend. Thank you kindly! Also, is there a Part 2? because you’ve done such an amazing job here

I've enjoyed not a few of your videos, Matthew-thanks for sharing your passion. Some of my "best books" of the year (in no particular order): "The Notebook/The Proof/The Third Lie" by Agota Kristof, "Journey by Moonlight" by Antal Szerb, "Turtle Diary" by Russell Hoban, "The Liar" by Martin A. Hansen, "Villa Triste" by Patrick Modiano, "Kapo" by Alexandar Tišma, "The Trouble With Being Born" by E. M. Cioran, "The Silent Angel" by Heinrich Böll. The reader is blessed-so much life-affirming literature to discover and experience. Here's to another year of exactly that.

What scene in "Annihilation" did you find so memorable? I agree-the book is largely disappointing. Maddeningly so, perhaps. I found it hermetic and limp. The various threads, outside of the touching renewal of Raison's marriage, just peter out. I finished the book with an overwhelming desire to get rid of it, and did. Houellebecq-I hate to say it-has made a wise decision to "hang it up."