{"id":7041,"date":"2010-10-29T13:18:22","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T17:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=7041"},"modified":"2010-10-29T15:15:09","modified_gmt":"2010-10-29T19:15:09","slug":"staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/","title":{"rendered":"Staff Picks: Dickens vs. Balzac, Austen vs. Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/410px-Dickens_Gurney_head.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"Charles Dickens\" width=\"270\" height=\"394\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7053\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/410px-Dickens_Gurney_head.jpg 270w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/410px-Dickens_Gurney_head-205x300.jpg 205w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/>I\u2019ve gone from one big novel about a vengeful Paris seamstress\u2014<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Tale-Two-Cities-Enriched-Classics\/dp\/0743487605\/\">A Tale of Two Cities<\/a><\/em>\u2014to another: <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Cousin-Bette-Honor%C3%A9-Balzac\/dp\/1176270141\/\">Cousin Bette<\/a><\/em>. Charles Dickens\u2019s Mme Defarge leaves more blood on the cobblestones, but Bette\u2019s the scarier of the two. Just as Balzac is the scarier writer. No one has more vicious fun writing about sex, aging, and money. It\u2019s all good for a laugh &#8230; but that is some seriously dark, Olympian laughter. \u2014<strong>Lorin Stein<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I have just read <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Love-Like-Avenue-Directions-Paperbook\/dp\/081121799X\">Love is Like Park Avenue<\/a><\/em>, a collection of stories and vignettes written in the late 1930s and early 40s by Alvin Levin, a Bronx-raised avant-gardist and pamphleteer. The action\u2014most of it cerebral\u2014is set among young lower-middle class Jews, who go to City College, fish on the weekends off City Island, listen to Glen Miller, and think about how to get into each other\u2019s pants. \u201cShe was soooo pretty,\u201d one character coos. \u201cLike something out of a 35 cent movie. You didn\u2019t need technicolor. In black and white it was packed full of glamour\u2014in a quiet way. Can you get what we mean?\u201d Along with Richard Price\u2019s early novels, and the next-to-last section of Delillo\u2019s <em>Underworld<\/em>, this is a Bronx classic. \u2014<strong>Robyn Creswell<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It will probably come as a surprise to no one that <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Collected-Stories-Lydia-Davis\/dp\/0312655398\/\">The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis<\/a><\/em> are really, exceptionally, almost unbelievably good. I\u2019ve been keeping a notebook with me while I read so I can jot down my favorite phrases. From \u201cFive Signs of Disturbance\u201d: \u201cShe knows that if she speaks on the telephone, her voice will communicate something no one will want to listen to. And she will have trouble making herself heard.\u201d From \u201cThe Professor\u201d: \u201cI thought if I married a cowboy, I wouldn\u2019t have to leave the West. I liked the West for its difficulties.\u201d \u2014<strong>Miranda Popkey<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><!--more-->I\u2019ve been doing a comparative reading of Jane Austen\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sense-Sensibility-Penguin-Classics-Austen\/dp\/0141040378\/\">Sense and Sensibility<\/a><\/em> and J. L. Austin\u2019s <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sense-Sensibilia-J-L-Austin\/dp\/0195003071\/\">Sense and Sensibilia<\/a><\/em>. As far as I can tell, the texts themselves share nothing, save an uncommonly savage wit. And really that\u2019s quite enough to recommend them both. \u2014<strong>Mark de Silva<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On the lighter side, I\u2019ve been learning lots from Sarah Bakewell\u2019s wonderful <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/How-Live-Montaigne-Question-Attempts\/dp\/1590514254\/\">How To Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Answers<\/a><\/em>\u2014so much that I have already tried to force the book on our Southern editor, our special U.S. Open correspondent, and my sister. All in the past three days. \u2014<strong>L. S.<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>I decided to splurge on reading material last weekend and bought a couple of publications from across the pond (home comforts). One of the them was <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.empireonline.com\/\">Empire Magazine<\/a><\/em>. It\u2019s a British film monthly that I started reading when I was fifteen or so, and its witty reviews had me buying it religiously for years until the rate of inflation in Ireland burned a hole in my pocket and I was forced to stop. There\u2019s a great article covering the Matt Reeves film <em>Let Me In<\/em>, a remake of the unsettling Swedish vampire flick <em>Let the Right One In<\/em>. \u2014<strong>Brenda Collins<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Mad Men<\/em>\u2019s Roger Sterling has written a biography\u2014the cleverly named <em>Sterling\u2019s Gold<\/em>\u2014which is now actually available <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Sterlings-Gold-Wit-Wisdom-Man\/dp\/0802119891\">for sale<\/a> on Amazon. Is it a slightly slimy marketing ploy? Obviously. Will I still buy it? Absolutely. \u2014<strong>M. P. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I\u2019ve gone from one big novel about a vengeful Paris seamstress\u2014A Tale of Two Cities\u2014to another: Cousin Bette. Charles Dickens\u2019s Mme Defarge leaves more blood on the cobblestones, but Bette\u2019s the scarier of the two. Just as Balzac is the scarier writer. No one has more vicious fun writing about sex, aging, and money. It\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[438],"tags":[1203,1205,1204,300,576,676,883],"class_list":["post-7041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-this-weeks-reading","tag-charles-dickens","tag-empire-magazine","tag-honore-de-balzac","tag-jane-austen","tag-lydia-davis","tag-mad-men","tag-staff-picks"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Staff Picks: Dickens vs. Balzac, Austen vs. Austin by The Paris Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"October 29, 2010 \u2013 I\u2019ve gone from one big novel about a vengeful Paris seamstress\u2014A Tale of Two Cities\u2014to another: Cousin Bette. 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Charles Dickens\u2019s Mme Defarge leaves more\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-10-29T17:18:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2010-10-29T19:15:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/410px-Dickens_Gurney_head.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"270\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"394\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/4a14f739935c82f100675b84e220252e\"},\"headline\":\"Staff Picks: Dickens vs. Balzac, Austen vs. Austin\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-29T17:18:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-29T19:15:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/\"},\"wordCount\":571,\"commentCount\":1,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/410px-Dickens_Gurney_head.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Charles Dickens\",\"Empire Magazine\",\"Honor\u00e9 de Balzac\",\"Jane Austen\",\"Lydia Davis\",\"Mad Men\",\"staff picks\"],\"articleSection\":[\"This Week\u2019s Reading\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/\",\"name\":\"Staff Picks: Dickens vs. Balzac, Austen vs. Austin by The Paris Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/staff-picks-dickens-vs-balzac-austen-vs-austin\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/410px-Dickens_Gurney_head.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-10-29T17:18:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2010-10-29T19:15:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"October 29, 2010 \u2013 I\u2019ve gone from one big novel about a vengeful Paris seamstress\u2014A Tale of Two Cities\u2014to another: Cousin Bette. 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