Reviews

Pages from the Goncourt Journals by Jules de Goncourt, Edmond de Goncourt

catpdx's review against another edition

4.0

I'm reading through a selection of Geoff Dyer's essays and ran into this one on the Goncourts:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/dec/09/featuresreviews.guardianreview27

It does express well what makes a collection that should be insufferable so compelling. I wouldn't want to hang out with the brothers Goncourt, but reading from the outside is great fun.

bookcrazylady45's review

5.0

Never in my life has it taken me almost a month to finish a single book that I loved every line of. I wish desperately that I was younger so I could buy and read all 22 volumes of this Journal. I am a fast reader which means I miss a lot and that allows me to reread my books often. My fear as I was reading this remarkable book was the knowledge that I would never have the time to reread it and so took my time absorbing every line, every phrase, every name dropped, every vivid description. It is a tiny pearl beyond price of a book. So alive and fascinating and brings to life so many people who are just names on the covers of famous books. I liked Edmond very much. I am sorry to have finished it and at the same time glad to go back to my free and easy way of reading. Journals and diaries really do require closer reading than novels of any genre.