Sometimes Dickens’ writing is not for everyone. Though, I strongly implore you to read Bleak House someday- it is one of my favorite novels, and certainly my favorite in the English language. David Copperfield is excellent too, but Bleak House is a very special masterpiece that particularly makes one wonder “how could someone write a novel like this?” - not only for the amazing atmospheric qualities, and good plot, but it is the height of his prose, for sure.
Hi Emmelie! Thanks for sharing another one of your days with us, as always it looked very relaxed and cozy, somewhat romantic too. Also liked to see Toulouse popping up here and there, he looked so fluffy! One of the things that struck me the most was how much the Everyman Classics books, put all together like that, resemble a collection of wines ahahahaha have a good evening, and see you soon, take care!
Your Sundays are certainly more ambitious than mine! My Sundays probably compare more closely to Toulouse's day but with books.😂 Thanks for the tour of your lovely bookshelves. I can sympathize with the winter darkness and short days since I live in Western Canada and I also have one of those fantastic reading lights to deal with it.
Yes, and your wish has come true: I had a lot of fun with this video! Moreover, I received both intellectual and aesthetic pleasure! You have a beautiful library, a beautiful cat, and you yourself, as I said earlier, are a very harmonious person! By the way, your hope (and mine) that we will meet in a week also came true :) In turn, I keep my promise and keep reading :) Thank you for a very interesting, pleasant, beautiful and inspiring video!
Thanks so much for this Emmelie! It's such a big job moving books around isn't? They get so heavy very quickly. But your library looks so fantastic, you have so many very beautiful books! Also I loved how happy and contented you looked after your writing session, you really looked like you had been 'in the zone'. Have a very happy Christmas. As always - happy reading!🙂📖
Haha yes, when I write, I travel. My husband always makes fun of me for this, because I often am "away from this world" and it always takes me a while to get back. He's a patient man, living with a wife who's living half her life in a different time period! Merry Christmas & happy reading!
So young and already so many books. How many books do you have? Any idea? ...Besides you have great taste. The Penguin classic books is a must-have. You made a great acquisition. Notre Dame de Paris is the first book I read by Victor Hugo. It was a great revelation. Hugo quickly became one of my favorite authors along with Proust and Chateaubriand. You know the novel takes place in 1482 at the beginning of the reign of king Louis XI. The actual name of the book when it was published in March 1831 was: Notre Dame de Paris.1482 The cathedral which reopened 10 days ago owes a lot to Victor Hugo. I have a vivid memory of the year 2014. This year marked the 800th anniversary of the birth of King Saint Louis. I was invited to participate in this event as a flag bearer. We carried banners through Paris to Notre Dame. We settled into the choir of the cathedral to listen to the mass in honor of Saint Louis. Then the bishop took out the holy Crown of Thorns that Saint Louis bought in 1239 (and for which he had the Sainte-Chapelle built to serve as a setting for the Crown of Thorns). Then we were able to gather before the Crown of Thorns and kiss it. Today the Crown of Thorns is still in the cathedral of Notre Dame, it was miraculously saved from the 2019 fire.
I didn’t enjoy A Christmas Carol as well. My supervisor recommended it to me but it wasn’t for me. I’m giving Dickens another chance though. If you’re interested, you can read his other (less known) Christmas book The Chimes. This is not a recommendation since I haven’t read the book yet. It is what I’ll be reading this week
Hello Emmelie! I hope you are well. What a fantastic video! You have made a lot of excellent videos in the past, but this one is one of the best. It lets us get to know you a bit more as a person. Also, I loved the bookshelf tour. I agree with you regarding not getting along with Dickens as I am the same way. Even though Dickens is not your cup of tea, regarding your beautiful Dickens volumes you showed a few months ago, are you still the "Proud Owner?" I am looking forward to reading Les Mis with P&P. You made my day pointing out three specific books in your shelf. I also need to find time this winter to take some of those Hillsdale College online courses b/c I received advertisements in the mail and online regarding some really interesting courses. Again, fantastic video! I look forward to the next one and on The Penguin Classics Book you showed. Have a great week! 😀
Beautiful library! I know you must be familiar with Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea. I bought it this weekend never having heard of it before. The premise sounds interesting but I am stalled on page 39. Is it worth continuing? Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
Hi Susan. I have a (spoilerfree) discussion on my channel on Hugo's "Toilers of the Sea" that might be helpful? ;) I personally really enjoyed the story.
