1893
3 books
- You get David Balfour older, more thoughtful, and still tangled in the aftermath of the Appin murder, with Alan Breck bringing his sharp-edged loyalty along for the ride. It’s slower and more talkative than Kidnapped, but the Edinburgh streets, courtroom maneuvering, and wary romance with Catriona have a lovely, lived-in richness.
- You settle into Pascal’s warm, stubborn attempt to map the Rougon-Macquart family through heredity, while Clotilde brings feeling and resistance to his scientific faith. It’s slower and more reflective than Zola’s darker novels, but rewarding if you like ideas that grow out of complicated, recognizably human lives.
- You’d value this for Jean Grave’s blunt, orderly assault on wage labor, private property, and the state, followed by his sketch of voluntary association. It’s repetitive and more argumentative than literary, but it gives anarchist ideas a practical, close-to-the-ground shape.