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Aug. 11th, 2010 10:09 pmDay VIII- An unpopular book you believe should be a Best-Seller
This is problematic. I suppose it refers to something you think everyone should read; but I fully admit that my criteria for books are different than most people's. (does it have decent prose? is it set/written before 1900? is this a totally ridiculous historical novel? is it The Last Days of Pompeii?) I like lots of action as much as the next person, but the books I like are often dismissed as "slow;" Name of the Rose is a perfect example.
But anyway, I can answer this question! Conan Doyle's already popular, though more people have heard of Sherlock Holmes than have read the stories. The Brigadier Gérard stories, however, are not, and really should be. They're hilarious - in one, the Brigadier has been entrusted by Napoléon with Papers of Great Importance, which he must carry through enemy territory. When, with great difficulty, he does so, he finds that they were false plans, and the real plan was for him to get captured and mislead the English - and some of them have a certain pathos, and many of them have ridiculously complex plots, and some have adorably Gothic elements. All is carried by the figure of the Brigadier, who is overly full of himself without being a figure of ridicule, and dashing enough to justify at least half of his bravado.
This is problematic. I suppose it refers to something you think everyone should read; but I fully admit that my criteria for books are different than most people's. (does it have decent prose? is it set/written before 1900? is this a totally ridiculous historical novel? is it The Last Days of Pompeii?) I like lots of action as much as the next person, but the books I like are often dismissed as "slow;" Name of the Rose is a perfect example.
But anyway, I can answer this question! Conan Doyle's already popular, though more people have heard of Sherlock Holmes than have read the stories. The Brigadier Gérard stories, however, are not, and really should be. They're hilarious - in one, the Brigadier has been entrusted by Napoléon with Papers of Great Importance, which he must carry through enemy territory. When, with great difficulty, he does so, he finds that they were false plans, and the real plan was for him to get captured and mislead the English - and some of them have a certain pathos, and many of them have ridiculously complex plots, and some have adorably Gothic elements. All is carried by the figure of the Brigadier, who is overly full of himself without being a figure of ridicule, and dashing enough to justify at least half of his bravado.