There’ll be a new english translation published of les miserables next year by alma classics Their translations of dostoevsky & tolstoy are the best out there so im curious to see if its the same with hugo
I read and loved Les Miserables, it’s one of my favorite books of all time. I’ve tried to read The Hunchback a few times and can’t ever seem to get into it. I don’t understand who the characters are or what they’re talking about in the beginning, maybe first fifty pages or so. Any comments on that or how long into the novel it might take to catch on?
Yes, I have advice for sure! I can't put it all in one comment, but you can expect an in depth video in the future on how to approach the book, with chapter summaries. For now I'll just say: 1. Book 1 will be the most challenging part to get through. Lots of digressions, and most chapters could be skipped to be honest. If you can make it through book I, things will get way clearer and easier. 2. You could watch part of a movie adaptation to help you picture what is happening in those first six chapters. I recommend the 1982 adaptation (you can watch it for free on UA-cam) because it stays very true to the book version (the Mystery play, the arrival of the king, the introduction to Pierre Gringoire, the Feast of Fools...), and there you'll see everything play out, with poor Gringoire whose Mystery play is ignored. 3. Don't worry about all the characters. The only ones that you should remember from book I: Clopin Trouillefou (the lying beggar), Jehanne (the rebel), Pierre Gringoire (the dreamy poet), and Quasimodo (the monster). I know it's confusing and difficult at the start, but it's worth the wait (in my humble opinion)!
I almost did not upload this video because of the poor quality, but here we are! ;) I apologize for the horrible audio in this one, my friends.
Thanks for the book tour.
Audio isn't bad at all. Thanks for sharing a part of your Sunday with us
Emmelie, i'm glad you uploaded this video because i could see your beautiful books! Thanks a lot! 💖☺️
Thank you so much, Denise!
Sometimes Dickens’ writing is not for everyone. Though, I strongly implore you to read Bleak House someday- it is one of my favorite novels, and certainly my favorite in the English language. David Copperfield is excellent too, but Bleak House is a very special masterpiece that particularly makes one wonder “how could someone write a novel like this?” - not only for the amazing atmospheric qualities, and good plot, but it is the height of his prose, for sure.
I was so excited to see this pop up! The audio was fine to me. I love your bookshelves!! I just did some rearranging on mine yesterday. 🎉
Hi Emmelie!
Thanks for sharing another one of your days with us, as always it looked very relaxed and cozy, somewhat romantic too. Also liked to see Toulouse popping up here and there, he looked so fluffy! One of the things that struck me the most was how much the Everyman Classics books, put all together like that, resemble a collection of wines ahahahaha have a good evening, and see you soon, take care!
What a great comparison - I agree and now I will never be able to unsee it ;) Wishing you an amazing day.
Lovely library you have there! And as Tiny Tim says in A Christmas Carol "a merry Christmas to us all,God bless us,everyone!"❤
Humbug! ;)
Your Sundays are certainly more ambitious than mine! My Sundays probably compare more closely to Toulouse's day but with books.😂 Thanks for the tour of your lovely bookshelves. I can sympathize with the winter darkness and short days since I live in Western Canada and I also have one of those fantastic reading lights to deal with it.
Toulouse is living his best life, so you must be, too 😂 I'd love to visit Canada one day.
Yes, and your wish has come true: I had a lot of fun with this video!
Moreover, I received both intellectual and aesthetic pleasure!
You have a beautiful library, a beautiful cat, and you yourself, as I said earlier, are a very harmonious person!
By the way, your hope (and mine) that we will meet in a week also came true :)
In turn, I keep my promise and keep reading :)
Thank you for a very interesting, pleasant, beautiful and inspiring video!
I'm glad you liked it! Thank you for the lovely comment.
Thanks so much for this Emmelie! It's such a big job moving books around isn't? They get so heavy very quickly. But your library looks so fantastic, you have so many very beautiful books!
Also I loved how happy and contented you looked after your writing session, you really looked like you had been 'in the zone'. Have a very happy Christmas. As always - happy reading!🙂📖
Haha yes, when I write, I travel. My husband always makes fun of me for this, because I often am "away from this world" and it always takes me a while to get back. He's a patient man, living with a wife who's living half her life in a different time period!
Merry Christmas & happy reading!
So young and already so many books. How many books do you have? Any idea? ...Besides you have great taste.
The Penguin classic books is a must-have. You made a great acquisition.
Notre Dame de Paris is the first book I read by Victor Hugo. It was a great revelation. Hugo quickly became one of my favorite authors along with Proust and Chateaubriand.
You know the novel takes place in 1482 at the beginning of the reign of king Louis XI. The actual name of the book when it was published in March 1831 was: Notre Dame de Paris.1482
The cathedral which reopened 10 days ago owes a lot to Victor Hugo. I have a vivid memory of the year 2014. This year marked the 800th anniversary of the birth of King Saint Louis. I was invited to participate in this event as a flag bearer. We carried banners through Paris to Notre Dame. We settled into the choir of the cathedral to listen to the mass in honor of Saint Louis. Then the bishop took out the holy Crown of Thorns that Saint Louis bought in 1239 (and for which he had the Sainte-Chapelle built to serve as a setting for the Crown of Thorns). Then we were able to gather before the Crown of Thorns and kiss it. Today the Crown of Thorns is still in the cathedral of Notre Dame, it was miraculously saved from the 2019 fire.
Like your hair😍
I didn’t enjoy A Christmas Carol as well. My supervisor recommended it to me but it wasn’t for me. I’m giving Dickens another chance though. If you’re interested, you can read his other (less known) Christmas book The Chimes. This is not a recommendation since I haven’t read the book yet. It is what I’ll be reading this week
Hello Emmelie! I hope you are well. What a fantastic video! You have made a lot of excellent videos in the past, but this one is one of the best. It lets us get to know you a bit more as a person. Also, I loved the bookshelf tour. I agree with you regarding not getting along with Dickens as I am the same way. Even though Dickens is not your cup of tea, regarding your beautiful Dickens volumes you showed a few months ago, are you still the "Proud Owner?" I am looking forward to reading Les Mis with P&P. You made my day pointing out three specific books in your shelf. I also need to find time this winter to take some of those Hillsdale College online courses b/c I received advertisements in the mail and online regarding some really interesting courses. Again, fantastic video! I look forward to the next one and on The Penguin Classics Book you showed. Have a great week! 😀
Yes, I'm still the proud owner! I'm on a mission to find at least one Dickens novel that I love haha.
Beautiful library! I know you must be familiar with Victor Hugo’s Toilers of the Sea. I bought it this weekend never having heard of it before. The premise
sounds interesting but I am stalled on page 39. Is it worth continuing? Would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!
Hi Susan. I have a (spoilerfree) discussion on my channel on Hugo's "Toilers of the Sea" that might be helpful? ;) I personally really enjoyed the story.
There’ll be a new english translation published of les miserables next year by alma classics
Their translations of dostoevsky & tolstoy are the best out there so im curious to see if its the same with hugo
Interesting. Will you be picking it up?
@ yea i’ll be pirating it as usual
I read and loved Les Miserables, it’s one of my favorite books of all time. I’ve tried to read The Hunchback a few times and can’t ever seem to get into it. I don’t understand who the characters are or what they’re talking about in the beginning, maybe first fifty pages or so. Any comments on that or how long into the novel it might take to catch on?
Yes, I have advice for sure! I can't put it all in one comment, but you can expect an in depth video in the future on how to approach the book, with chapter summaries. For now I'll just say:
1. Book 1 will be the most challenging part to get through. Lots of digressions, and most chapters could be skipped to be honest. If you can make it through book I, things will get way clearer and easier.
2. You could watch part of a movie adaptation to help you picture what is happening in those first six chapters. I recommend the 1982 adaptation (you can watch it for free on UA-cam) because it stays very true to the book version (the Mystery play, the arrival of the king, the introduction to Pierre Gringoire, the Feast of Fools...), and there you'll see everything play out, with poor Gringoire whose Mystery play is ignored.
3. Don't worry about all the characters. The only ones that you should remember from book I: Clopin Trouillefou (the lying beggar), Jehanne (the rebel), Pierre Gringoire (the dreamy poet), and Quasimodo (the monster).
I know it's confusing and difficult at the start, but it's worth the wait (in my humble opinion)!
@ thank you so much for this detailed explanation. I know how precious time is. I will persue it.